Linda Rathgeber is a writer, Web developer, and Team Macromedia member who coaches newcomers using Macromedia Dreamweaver and Fireworks. Her graphics work has been featured by the independent film company King Pictures, in book ads for author Bill Stott, in the Fireworks 4 and Fireworks MX sample files, and on the companion CD-ROMs of Joseph Lowery's Fireworks Bibles. Visit Linda at www.playingwithfire.com.
Masking fuzzy or irregular edges is typically a slow, painstaking procedure
of hand selection with the Polygon Lasso tool, or if you prefer a vector
mask, the Pen tool. Plugins that automate the process (e.g., Extensis Mask
Pro, Corel Knock Out) are expensive for one-trick ponies. And shame on
Extensis and Corel - they haven't been made available for Fireworks. This
article will teach you to quickly mask objects with irregular edges using the
new Fireworks MX 2004 Replace Color tool, a simple Alpha masking technique,
and some sneaky edgerefining tricks.
I'm going to use a gorgeous flower image (see Image I), photographed by
Daniel Reyes of Sydney, Australia, to demonstrate the technique. (If you'd
like to download a copy and follow along, go to
www.playingwithfire.com/flower.zip.) Unzip the image file, and open it in
Fireworks MX 2004.
A Word About Masks
In Firewor... (more)
Linda Rathgeber is a writer, Web developer, and Team Macromedia member who coaches newcomers using Macromedia Dreamweaver and Fireworks. Her graphics work has been featured by the independent film company King Pictures, in book ads for author Bill Stott, in the Fireworks 4 and Fireworks MX sample files, and on the companion CD-ROMs of Joseph Lowery's Fireworks Bibles. Visit Linda at www.playingwithfire.com.
Scott Sellers
Anthony Franco
Daniel Morris
Wayne Walls
Niki Acosta
Jereme Hancock
Oren Michels
Marvin Wheeler
Douglas Kim
