inspiration/synfig-docs/ca/steps/shapes.sgml

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<!-- $Id:shapes.sgml 1 2006-08-29 05:11:55 xerakko $ -->
<sect1 id="shapes">
  <title>Shapes</title>
  <para> Basic primitives such as circles or
rectangles are all great, but they are pretty much geometrically
inflexible. What about shapes? To do this, we use the bline tool.</para>
  <para>In Synfig, the construct for describing shapes is called a Bline. This
is roughly analogous to a "path" in other programs, except that it is
strictly a hermite spline.</para>
  <para>When you click on the bline tool, you will see that the ducks from
your currently selected layer (if there was one) will disappear, but
the layer(s) will still remain selected in the Layers Dialog. This is
normal. Anything you create in the bline tool will be inserted above the
currently selected layer. Keep in mind that if you want to insert a shape
somewhere, you should select where you want to insert it before you go
into the Bline tool-changing the selection afterward will automaticly
swap you back to the normal tool.</para>
  <para>If you take a look at the tool options dialog, you'll notice that the
first things you see are three checkboxes. Make sure that only "Fill"
AND "Outline" are checked.</para>
  <para>First, go ahead and click on the "R" button in the lower left corner of
the FG/BG color widget in the toolbox. This will reset us back to black
and white. Also, go ahead and set the default line width (right next to
the FG/BG widget) to something nice and thick -- 10pt should do the 
trick.</para>
  <para>Clicking with your mouse in the canvas will place vertices. While you are
placing a vertex, you can drag out its tangent by dragging the mouse. Do
this over and over, and you construct a Bline.</para>
  <para>Keep in mind, however, that during this construction, there is nothing
stopping you from just moving it if you don't like where you placed
a vertex or a tangent. Honest! If you want to remove a vertex, right
click on it and delete it. Want to split the tangents? Right click on
the tangent and hit "split tangents". Want to loop the bline? right
click on the first vertex and select "loop".</para>
  <para>So I assume you got your first Bline laid out like you want it. That's
great. But we are still in construction mode -- the layers haven't been
created yet. There are two ways to create the layers:</para>
  <orderedlist>
    <listitem>
      <para>just switch to another tool, or</para>
    </listitem>
    <listitem>
      <para>press the "create" button at the bottom of the tool options tab
      (it's the icon that looks like a gear).</para>
    </listitem>
  </orderedlist>
  <para>     For now, just go ahead and click on the normal tool because we
      are done with the bline tool.</para>
  <para>// Insert Figure about here</para>
  <para>Ok, we now have a nice pretty white region with a thick black
      outline. Notice that there are two layers that we have created--the
      Outline and the Region. Despite the fact that they are two separate
      layers, their vertices parameter has already been linked--so you
      can select either one and move its ducks around and the other one
      will also change.</para>
  <para>If you want to manipulate the vertices after you have created
      the layers, it is very easy to do so. Just click on one of the
      layers and have at it. If you want to remove a vertex, right
      click on it and hit "Remove Item (smart)". Want to insert a point
      somewhere? Right click on the segment where you want to insert
      something and his "Insert item (smart)".</para>
  <para>NOTE: The only major difference between this normal editing mode
      and the construction mode is in how you split the tangents--in
      construction mode you right click on the tangent itself. In normal
      duck editing mode, you must right click on the vertex that the
      tangents are attached to. This could be considered a usability bug,
      and it will be resolved at some point.</para>
  <para>This may appear to be leading to a mess of layers. And yes, if
      you aren't using the software properly, that is exactly what you
      will get. But there is a way to make this more sane: Just study
      the previous tutorial</para>
  <para>One quick thing to mention before I finish up. You can change the
      width of an outline at each vertex. You do this by selecting the
      outline layer (NOTE: you must select the Outline Layer, the Region
      Layer has no width data) and tweaking with the width ducks. By
      default, these are masked. To show them, press Alt-5. Repeat to
      hide them again. You can also see other things to mask via the
      Canvas Menu Caret &gt; View Menu &gt; Mask Ducks Menu.</para>
  <para>That should give you enough of a grasp of the software to be able
      to figure out more stuff on your own.</para>
</sect1>