Using Fireworks

[tedkilroy]

Using it for the first time. Can anyone istruct me how to achieve the following? I have a page banner with a light blue background. It also has images scattered all over the background.

I am trying to get these images to have what I call a greyed out affect. I heard the term shadow, but an example would be this site...

http://www.mlfnow.org/site/PageServer.

They have fishes and loaves in the background.

Can anybody help?

 

[JohnOB]

What you likely want is a transparency. However if the banner is just one image file, doing this will grey out the whole banner, and I assume what you want to do is just grey out the fishes, so that they are less obvious.

If you created this banner yourself using the individual fish and loaf images and dragged them in, you could highlight all of these images (by holding down CTRL and clicking them individually) and in the effects pain there is a slider (which will be at 100%) you can change this to any value (say try 25%) which will make all the images slightly 'see-through' which may be the effect you want.

However, if this is just one image then doing this would just make the whole banner half see through. If you have the individual fish/loaf images then you could create it again and do this, if not you could export just the banner as a gif, choosing this blue background as the transparency and export it this way. Then you could bring it back in onto a new blue background and make this transparent.

Sorry to go off on tangents but I am at work just now, with no access to fireworks, but if you do not get anywhere with the above then reply, and I can maybe get a copy of the image off you to get a better idea of what you are working with, and how to get the effect you want.

"The only stupid question is the one that doesn't get asked

 

[tedkilroy]

I'am actually copying their page banner, but replacing the fishes and loaves with life rings. I also have a different color background. You know life rings, looks like the donut that someone would throw at you if you slipped off a boat.

I found a JPEG on the internet and am now trying to cut both the inner ring and outer ring of this life ring, tranparent it, then I will place it on the banner.

 

[JohnOB]

I see, well hopefully using the Elipse selection tool will let you cot them out easily enough, seeing as it should be a perfectly round shape. But another easy way is to fill in the inner and outer background with a colour that is not contained in the image (say a bright green) then export the image as a gif, and choose the green colour as your transparent colour.

"The only stupid question is the one that doesn't get asked

 

[tedkilroy]

How can I change the diameter of the eraser tool? Can I make it smaller? I have the background, I erase almost all the white background that came with the life ring JPEG I found on the internet. But there is a small amount of white that is visable at 46 on the slider that needs a smaller eraser tool.

46 is the perfect number that allows you to still see what the image is, but having the shadow effect I am looking for.