| Fireworks Pen Lesson:
Smooth Points |
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The next object we'll make is a curve the goes up and
down like the path of roller coaster. A curve
such as this is excellent to use as the path for text
to be attached to. |
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Again choose the Pen tool and move the cursor over
your page where you want the path to begin. Since the path
is curved, you want to drag with the Pen tool. The direction
of the drag controls the direction of the curve. The
beauty of this method is that all you have to do is drag
in straight lines. The program turns the drag into a
curve. Since the curve starts by going up, drag with the
Pen straight up. A blue white dot appears with a line
coming out from each side. This line is actually
two Bezier handles that control the direction and length
of the curve. |
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Move the cursor to the right on the same horizontal
plane as the first point (not the top of the handle).
You will notice that the path is already slightly curved. |
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At this second position the path is moving down, so
drag with the Pen tool down. Release the mouse when the
curve extends up between the two points. The height of the curve is controlled by the length of
the handle. Don't let yours stick up too high. |
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Move the cursor directly to the right for the position
of the third point. This time the curve is going
up, so drag straight up. Again you can see how the handles
control the height of the curve. Position the cursor
to the right and drag down for the next curve. Again,
watch the up handle to judge how much of a curve you
create. |
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Instead of closing the path as you did with the
arrow, you're just going to end it as an open path. Hold
the COMMAND key on the Mac or the CONTROL key on Windows
and just click anywhere off the path. This gives you
the selection tool and deselects the path you have just
created. |