Using Flash Filters and Filter Preset Library

Now that we have drawn the rectangular objects for the envelope and stamp, we can add a few extra touches to make the envelope look more realistic. In this tutorial, you will learn how to apply Flash^R filters to our envelope and store our custom filter in the Preset Library.

If it is not already open, then open your fla file into Flash CS4. From the previous tutorial, you should already have the two rectangles on the stage and grouped together.

Click on the envelope and you will notice that we do not have the Flash filters available in the Properties Inspector. This is because we cannot apply a filter to a simple object. Flash filters are applied to movie clips, text and buttons. We need to convert our envelope/stamp group to a symbol (Movie Clip).

Right-click on the group and choose Convert to Symbol. Let’s name the new movie clip “EnvFront1” because this is the first version of our envelope front that we will animate. Set the Type to Movie Clip and the Registration to Centered. Because we will be using this movie clip more than once, we will wait to give it an Instance Name. Notice that we now have our EnvFront1 movie clip in the Flash Library.

Now we can apply a filter to the movie clip. In the Library, double-click on the EnvFront1 movie clip to open it into edit mode. Rename Layer 1 to "Filter" in the Timeline. Right-click on the envelope and convert it to a symbol named "Env_Front1".

Go back to the Properties Inspector and you will see that we now have the Filters section available. Click the Add Filter icon at the bottom and choose Glow from the list. This will display the options for this filter. Basically, the Glow filter will add a semi-transparent, light color along the outside edge of the movie clip. However, we will be using the Inner Glow option for the Glow filter to add a semi-transparent, darker color to the inside edge of the movie clip.
Let’s set the X and Y Blur to 15 pixels and the Color to Black. Finally, we want to put a checkmark in the box next to Inner Glow and set the Quality to Medium.

Because we will be applying the Glow filter with these same settings to several other versions of the envelope, we will want to save these settings in the Filters Library as a preset.
Click the Preset icon (next to the Add Filter icon) and choose Save As. In the Save Preset As dialog box, give our preset a name such as Env Inner Glow. Click on the Scene1 link to go back to the main Timeline.
When we converted the envelope into a movie clip, it was added to the Flash Library. We can now remove this instance of the movie clip from the stage. Select the envelope front and stamp group and click Edit - Cut.
Save your fla file.

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