Effects Area

When you apply effects to an object, Canvas X Draw defines a rectangular effects area. Usually, the effects area is slightly larger than the bounding box of the object to which the effects are applied. There is one effects area for all effects applied to an object. Canvas X Draw tries to keep the effects area as small as possible, without cropping out any visible objects. You can adjust the effects area using the SpriteEffects palette. The palette lets you set the effects area manually or automatically.

Modifying the Effects Area

You might need to enlarge the effects area to see effects that extend beyond an object’s edge; e.g., Motion Blur or twirl effects usually need to extend beyond an object’s outline. Also, if text characters extend outside the text object border, an effect applied to the text could be cut off.

If you make the effects area smaller than an object’s bounding box, the object and the effects will be cropped by the effects area border.

To Size the Effects Area Automatically:

1. Select the object whose effects area you want to adjust.
2. In the SpriteEffects palette, click the Smart-Crop icon. 
3. Click OK when the prompt appears. Canvas X Draw estimates the correct size of the effects area and makes it as small as possible.

Effects area box

To Size the Effects Area Manually:

Some effects need to extend far outside an object’s bounding box. In these cases, the auto-size option might not extend the effects area far enough. If this happens, you can enlarge the effects area yourself.

1. Select the object whose effects area you want to adjust.

2. In the SpriteEffects palette, click the Crop icon. 

   A box appears on the selected object. The box indicates the effects area and has hollow handles (the object’s bounding box has solid handles).

3. Drag a handle to enlarge or reduce the effects area. When the box is the size you want, click inside it.

To Size the Effects Area Precisely:

You can enter values to precisely size the effects area.

1. Select the object whose effects area you want to adjust.
2. In the SpriteEffects palette, choose Size of Effects Area from the palette menu.
3. In the Effect Dimensions dialog box, do one of the following:
   • Set the size of the effects area by entering the distance from the rulers’ zero point to the left, top, right, and bottom sides of the effects area rectangle.
   • Click a button to enlarge () or reduce () the size of the effects area. When you click a button, the distance values in the text boxes show the new effects area size.
4. Click OK to apply the settings.