Draw
March 1, 2000
You have three basic categories of options for composing images for
your flash movie: importing, drawing in Flash, or tracing.
Import: If you are already comfortable in Illustrator or Freehand,
you are set. Flash has nothing to offer you in the way of composing
images. Skip over this section, since importing is covered later.
Drawing in Flash: for the rest of us, Flash offers an array
of drawing tools that are powerful enough for anyone, but without the
standard baffling complexity you may have to overcome in other vector
composing tools. Anyone with a good eye can compose stunning vectors
with the native Flash drawing tools.
Tracing: Tracing is a sneaky way of getting images into Flash.
You are using the same tools as with drawing, but the creative process
is different, (or rather, there is no creative process). The idea here
is that it is often prudent to convert a bitmap image such as. jpeg
to vectors in order to have it blend in with your movie - and let it
run smoothly. Flash makes it easy to trace your bitmap image and create
a vector version. (Note that you can also have Flash do the tracing
for you, which can yield anything from stunning to stupid. You just
have to tinker).
Do it
Create a new movie in Flash (CTRL - N or File > New). Spend some time
and fiddle around with the different tools. I will only hit on a couple
of topics here because
- The Flash online help has an incomparable
section on the drawing tools -(Help > Lessons > Drawing), and
- any normal person is going to go hog-wild playing with the
different tools anyway. So have fun and come back when your buzz
wears off.
0 to 60 in Flash - Part 2: Tweening
0 to 60 in Flash
Gradients
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