WHY DON't the Colors STAY PUT!!?

[Bliss Eyed]

Every tutorial i watch, it seems as if the Style color just jumps into the shape, all user-friendly like.
Sometimes i get this to happen, but sometimes I create a shape and it INSTEAD makes it white.

Once i finished my character, a hand, a shoe, & the mouth keep going back to white!

Whats THE PROPER SEQUENCE FOR AFFIXING THE COLOR TO THE SHAPE permanently so i can see it?

Thank FOR YOUR MUCH NEEDED HELP!

[hayasidist]

lots of possible causes here... if the following doesn't help, take a careful note of the sequence of operations you do and then upload a file that shows the problems along with what you've done.

The easy way to do this:

make sure you don't have any shape selected.
in the style panel choose the colour you want in the shape you're about to draw
draw the shape (with auto-fill enabled) OR draw the shape without auto fill then use the "create shape" tool - DON'T use paintbucket
<repeat>

Some possible causes of what you're seeing:

have you got a fill effect (such as gradient) in the shape(s)? and have you got the display quality set to "show fill effects"?
when you render do you see the correct colours?
have you got these shapes all on one layer or are they spread across many layers? and do you create them with the deafult fill (white) then use the style window to change colour? have you got multiple shapes selected?

[Bliss Eyed]

Thank you so much, this is a huge help!!!! You're asking all the right questions!
I'll answer all of these tonite at my computer

[Bliss Eyed]

Ok, in order that you put it to me:

"make sure you don't have any shape selected";
I'm unsure how to verify this; how DOES one select a shape? How does the program react to let you know a shape has been selected? (i may not be ENTIRELY clueless but your uninterrupted answer might clarify what I'm doing wrong)

"Select with auto-fill or Create Shape with autofill unselected: do not use paintbucket"
I think most of the time I've been doing all three; would this explain why a shape would appear to have the right color then suddenly switch to the wrong color later?

Otherwise, ... Not use Paintbucket: that i can do. Big thanks for that advice alone!

Gradients & Layers; for the sake of simplicity, i want to use no gradients. The only time i got it to render correctly was with the effects off... But i don't remember how i selected that, and wish to re-find how i did that; can you help me?

Also, since some gradients have already been selected in the styles (i believe), yet i can never tell what color the shape is, therefore i cannot answer for certain if gradients are on or not. From here onwards, i just want to ignore or undo the gradient functions entirely.

To answer another part of your question: i create a new layer for every single shape BECAUSE I'm so traumatized by this color crisis. In other words, I have no confidence in being able to use two colors on one layer; i just plain don't know what's going on, sometimes i get lucky, more often i do not, in regards to colors adhering to shapes.
Recently, i did two hands on one layer; however one keeps turning white, the other seems fine.

ONE POSSIBLE SOLUTION THAT WOULD STREAMLINE ALL THIS;
Tutorials all seem to select the color before making the shape, like you suggested.
Is it possible (and simple) for me to duplicate all the lovely shape layers I've created WITH a NEW COLOR? (then ditch the old layer- because I do know the icon for duplicating a selected layer.)

I really don't want to redraw all these shapes. I'm open to any solution that's clear, stepbystep, & avoids hazards, like the advice in your answer.
LET ME ADD: on the right side of the screen, next to the "Style" Tab (for colors), to its left, on my ASP 9.5, it says SHAPE on a similar shaped tab. I HAVE NO IDEA HOW THIS WORKS, WHAT IT DOES OR MEANS, AND IT DOESN'T SEEM TO LET ME DO ANYTHING SO I JUST IGNORE IT. I imagine this ignorance is huge part of my problem, but it hasn't come up in my learning thus far. If you can explain how this SHAPE tab works, or how to react to it, i'd probably be sincerely grateful, since it appears to be a key function in the basic process of creating shapes, (i'm guessing).

Your advice has really helped me simmer down emotionally; my workflow is always interrupted by accumulations of rage- over colors mostly. I thought learning ASP 9.5 would be like the digital version of playing with clay; with time and work I figure i could make Gumby. But instead, ASP does more things wrong for me than right; it feels instead more akin to learning to babysit a vast unruly class of kleptomaniac nursery school kids.... with a helicopter ... that is powered by a Rubiks cube ...

Honestly, it doesn't feel like a systematic learning process; it's more like witchcraft! But it is easier than Photoshop; which I gave up on (it took me 20 minutes to draw a pixelated dragon next to real Swiss castle, then I spent another 30 min. wondering why there was no more paint on my brush! ASP 9.5 has been significantly more rewarding to learn than the latest Photoshop.)

With ASP 9.5, I know how to check the DISPLAY QUALITY; i know all the properties need to be assigned at the Zero mark on the timeline. I know a shape has to be point& line perfectly closed before the red checkerboard will appear. At least I've surmounted this hazardous traps. Sadly, in evaluating my learning process thus far, I learned 90% of what i do know from clicking & clicking. The help manual & tutorials have contributed very little.

But somehow, i can't grasp the process for assigning colors... Nor changing colors. For my work, i can forego all the bonerigging and gradients, and Z vector, ... I would trade all that just to ALWAYS know;
WHAT COLOR MY SHAPE LOOKS LIKE,
WHAT COLOR MY SHAPE WILL PERMANENTLY REMAIN,
& WHAT COLOR MY SHAPE WILL RENDER!

Please, if you can wrap my mind around the process for assigning colors to shapes, and/or else, CHANGING colors of shapes, I'm all ears with the patience of Mother Theresa, because the help to my project would be IMMENSE & I would be sincerely and most deeply grateful!

I'm going to employ all the concise advice you've given me and report back; THANK YOU for giving me the streamlined approach with the advice to avoid paintbucket; your plan has so far eased alot of pain and anguish.

Sincerely in your debt, Khriss Bliss

[hayasidist]

ooooh - there's a lot in that post .. I'll hit the "big questions" first...

"Select with auto-fill or Create Shape with autofill unselected: do not use paintbucket"

what I said was: draw the shape (with auto-fill enabled) OR draw the shape without auto fill then use the "create shape" tool ...

Create Shape and Draw are quite different things.

so first of all here's some terminology:

there's a PATH - that's the set of points that make up a CURVE - a curve can be a CLOSED curve where there are no end points (for example - when you use the Draw shape tool to make a rectangle you get a path with 4 points that makes a CLOSED CURVE -- yes - "curve" even though the corners are square! -- more of that later) or an open curve (such as when you use the Add Point tool to make a straight line with only 2 points).

you can add FILL to a closed curve; and you can add STROKE to any curve.

a SHAPE is any collection of curves -- most people keep life easy and make one shape for one curve out of one path - but you don't need to. Again - more of that later - and for now we'll keep it simple... but/and because it's not necessary (or, as you'll find as you progress, desirable) to keep it simple that's why there's the different terms.

The draw shape tool draws a path to make a closed curve and then, with one or both of autofill / autostroke enabled, creates a shape and applies fill and/or stroke. If you don't have fill AND stroke you don't get a SHAPE.

how DOES one select a shape? How does the program react to let you know a shape has been selected?

use the SELECT SHAPE tool in the Fill Tool sub-panel (the kidney shaped icon with an arrow) -- and how it appears depends on whether you've selected the "checkerboard" option (the tick box in the Style panel labelled "Checker Selection") in the STYLE panel. (I think that was there in 9.5... but, as you noted later, you'll get the checkerboard overlay for selected shapes)

(select shape will NOT select just a path)

I think most of the time I've been doing all three; would this explain why a shape would appear to have the right color then suddenly switch to the wrong color later?

you're on 9.5 -- I think paintbucket had changed by that release (not sure it was a while ago; and I'm on the road right now, so I don't have my system with all the old versions on it to check) ... however, the latest version of paintbucket makes a new shape from any overlapping area of two existing shapes.

but I don't think that's why the colours seem to switch back...

i create a new layer for every single shape BECAUSE I'm so traumatized by this color crisis.

This is posibly at the heart of the problem.

If you leave a shape selected and then change the colours in the style panel you will change the colours in the selected shape as well as setting up for the new shape

If you create a new layer by using the layer icon that has a red + sign - you're actually duplicating a layer and all the shapes that are on it, and not creating a new empty layer.. so what you see is the top layer and if you've managed to change the colours of all the shapes on that top layer all the "right" colours will still be there on the shapes in the lower layers. To see if this is the case turn layer visibility off starting at the top layer and going down the stack (click on the "eyeballs" to the left of the layer name)

on the right side of the screen, next to the "Style" Tab (for colors), it says SHAPE on a similar shaped tab. I HAVE NO IDEA HOW THIS WORKS, WHAT IT DOES OR MEANS

What this does is allow you to give a name to a (keeping it simple) fill colour - and then rather than filling the shape with a colour by RGB value, you use this to give a name to a colour and then fill shapes with the "name" rather than with a colour value. (e.g. you select a green colour, call it "skin" and use that style to fill your shapes. Then, when you decide you want to change all the shapes with "Skin" colour to be (say) blue instead of green all you have to do is change the "skin" style to blue and ... zzzzap .... all your "skin" shapes change colour at a single click ... and this is the other main reason that all your colours might suddenly disappear...

===

Once you've got your head round that lot we can hit the other points...

[Bliss Eyed]

This has been extremely helpful; thank u for for your generous explanation & time