preview/render sometimes decides to work *DEMO VERSION*

[houseofdecember]

I have the demo version (I am awaiting the one I purchased from amazon).

I have spent hours (literally around 10) thinking I was messing things up, but tonight I created a project (I have 6 restarts now) just so I could send it to you for show and tell.

I have been creating shapes and lines. I am doing all the "duh stuff" like making sure I have all my points connected, hitting the space bar etc. I have some layers that will not create shapes, or once they do they will not show in the preview window. I label them that they don't work, and then when I go back before I make any changes at all they start working, or if I select them with the make shape selection box they work the second time. I then label these that they didn't work the first but worked the second time. I go around a third time they won't show even though they should still be working from the last time... it's random. And no I am not messing up the view option (eyeballs).
I even have one layer that is rendering lines that aren't there. So far this layer hasn't been random.

All these problems started when I started making hair strips (like you do in 3d programs).
1) Make a line with 8 points (or so)
2) Copy Paste this line 5 times.
3) Space the lines out from each other evenly
sorta like this:

. _____ . _____ . _____ ._____ . _____ .
. _____ . _____ . _____ ._____ . _____ .
. _____ . _____ . _____ ._____ . _____ .
. _____ . _____ . _____ ._____ . _____ .

4) Connect the end points on the left side (eg. point A0 to B0, then B0 to C0 then C0 to D0).

5) I then do the same thing to the right side.

6) Selction box the entire assembly with MakeShape . It highlights red. Sometimes it tries to do a fill (checkerbox) sometimes not (just lines).

7) Hit the space bar.

Sometimes I get this to work. I am like hooray it works (FINALLY!). Sometimes it highlights it checkered like it really works, but won't show it in preview (but it will show other layers). Sometimes it won't even checkerbox it. I can copy paste the same assembly into two different layers and without any changes it will show one and not the other.

9) I hae one layer that almost never works. Even if I just take the rectangle or circle.

I am baffled, tired, and want to quit.

I'll be ok after a couple of days though.

I was so pissed off!!! I went and ran 8 miles before I posted on here.

[Genete]

Making shapes is a little difficult sometimes.
For the kind of vector art you are talking about (hairs) It seems thay you want to have a group of hairs clamped at both ends and with a fill color and some strokes from the begining to the end of the hair.

Something similar to this?


You cannot do this kind of shape with only one create shape order. A shape with a fill cannot have points connected to each others by two different paths. If not the program don't know what shape should do (if use one path or the other...) So if you want to do the above figure you should:

1) Create the fill (maybe with outline or without depending on your preferences): To do this select only the points that represent the boundary of your hair. In the example should be the collapsed starting points A0, B0 C0, D0 and E0 (which currently are only a single point) plus the collapsed end points (An, Bn, Cn, Dn and En) plus the boundary points: A1, A2, ..., An-1 & E1, E2, ..., En-1. Then create the fill as usual. You can check off the outline option in the style window after select the just created shape if you want it without outline.

2) Create the strokes OVER THE FILL. Just select all the points and create the shape (it will create only the outline).

For both operations be sure that you see all the points in the main window if not it will create strange shapes combinations specially with the second step.

Hope it helps.

9) I hae one layer that almost never works. Even if I just take the rectangle or circle.

Can you post the anme file to understand what are you telling here?

Best
Genete

[heyvern]

Whenever AS acts "weird" when creating shapes as you describe, the vectors are not selected or constructed properly.

The reason you sometimes see the checker box fill pattern and sometimes don't may depend on the zoom of the window. I have found that zooming so the "bad parts" are out side the view will cause AS to falsely display the fill pattern before shape creation. This does not mean the shape will be created properly.

Any completely enclosed group of points will fill. If you select too many points or vectors that create "multiple" filled shapes then you won't get a fill.

For example draw a very simple vector shape that is a long rectangle divided with vertical lines to create a sort of row of connected boxes:



You couldn't select that whole shape and get fills. If you do and zoom in and out you may see the fill pattern flicker on and off.

You can't even select the outer vector to create a fill since there aren't enough points to create a SINGLE filled shape. Selecting the outer lines of the rectangle still selects the end points of the inner lines and you end up with multiple closed shapes.

The only way to get individual fills and strokes on each section of that type of shape would require selecting each "box" and creating a shape one at a time.

The key here is that sometimes you have to create more shapes than you think are needed. Or you need to add points so a closed shape isn't created.

Like these samples where I've added "extra" points...





-vern