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-<!-- retain these comments for translator revision tracking -->
-<!-- $Id:shapes.sgml 1 2006-08-29 05:11:55 xerakko $ -->
-<sect1 id="shapes">
- <title>Shapes</title>
- <para> Basic primitives such as circles or
-rectangles are all great, but they are pretty much geometrically
-inflexible. What about shapes? To do this, we use the bline tool.</para>
- <para>In Synfig, the construct for describing shapes is called a Bline. This
-is roughly analogous to a "path" in other programs, except that it is
-strictly a hermite spline.</para>
- <para>When you click on the bline tool, you will see that the ducks from
-your currently selected layer (if there was one) will disappear, but
-the layer(s) will still remain selected in the Layers Dialog. This is
-normal. Anything you create in the bline tool will be inserted above the
-currently selected layer. Keep in mind that if you want to insert a shape
-somewhere, you should select where you want to insert it before you go
-into the Bline tool-changing the selection afterward will automaticly
-swap you back to the normal tool.</para>
- <para>If you take a look at the tool options dialog, you'll notice that the
-first things you see are three checkboxes. Make sure that only "Fill"
-AND "Outline" are checked.</para>
- <para>First, go ahead and click on the "R" button in the lower left corner of
-the FG/BG color widget in the toolbox. This will reset us back to black
-and white. Also, go ahead and set the default line width (right next to
-the FG/BG widget) to something nice and thick -- 10pt should do the
-trick.</para>
- <para>Clicking with your mouse in the canvas will place vertices. While you are
-placing a vertex, you can drag out its tangent by dragging the mouse. Do
-this over and over, and you construct a Bline.</para>
- <para>Keep in mind, however, that during this construction, there is nothing
-stopping you from just moving it if you don't like where you placed
-a vertex or a tangent. Honest! If you want to remove a vertex, right
-click on it and delete it. Want to split the tangents? Right click on
-the tangent and hit "split tangents". Want to loop the bline? right
-click on the first vertex and select "loop".</para>
- <para>So I assume you got your first Bline laid out like you want it. That's
-great. But we are still in construction mode -- the layers haven't been
-created yet. There are two ways to create the layers:</para>
- <orderedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>just switch to another tool, or</para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>press the "create" button at the bottom of the tool options tab
- (it's the icon that looks like a gear).</para>
- </listitem>
- </orderedlist>
- <para> For now, just go ahead and click on the normal tool because we
- are done with the bline tool.</para>
- <para>// Insert Figure about here</para>
- <para>Ok, we now have a nice pretty white region with a thick black
- outline. Notice that there are two layers that we have created--the
- Outline and the Region. Despite the fact that they are two separate
- layers, their vertices parameter has already been linked--so you
- can select either one and move its ducks around and the other one
- will also change.</para>
- <para>If you want to manipulate the vertices after you have created
- the layers, it is very easy to do so. Just click on one of the
- layers and have at it. If you want to remove a vertex, right
- click on it and hit "Remove Item (smart)". Want to insert a point
- somewhere? Right click on the segment where you want to insert
- something and his "Insert item (smart)".</para>
- <para>NOTE: The only major difference between this normal editing mode
- and the construction mode is in how you split the tangents--in
- construction mode you right click on the tangent itself. In normal
- duck editing mode, you must right click on the vertex that the
- tangents are attached to. This could be considered a usability bug,
- and it will be resolved at some point.</para>
- <para>This may appear to be leading to a mess of layers. And yes, if
- you aren't using the software properly, that is exactly what you
- will get. But there is a way to make this more sane: Just study
- the previous tutorial</para>
- <para>One quick thing to mention before I finish up. You can change the
- width of an outline at each vertex. You do this by selecting the
- outline layer (NOTE: you must select the Outline Layer, the Region
- Layer has no width data) and tweaking with the width ducks. By
- default, these are masked. To show them, press Alt-5. Repeat to
- hide them again. You can also see other things to mask via the
- Canvas Menu Caret > View Menu > Mask Ducks Menu.</para>
- <para>That should give you enough of a grasp of the software to be able
- to figure out more stuff on your own.</para>
-</sect1>
projects / synfig.git / blobdiff