Depth Cues: Creating the Illusion of Depth - Flash 3D: Animation, Interactivity, and Games - page 42

Step 16: Create another movie clip and add a Blur filter
Make sure the highlight shape is still selected. Select Modify > Convert to Symbol. Type
in highlight for the name. Make sure the type is set to Movie clip. Click OK. Go to the
Filters tab and add the Blur filter to the shadow movie clip instance. Increase the Blur X
and Blur Y factor to 15. This feathers the edge and creates a more realistic highlight.
Step 17: Rotate the highlight
Select the Free Transform tool from the Tools palette. Rotate the highlight instance
slightly to the left (Figure 2.43).
Step 18: Save and test movie
This completes the exercise. Save your file. Select Control > Test Movie to see the final
results. As you can see, gradients can greatly enhance the shading of an object and
produce a more realistic illusion of depth. The next exercise applies gradients to a
character to reproduce soft shading.
Figure 2.43 Completed gradient exercise
Exercise 2.4: Creating Soft Shading
Step 1: Getting started
Open the file 2_4_softShade.fla in the Chapter 2 folder. This exercise reproduces
soft-shading techniques that many high-end animation companies use to simulate
three-dimensional objects (Figure 2.44). It builds on the previous two exercises. The
Flash movie contains the artwork you need to complete this exercise. The different
parts of the cartoon character have been divided up into separate layers in the Timeline.