Basic Drawing Tutorial


Written By MrSun at 12:20 pm - Saturday, July 26th, 2008
Categories: Flash

This is a tutorial I made a while ago, but I wasn’t able to put it on my main site, so here it is.

Section 1: Drawing the Shape

1) We’re gonna start off simple. Open up a new Flash Document. If you don’t have flash, and you still want to know how to increase your drawing ability on a computer, just use MS Paint or any other Graphic programs.

2) Now, use the oval tool to create a circle. The size, shape and color don’t really matter, but I’m gonna make mine 75×75 px.

Example

3) Now that you have drawn your circle, select the outline and make it thicker in the properties panel.

I’m going to make it a thickness of 5.

Example

Making the outline thicker is not totally necessary, but it makes the shape look much neater, unless you want it to be very detailed. When you are drawing actual characters to animate later on, you will want to make all of their outlines thicker.

Section 2: Shading

Now we’re gonna start shading our circle. Shading makes it look even more neat. Of course we could use the gradient tool, but doing it manually will make it look more cartoon-like, which is basically what we want if we’re gonna make a flash animation

1) Select the entire circle:

Example

2) Use the Brush Tool and Change the Brush mode to “Paint Selection”

Example

3) Use the Color Mixer and change it to a darker shade of the color you are using. Don’t worry, it won’t change the entire shape to that color.

Example

4) Color the Bottom Left or Bottom Right of the Circle. It should only be a small part in an Arc.

Example

Looks nice, doesn’t it?

5) You can also add a shine to it. Repeat steps 1-3 but with a lighter color or white. Don’t color it on the edge this time. I recommend using a smaller brush and color it a little bit away from the opposite edge of the darker shade.

Example

eh?

6) You can even add a shadow to it! Add a new layer below the red ball.

Example

7) In that newly created Layer, draw a black with a about half the height of the ball and double the width. You can always change the size later.

Example

8) Change the alpha if you wish, and move it below the ball.

Example

And that’s it! Use the methods that I have taught you to become a better flash artist!

Still don’t get it? Here is an Example File

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