Okay, this is my first article in quite a while, so here goes.
Challenge:
Make pure black platform backdrops, with smooth edges that work with any color backgrounds.
Requirements:
Multimedia Fusion 2 or higher.
Adobe Photoshop
Skill Level:
I would hazard a guess at intermediate.
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First, Load Photoshop. I will make a 64x32 slope, so set that to your canvas dimensions.
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Set the background color to black and make a new layer. Select the pen tool.
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Right click and Make Selection. Right click again and Select inverse. Fill with white.
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Select all and copy merged.
Open MMF2. Go to your application. Create a backdrop object, and set it's dimensions to the same as your photoshop's. In this example, it'll be 64x32.
In the animation editor, click new, go to the transparency settings (press "y") and select Alpha channel->Show,Edit. Then click paste.
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Deselect edit, select black from the pallette, and put one pixel of color onto the black portion of your image. Press ok.
The result? You get a perfectly smooth slope (this works with curves too wink ) that will look nice on any colored, shaded, or textured background that appears behind it. What else? You also get perfect 0,0,0 black, rather than the 8,0,0 black you normally get.
