Start by creating a new document, with a 300x150 sized stage. Type your text on the stage by selecting the text tool, clicking on the stage and entering the text. Select the text with the selection tool and convert it to a symbol by right clicking, and selecting "Convert To Symbol...". Select movie clip from the Behaviour choices, as seen below:
Next, you will need to add a filter. To do this, you will need to locate the Properties window at the bottom of the screen. In Flash 8, Filters have been added as an extra tab on the Properties menu. It can be seen highlighted in red below:
Once you click the tab, you will see more options. If you have your symbol selected, you will be able to add a filter to it, by selecting the small blue + sign. Below are some examples of effects created with Filters, along with the Filter menu, so you can see exactly what settings are needed to make it.
Text with no effect added to it:
Text with a glow and knockout:
Settings:
Weak glow:
Settings:
Different colored glows:
Drop shadow:
Settings for drop shadow:
As you can see, there is a huge range of effects you can make. The examples above only show the basics of what filter effects can do, but they bring a new life to website graphics within Flash. If you have had problems with this tutorial, please post on the KnowFlash.com Forum. If you have created a good looking effect using this method, feel free to post it in our Showcase section on the forum.
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