For this tutorial, we will learn how to use the Glow filter in Flash^R CS5 to create a magical effect for an ecard. The example ecard is a Halloween ecard that I created for Pamela Gladding Ecards. Halloween Magic can be viewed here. For continuity, I have used this Glow filter effect several times throughout the animation. In this tutorial, we will take a look at how I used the Glow filter to turn a cat into a witch's hat and broom.

This first part of the animation will take 54 frames. As the ecard tells its story, the cat is already on the stage. Our first step is to convert the cat graphic to a movie clip symbol. On the first frame of our magical animation (Frame 185), we will apply the Glow filter to the same cat symbol twice. One filter will create the glow that radiates ourward from the cat and the second filter will make the cat glow. How do we get the Glow filter to glow inside the cat? We use the Inner Glow option. When this option is off, the glow radiates outward from the symbol and when it is on, it radiates inside the symbol.

As you can see in the Properties panel, we begin the effect with the Glow filter Color set to 00FF00, the X and Y Blur options set to 0 pixels, the Strength set to 100% and the Inner Glow option turned on for the top Glow filter. We have set the Blur to 0 because we don't want our cat to be glowing at this point. But we do want to begin the external glow. Therefore, the second filter has the X and Y Blur options set to 5 pixels to give a little glowing outline to the cat.

For the next 32 frames we will increase both of these filters until the entire cat is glowing green and has a large external green glow. We will do this with a tween animation. We have set the beginning filter settings for this tween and now we will set the ending filter settings on the last frame (Frame 217). As you can see, we have increased the X and Y Blur settings to 100 pixels and the Strength to 200% for both Glow filters. At this point, our cat is a solid bright green and with the external Glow filter softly blurred around him.

Now, we will turn the cat into the witch's hat and broom. So we need to make the cat magically disappear. We will do this by extending the tween another 22 frames to end on Frame 239. Our first thought would be to reduce the Glow filter but this will not make the cat disappear. We need to use the Alpha setting in the Properties panel to reduce the opacity of the cat to zero.

That's all there is for our poor cat, he has disappeared into the night. Now we will build the ending to the story with the witch's hat and broom.

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View the Pamela Gladding Ecard

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