Jen
Creative Chick
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Post by Jen on Oct 1, 2009 13:07:35 GMT -6
You can use a gradient anywhere not just for your background. I'll show you how to make them. Here I used one in the butterfly...
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Jen
Creative Chick
Admin
Posts: 8,309
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Post by Jen on Oct 1, 2009 13:08:34 GMT -6
To make a gradient you need to choose the gradient tool from the toolbox, red outline. If you click on the gradient showing in the options bar, purple outline, it will open the Gradient Editor window. Below is the Gradient Editor window. You won't see all these grads because I have made a lot of them. The pink arrows are where you set the opacity. The purple arrows are where you set the colors. The diamond outlined in blue is the midpoint. The tiny icons that look like houses are called stops. You can move the stops and midpoint by clicking on them and sliding them left or right. Or you can enter a location in the field I have outlined in green. When you click on a stop the tip will fill with black. See the opacity stop the tiny red arrow is pointing to. When an opacity stop is selected the opacity field at the bottom, outlined in pink, will show and you can adjust the values or delete the stop.
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Jen
Creative Chick
Admin
Posts: 8,309
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Post by Jen on Oct 1, 2009 13:09:08 GMT -6
Here's a sample of the different options for applying the gradient fill. The buttons for these are located in the options bar. They have a blue outline in the first picture in the post above. When you're clicking and dragging the gradient tool to make a grad the look of your gradient will depend on what angle you are dragging as well as where you start and stop the drag.
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Jen
Creative Chick
Admin
Posts: 8,309
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Post by Jen on Oct 1, 2009 13:09:35 GMT -6
When a color stop is selected the color section at the bottom will show and the opacity area will be greyed out. You can now adjust the values or delete the stop.
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Jen
Creative Chick
Admin
Posts: 8,309
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Post by Jen on Oct 1, 2009 13:10:05 GMT -6
To add stops just click above or below the grad. I have added two color stops in the picture.
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Jen
Creative Chick
Admin
Posts: 8,309
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Post by Jen on Oct 1, 2009 13:10:29 GMT -6
To set a color to a stop click on the stop. To choose a color you can do a few things. One you can go to your swatches palette and click on a color. When you do this you'll notice your cursor turns into the eyedropper tool. Or you can double click on the selected stop or click once in the field I've outlined in red and the Color Picker window you see will pop up. From this window you can enter an amount if you know the color's values. Or you can move the white circle as well as the arrows I have outlined in blue to get the color you want. You can also sample a color from another file or within the file you are working on by moving your cursor over the color and clicking down on it.
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Jen
Creative Chick
Admin
Posts: 8,309
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Post by Jen on Oct 1, 2009 13:10:55 GMT -6
To make a simple gradient assign a color to each stop and name it where I have outlined in purple. Then click New and the gradient you created will appear in the empty space the red arrow is pointing to. To delete a gradient on a Mac hold down the option key for Windows it's the alt key and your cursor will change to a pair of scissors. Now just click down on the grad.
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