Flash Vector Illustration Walkthrough (Part 1)
An approach to illustrating with Adobe Flash
Vector Illustration is often quite hard to wrap ye old noggin around sometimes - especially for beginners. Whilst most Illustrators tend to use the larger more orthodox illustration applications such as Adobe Illustrator and Freehand , I choose to use Flash because of its simple, and animation friendly drawing tools. I plan to write a few of these, but first I want to lay down the basics before I even write about shading and tone, so yeaaaaaaaah! Of course, everything that appears within this tutorial can easily be accomplished using alternative packages - I will walk through my general work flow for the sake of the tutorial, and be covering the process used to create the illustration above.
Get the right gear!
Ok enough jibber jabbering. For this tutorial, all you will need is Flash, and a drawing to work from. I recommend a scanned rough, or something sketched up in Photoshop or Alias Sketchbook (what I usually use). I will mention that a drawing tablet is definitely desirable in order to achieve accurate line work, and also make the process quicker (tablets are ninja quick).
Planning it out
Before you even pop open Flash you should always rough out the concept first. Even if it is simple blocks and elements to establish the composition. The more messing around you do at the start determines how much tweaking and tedious refinements you will need to apply to your final product. Often, I will really loosely draw elements a few times until I get the general feel of them, and start layering the roughs on top of each other until I have a nice and balanced form. In the octopus sketch above, it is a little more detailed than I usually would attack a drawing, because it was being used for a project. Nevertheless, if you detail your image in the beginning, it means you will not have to worry about adding and touching your vectored line work when colouring and shading.
Lining it up
Ok, now you can pop open Flash!
- Create a new document and set it to something nice and big (1280x1024 pixels is a good start).
- Create a new layer and add your rough sketch to it. Scale it so it fits the size of the stage fairly well. Set the layer to guide mode, and lock it.
- Again, create a layer, but this time add it above the first and create a blank keyframe.
You should now have a layer configuration which looks something like the above picture.
Sweet. Now that you are all setup, grab the line tool ( Shortcut is “N”) and set it to a colour that is completely different to the original line. I usually sketch in blue animator’s pencil, so I use red to make it easy to distinguish the vector lines from the rough. A line stroke of 1 pixel works great - so stick to that width.
As far as the lining technique goes, it is fairly straight forward.
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The Commentary
Currently 23 responses.
that’s a nice looking tutorial.
Very well done on this tut. there Dark!
You make it look so easy… :(
nice one darky, we have the same technique mate, but i don’t draw as good as you do:P
post this on digg!
I shall, after kirupa posts it up on the main site :)
I stumbled upon your tutorial on Kirupa, I am very pleased with the quality!It’s easy and simple. I used to use a same technique but in Corel Draw 10, that was 4 yrs ago in high school
but I don’t own a tablet.
I like your style of illustration very much.
Seeya
It’s so wonderful! Very nice job there Pasquale.
wow! imma try it when i get home!
p.s. i tinkled next to FTL’s mom!!! =D
(he’s a sweetie pie)
ZOMGS. Get pictures of you and FTL!!!
This is so awesomely usefull for a project I have to do at school (I normally suck at art but this is ok ‘cause I can just mash up images and line over them)
Hey great tutorial!
Neat n to the point!
I plan to write more of these, depending on what I get asked to do. Feel free to make suggestions!
Great Stuff DM i’m lovin every bit of it!!
But one problem…what if you can’t draw even after a long while of little practice lol…
I know practice more…good stuff again ;)
Hey DM,
Just used your technique but used a photograph rather than my own drawing and it actually works and looks good
I’ll post mine soon :D yay
Look forward to seeing it Apoure!
Nice…
Great tutorial!
What tablet are you using?
Wacom Graphire 4 now. I plan to buy a Cintiq sometime in the distant future
interesting
Cool Tutorial………….
interesting. I love being a gay spambot!
Nice tutorial mate. Thanks.
Great resource and better blog. Keep up good work.