FADED LINES

This tutorial uses the same "masking" techniques as those used in the Faded Image tutorial, but also introduces some variations on the standard theme which can be successfully applied to masking other types of images.

The trick to producing a faded line in Fireworks is to start by drawing a rectangle with the fill colour of your choice.

Use the INFO panel to re-set the dimensions of this rectangle as shown below.

Your rectangle now takes on the appearance of a 1pixel line.

Now, draw a second rectangle COMPLETELY covering the first and click to select a WHITE fill colour with the paintbucket tool. Click to open the FILL panel and select LINEAR from the drop-down menu. This should default to a BLACK/WHITE fill as shown here.

At this point, you may manipulate the "fade" effect in several ways, depending on the final appearance you require. It is important to remember, here, that any parts of the ORIGINAL image covered by the WHITE areas of the mask you apply will be INVISIBLE in the final graphic!

By clicking on the button which appears in the Fill panel, the gradient preview control panel is revealed. You may place additional colour markers on the gradient bar by clicking anywhere between the two existing markers. See the following examples:

1. The default setting (shown below) will give a line starting with solid tone at the left and gradually fading to the right.

2. By click/dragging the BLACK marker, you can control the "duration" of the fade effect.

Notice the difference between this image and the default effect above.

3. By clicking to place new markers along the control bar as shown below, you can create your fade effect at BOTH ends of the line!

Your first clicks on the bar will generate new markers which are "in-between" tones. You will need to click the actual markers once they are placed on the bar and select the appropriate black/white colours from the swatch panels which open up. Your resulting mask will be as below:

When you have completed the gradient effect for your mask, click EDIT>SELECT ALL and then click MODIFY>MASK>GROUP AS MASK.

And that's all there is to it! You've just created a smoothly faded line.

That's not all, though! Fireworks' flexibility doesn't stop there. If you think the effect is still "not quite right", you can re-manipulate it by clicking to open the LAYERS panel. Click the mask icon (highlighted in YELLOW) as below:

This will place the gradient control bar onto your canvas as below:

Now it's simply a matter of click/dragging the round or square control handles to manipulate the effect until you are happy with the result!

How much easier could it be?