Foundation Fireworks CS4

6.1. Building blocks

Building sophisticated effects is easier than you think—you just need to understand the fundamental building blocks provided by Fireworks. The effects we're going to create in this chapter rely on gradient fills, texture fills, layer blend modes, filters, and styles. Let's step through each of these basics quickly, and then move on to the fun stuff!

6.1.1. Gradient fills

Gradient fills are at the heart of most effects and sophisticated user interface skins. The Fireworks Gradient tool is actually one of the features that have made Fireworks the go-to tool in many visual designer's arsenals. In addition to setting color stops on the gradient, you can specify opacity stops as well. It's the ability to specify opacity stops ...