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WebPainter has 32 layers that you
can use to organize your animation and graphics. You can
place images on their own layers so you can edit and
apply effects to them without worrying about affecting
other graphics. This is especially handy if part of your
image, text for example, might change. You can change it
without having to redo the entire graphic. You can also
use layers to experiment with different settings. You can also merge layers into one layer.
However, WebPainter automatically merges layers when you
export your animation or graphic.
In this lesson you will learn:
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For this tutorial youll use
the file LAYERS.WPM in the Tutorials folder. In this exercise youll manipulate an
image on one layer, and text on another layer, to create
an animated logo for a sporting goods store.
- Open the file
LAYERS.WPM.
- On the Window menu,
click Cel Layers.
- The first layer
contains a football player throwing a ball. The
second layer contains the store logo in one
frame.
First youre
going to flip the football player so hes
throwing the ball the other direction.
- In the Cel Layers
window, click the first layer and first cel.
- This is now the
selected cel. Notice its highlighted with a
red and blue border.
- On the Cels menu,
click Flip Cels Horizontally.
- All the cels in the
first layer are flipped. Now the football player
is throwing the ball from left to right.
Next youre
going to move the text, and then copy it to the
other cels. Before you do that, hide the first
layer.
- To hide the first
layer, click the minus sign to the left of the
number.
- In the main window
you can only see the text in layer two, not the
football player in layer one.
- You'll notice that
the text in layer 2 was also flipped by step 6.
Select the contents of the cel by double clicking
the Marquee tool and flip it horizontally by
using the Flip Horizontal item in the Selection
menu.
- Use the Lasso tool to
select the word "Sports."
- Drag it until
its underneath the word
"Southside" and aligned to the left.
Now youll move
the words "Southside Sports" to fit in
with the image of the football player.
- Click the plus sign
to show the first layer.
- Click the second
layer of the first cel.
- Use the Lasso or
Marquee tool to select the words "Southside
Sports".
- Drag the selection up
and to the right. Line it up with the football
player.
- On the Edit menu,
click Copy.
- Go to the next cel.
- On the Edit menu,
click Paste.
- Notice that the text
is automatically pasted in the same location.
Another
option is to create an Alias of the cel.
This allows you to copy the contents of a cel
over any number of cels without copying and
pasting. To create an Alias, simply grab the side
of the cel you wish to make an Alias of, then
drag it to the end of desired cel range. This
operation will create directional arrows at the
top of the Alias cel indicating the start and end
point.
- Repeat steps 13 to 14
until "Southside Sports" appears on
every cel.
- Click the Flatten All
Layers Button.
- The text and graphic
are combined on one layer. When you export a
WebPainter file to another format, the layers are
automatically combined in the exported document.
- In the main window,
click the Play button to view the finished
animation.
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