Creating laser blasts
This recipe is best used for laser blasts coming from a gun or some other sci-fi weapon. How about a spaceship cannon? It's quite easy to do, so let's get started!
How to do it…
The following recipe will walk us through the steps of creating a laser blast:
Go to Figure(U) | Direct draw | Straight line. Select a color for the laser blast.
On an empty raster layer, draw a straight line with the line tool. As shown in the following screenshot, I've chosen a bright red color. I have also made the paper color black so that the laser effect is easier to see.
Lock the transparency of the layer with the straight line. For directions on how to do this, see steps 1 and 2 of the Making colored line work recipe.
Make white the active color.
Select the Gradient(G) tool. Then select the Foreground to transparent subtool.
Open the Sub Tool Detail palette.
At the top of the Sub Tool Detail palette, you will see a slider with the current gradient displayed. Drag the triangle below the white...
