This tutorial introduces you to creating special effects in your drawing.

Select a topic:

Color adjustment

Contouring

Bitmap effects

Drop shadows

Lenses

The color adjustment tools use filters to control the relationship between the shadows, midtones, and highlights of objects in your drawing.

Select an option:

Adjust the Brightness-Contrast-Intensity effect values

Adjust the Gamma effect values

Invert the bitmap's colors

The Brightness - Contrast - Intensity effect adjusts the tones in your drawing using HSB values.

Click here to open a sample file.


  1. Select the bitmap with the Pick tool.
  2. Click Effects menu, Color Adjustment, Brightness-Contrast-Intensity.
  3. Adjust the Brightness,Contrast, and Intensity by moving the corresponding slider.

Tip

Click the Preview button to view how your image will look if you apply the effect using the current settings.

Gamma is a method of tonal correction that takes the human eye's perception of neighboring values into account. For example, if you were to place a 10 percent gray circle on a black background and an identical gray circle on a white background, the circle surrounded by black appears lighter to the human eye than the circle surrounded by white, regardless of the fact that the brightness values are identical.

Click here to open a sample file.


  1. Select the bitmap with the Pick tool.
  2. Click Effects menu, Color Adjustment, Gamma.
  3. Move the Gamma slider to set a gamma curve value. Higher values brighten midtones, while lower values darken them.

Tip

Click the Preview button to view how your image will look if you apply the effect using the current settings.

The Invert effect makes a negative of your drawing by converting all color values to their opposites: blacks become white, blues become yellow, etc.

Click here to open a sample file.


  1. Select the bitmap with the Pick tool.
  2. Click Effects menu, Color Adjustment, Invert.


The Contour feature lets you add a series of concentric shapes to any shape you create using the drawing tools.

This procedure shows you how to add contour to the inside, outside, or center of an object and how to change basic contour properties using the Property Bar.

Select an option:

Add a contour to the center of an object

Add a contour to the inside of an object

Add a contour to the outside of an object

Changing contour color properties

The To Center option applies as many contour shapes as will fit between the outline and center point of the object.

Click here to open a sample file.


  1. Select the object with the Pick tool.
  2. Click Effects menu, Contour.
  3. In the Contour Roll-Up, enable the To Center button.
  4. Type 0.25 in the Offset box.
  5. Click the Apply button.

Tip

To increase the number of shapes created when you use the To Center option, decrease the offset value.

The Inside option places contour shapes inside an object. You can set the number and spacing of these shapes.

Click here to open a sample file.


  1. Select the object with the Pick tool.
  2. Click Effects menu, Contour.
  3. In the Contour Roll-Up, enable the Inside button.
  4. Type 0.15 in the Offset box.
  5. Type 3 in the Steps box.
  6. Click the Apply button.

The Outside option adds contour shapes outside the selected object. You can set the number and spacing of these shapes.

Click here to open a sample file.


  1. Select the object with the Pick tool.
  2. Click Effects menu, Contour.
  3. In the Contour Roll-Up, enable the Outside button.
  4. Type 0.2 in the Offset box.
  5. Type 5 in the Steps box.
  6. Click the Apply button.

The Property Bar provides access to all the controls you need to adjust the colors in contoured objects.

There are three basic color progression settings. You can choose a linear, clockwise, or counterclockwise path through the spectrum.

This progression can also apply to the contour's outline colors.

Click here to open a sample file.


  1. Select the object with the Pick tool.
  2. Click the Clockwise Path buttonon the Property Bar.
  3. Select the blue color swatch from the Outline Color picker on the Property Bar.
  4. Click the red color swatch from the Fill Color picker on the Property Bar.

Tip

Try clicking the Counterclockwise Path button to reverse the contour.

You have a wide range of professional-quality effects you can use to enhance bitmaps in your drawing.

This procedures shows you how to apply just one of the many bitmap filtering effects: Wet Paint.

The Wet Paint effect creates the illusion that your bitmap is a painting that is still wet.

Click here to open a sample file.


  1. Select the bitmap with the Pick tool.
  2. Click Bitmaps menu, 2D Effects, Wet Paint.
  3. Move the Percent slider to adjust the size of the paint drip or the Wetness slider to adjust the range of colors that drip.

Tip

Click the Preview button to view how your image will look if you apply the effect using the current settings.

Drop shadows are used to give text and graphics a sense of depth. The Interactive Drop Shadow tool lets you apply a drop shadow and adjust its position quickly and easily

Click here to open a sample file.


  1. Select the object with the Pick tool.
  2. Select the Interactive Tool flyout, then the Interactive Drop Shadow tool.
  3. Drag over the object to position a drop shadow.


The lens feature lets you simulate real-life camera lenses that change the appearance of objects viewed through them. You have 11 lens types that use different methods to alter the colors or shapes of objects behind them. This procedure shows you how to create a Color Limit lens.

Select an option:

Create a Color Limit lens

Using the Freeze option

A Color Limit lens works much like a color filter lens on a camera, allowing only black and the lens color itself to show through. White and light colors in objects beneath the lens are converted to the lens color. For example, if you place a green Color Limit lens over a bitmap, all colors except green and black are filtered out within the lens area.

Click here to open a sample file.


  1. Select the ellipse with the Pick tool.
  2. Click Effects menu, Lens.
  3. Choose Color Limit from the list box in the Lens Roll-Up.
  4. Click the Color picker, then click the blue color swatch.
  5. Click the Apply button.

Note

The lens you just created acts like a blue filter lens on a camera. Unlike a camera lens, however, you can adjust the rate at which this lens allows colors other than blue and black to show through. Rate values near 0 show more colors; values near 100 show fewer colors.

The Frozen option allows you to "freeze" the lens' content so that it remains the same no matter where you move the lens.

Click here to open a sample file.


  1. Select the lens with the Pick tool.
  2. Click Effect menu, Lens.
  3. In the Lens Roll-Up, enable the Frozen check box.
  4. Click the Apply button.
  5. Move the lens to a new position.

Note

The Remove Face option allows you to show a lens' fill only where it covers other objects. This option is only available for lenses that change the colors of objects behind them (like Color Limit lenses).