Web 2.0 Entrepreneur

Create a Reflection effect using Fireworks in 5 simple steps

• Posted by Tengku Zahasman on June 10th, 2007 filed in Web Design, Fireworks, Tutorial


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One of the usual designs around Web 2.0 includes having texts or images to appear reflected as if they’re on a shiny-clean surface. Last month I provided some simple tips on creating a decent Web 2.0 logo (which applied the reflection technique) but since it wasn’t a tutorial post, I didn’t explain step by step of how to actually do it using an image editing tool. It ain’t that hard if you’re a fast learner…. only 5 steps to go through. But before we do anything, let’s see the example end result that we’re trying to create in this tutorial (btw, this tutorial uses Fireworks 8 as the image editing tool):

Looks good enough to you? Now let’s get started!

Step 1 : Write the text

Obviously you need *something* to apply the reflection effect to. So open up your Fireworks application and write some texts on the canvas (using the Text tool). It doesn’t matter what fonts or colour you wanna use, just get some texts on the canvas quickly.

Step 2 : Duplicate the text

We’re going to use the duplicated text as the reflection later. So if you’re wondering how to duplicate the text, here’s how: Copy and paste. Just select the text (use the Pointer tool) and then press CTRL+C (to copy) and CTRL+V (to paste). This will paste the very same text on top of the original text, so it’ll look as if nothing happened.

Step 3 : Flip the duplicated text vertically

This shouldn’t be painful. Just go to the toolbar menu and find Modify -> Transform -> Flip vertical.

By now you should see the original text behind the flipped duplicated one. It’ll look something like this:

Step 4 : Move the flipped text below the original text

Push the *downwards* arrow button on your keyboard until the flipped text is placed just below the original text.

Alright…. the reflection is now in place. What you need to do next is have the bottom part faded so that it looks more realistic… let’s proceed.

Final Step : Fade out the bottom part of the duplicated (and flipped) text

To do this is easy. There’s a build-in Fireworks command that can do the fade out for you. Simply go to the toolbar menu and click on Commands -> Creative -> Fade Image. A new dialog box will pop-up giving you options of where you want the image to be faded out; either top, bottom, sides, etc. We want to fade out the bottom part, so use some common sense and choose the right option

By doing that, the reflection is now faded out. If you find the reflection to be revealing too much, just drag the controller pane up a bit and adjust until you’re satisfied.

Done! Wasn’t that hard was it? Having this steps mastered adds you another graphic design skill that you can apply in many things (logos, menus, buttons, etc). Now go repeat everything again with different fonts and colours, add some gradients or anything so that you can remember the steps like the back of your hand.