Moon Belt

Here's another popular website image that can be created effectively in Fireworks4.

And here's how we do it:

STAGE 1

Create a new canvas, 200x200. Select the elipse tool and draw a vertical oval approx 200x100 with fill #00CCFF. Centre in the document, then copy and paste the oval. Change the fill of this new overlaid oval to any other colour (for easy visibility), then click MODIFY>ALTER PATH>INSET PATH. Adjust the settings to those shown below, then click OK.

STAGE 2

You should now see both ovals, the top one still "selected". Move the oval to the left by clicking/dragging or pushing the "left arrow" key until you get something resembling the image below.

STAGE 3

Now press shift and click the back oval to include it in the selection (or click EDIT>SELECT ALL) and click MODIFY>COMBINE>PUNCH, to get the effect you see below.

STAGE 4

The next stage is to draw a circle (your "moon") on top of the existing image. Give this circle a different contrasting fill. Centre the new image in the document. You should have this:

STAGE 5

While this circle is still selected, copy it to the clipboard (EDIT>COPY), then click on the knife tool and draw a cut vertically through the centre of the circle (DO NOT cut the oval!). This will split the circle into two semi-circles (which could be dragged apart as below).

STAGE 6

Click anywhere else on the canvas to deselect the circle and then click on the right-hand semi-circle. Press delete. Now select both images by shift/clicking them (or EDIT>SELECT ALL), and click MODIFY>COMBINE>PUNCH. You should have something like the image below.

STAGE 7

Now click EDIT>PASTE to get this image:

STAGE 8

Now, I know you're thinking "Hang on! I had this image a few steps ago!", BUT look what happens when you now click MODIFY>ARRANGE>SEND TO BACK:

STAGE 9

O.K.!! Now we're getting there! Time to put a little spin on that globe! Click on MODIFY>TRANSFORM>NUMERIC TRANSFORM and use the settings below:

STAGE 10

And you should now have something closely resembling this:

So, what's left to do? Why, it's a simple matter of applying linear fills, radial fills, inner glows, gaussian blur etc. etc., but surely you don't want me to take ALL the fun out of it, DO YOU?