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Pro Edges 9: Flash with an Edge

Flash tends to be presented as full pages. No reason, really. Flash works very well in a small section of the page and can be quite dynamic. One of the best Flash samples I have ever seen was in two small pieces of a jewelry site entry page. Unfortunately, I did not mark the address and have not been able to find it again, or I would share it.

If you are inserting small Flash movies into your site, then you must also integrate the look with the rest of your graphics. Since most Flash is done for full page display, you won't find much information on edge treatments. However, if you think of vector edges, like those in this article for CorelDraw, you will have a good start.

In this sample movie, I used a very simple built in feature to make the lines jagged (right click on the image and select play if you missed the movie when you arrived). First, though, I will take you behind the scenes of the movie and show you a wonderful feature of Flash that makes edges so easy. Compare this shot to the movie, and you will see that Flash just chops off anything that is outside the movie area. The yellow lines approximate the edge of the movie.

This helped me in two ways with this edge. First, it chopped off the ragged edge on the box. I did not want that edge to be rough. I could have used a line to get the texture on the inside, but I needed the box for the color anyway. Two steps saved—changing the outline and placing a line (they do add up).

I was also able to position a stylized line along the edge of the movie to achieve the random cutout look. Notice how the photo is also extending above the movie line—instant micro cropping. To place lines accurately along the edge, just make underlying layers invisible.

The ragged line is a default line shape. Choose the line tool from the Toolbox. Set the width to 8pt or 10pt (the widest you can choose, but you can always scale later if you need more). Choose the outline selection shown in the illustration to the left. This is a magnified view of both 8 pt (red) and 10 pt lines.

For the snowy cutout border I simply changed the line to white and placed it on a layer above the other full frame graphics.

For the box you can have this same setting chosen when you draw your box or change it later. The first box here was drawn with the random border. The second one is the same box with the line style changed.

To Change the outline once it has been created, choose the Ink Bottle from the Toolbox. Change the outline style as shown and click on the outline of the box as shown below. Splotches to dots. That's it!

Images provided courtesy of EyeWire.

Images © Eyewire and Internet.com and may not be reproduced in any way without prior written notice.

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Pro Edges Tutorial Index

Pro Edges Start
What's in a Line?
Why Frame?
PhotoShop Frames
Fade Away PhotoShop
Quick PhotoShop 3D Frame
CorelDraw Frames
CorelDraw Ragged Edges
Flash with an Edge
Photo Resources