Fireworks Article

Converting Marquees to Paths in Fireworks 8

Note: This article was originally published on CommunityMX.

During the past five years of answering questions on the Macromedia Fireworks forum, I can't begin to tell you how many times I've read two questions: "How do I convert a selection to a path in Fireworks?" and "How do I convert a path to a selection in Fireworks?" (Selections are also known as marquees.)

The Fireworks engineers have been listening, folks, and I'm going to show and tell you how to do it.

Requirements

To complete this tutorial you will need to install the following software and files:

Fireworks 8

• Try
• Buy

Tutorials and sample files:

• marquee_to_path.zip (ZIP, 932K)

Converting a Marquee to a Vector Path

In the first of two Captivate demos, you'll see how this butterfly is extracted from a bitmap (see Figure 1) using the new Convert Marquee to Path feature.

Figure 1. Extracted butterfly

The second Captivate demo will show the butterfly in a pastel form (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Pastel butterfly

The following Captivate demo walks you through the process of extracting this butterfly from a bitmap using the new Convert Marquee to Path feature.

View the demo: Converting a Marquee to a Vector Path

Wasn't that simple? What a great addition to the Fireworks tool set.

Converting a Vector Path to a Marquee

Between the previous and next Captivate demos, I did some additional work on the image. I added a barely-there radial gradient as a background image (see Figure 3).

Figure 3. Can you see the pale yellow gradient?

I've also done the following:

• Changed the color of the butterfly to #CC6699
• Added a masked square of a wallpaper pattern on top of the butterfly (see Figure 4)

Figure 4. Wallpaper pattern, masked, shown at half size

The following Captivate demo walks you through the process of finalizing the butterfly graphic.

View the demo: Converting a Vector Path to a Marquee

Where to Go from Here

To learn more about the new features in Fireworks 8, be sure to read Maureen Keating's article, Fireworks 8 New Features and Benefits.

Also read Jim Babbage's review of the 26 new blend modes, Fireworks 8: A Power Blender for Graphics, and his in-depth article about the two new shadow features: Fireworks 8: Only the Shadow Knows.

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