In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to use the png and jpeg capture tool in The Effect Generator to add web-2.0-style reflection to any jpg, gif or png image in seconds.
The Six Steps
Step 1 Load The Effect Generator, choosing ‘Empty Effect’ instead of a Flash template.
Step 2 Click ‘Image’ from the component library on the left-hand side of the window.
Step 3 Click ‘Upload’ from the configuration panel that appears at the bottom of the screen, and select your source jpeg, gif or png file.
Step 4 Select the ‘Decoration’ tab from underneath the component library on the left-hand side of the screen, and pick ‘Reflection’.
Step 5 Change the background color, transparency, height and width of your effect by seleting the root ‘Effect’ node from the Component Tree at the bottom middle of the screen.
Step 6 Click the ‘Download Screenshot’ camera icon at the top of the screen, third from left.
Configuring the Reflection
You can configure the reflection effect into other forms than standard vertical type. To do this, click on the ‘Image’ component in the component tree, and then click on the ‘Reflection’ effect in the ‘Effects’ box next door. This will bring up the reflection component settings:
The ‘Amount’ parameter specifies the height of the Reflection:
The ‘Angle’ parameter specifies the angle of the reflected image:
Finally, the ‘Alpha’ parameter controls the transparency of the reflection:
Other Image Manipulations
Reflection is only the first of a large number of image processing effects that you can use this tool for. Here are some others you might like to try:
- Rounding corners
- Fading edges
- Overlaying clipart
- Setting brightness, saturation, hue, etc.
- Adding glows
- Adding shadows
Plus, of course, you can use The Effect Generator to create great Flash effects like this one.
