Sultan Yaqub: Fireworks 101

Making a Simple Logo!

This time we have a very nice tutorial done by a Gyorgy Fekete. It cover some basic functionalities and it's very useful for those willing to improve their Fireworks skills. You will learn how to play with paths, combining, subtracting and much more. Also you will end up creating a logo.

Lets begin!
First let's see what combine path objects are and what can you do with them. In Fireworks there are four main combine paths: Union, Intersect, Punch and Crop.

Union

You can unite two or more objects with it. Just drag the two objects onto each other (it helps if you select the same color for both shapes, this way you would see the final union), select both objects and go to the Modify menu, Combine Paths -> Union. This simple command alone creates rather complex shapes.

Intersect

With intersect you can create a shape whose the result of the intersection of two or more shapes.You can do this the same way as with Union, select the two shapes and go to Modify -> Combine Paths -> Intersect. It also helps if you decrease the opacity of the topmost shape to see the final intersected result.

Punch

With punch you can cut a shape from another. Just go to Modify -> Combine Paths -> Punch. I use this command the most while I'm creating my shapes.

Crop

I rarely use this command, although it's very powerful. It's useful if we use more than two shapes. The main idea with crop is that it creates a hybrid intersection from the two circles underneath the rectangle. The rectangle is the topmost shape.

Now let me show you the real power of these commands. Let's create a complex shape without using the pen tool or a tablet. Just the plain old mouse and these four commands.

Creating a Logo!

Let's create a logo with two leaf shapes and some fancy text. First the most important thing is that we have to learn how to see different shapes from two or more, and what type of command to use to get those shapes.

Step 1

For me the easiest way to create a leaf is from an oval. So, create the oval and draw a rectangle shape on top of it like this:

Now just Punch the rectangle from the oval and the result will be this:

Dublicate this shape (CMD+C; CMD+V) and flip it horizontally (Modify -> Transform -> Flip Horizontal). Match the two shapes and apply the Union command to get this shape:

Step 2

Ok. Now rotate this shape a little bit and duplicate it twice. Draw a rectangle under the duplicated shapes like this (note that the blue oval shape is the top most, the green one is in the middle and the rectangle is at bottom):

The idea is to get that shape in the middle (dark blue):

We achieve this by selecting all three shapes using the Crop command and then selecting the remaining shapes and using the Punch command. You will get this shape:

Now we go back to our original 'leaf like' shape. Duplicating it again and shrinking a by 80% (CMD+SHIFT+T), then punch the smaller shape from the original.

Step 3

Align the remaining shapes and apply the Union command, like this:

Duplicate the final shape and color it differently. Flip it horizontally and align the two shapes therefore the duplicated shape goes under the original one, like so:

Duplicate the red shape one more time and drag it out, we will need it later. And now you guessed it select the two shapes and Punch the red shape and mask the rest like this: