Is this recommended? So far I've found it to be a REAL hassle. This is how I'm going about this. I inked my drawing in Illustrator, copied and pasted the lines into Flash. Now, I'm pulling the lines apart into groups of the objects I want (character's hat, gloves etc.) and then going to use the Paint Bucket to fill in the areas.
This is where things stop working.
I can see that I can go further into the "editing" mode of the lines and start using the paint fill that way, but then I run into some color areas being above lines and I can't figure out how to send the color to the back and bring the lines to the front.
I have found I can use the brush tool and paint behind my lines and then group that with the lines. But how time consuming is that to manually paint it all in?!
Any help is much appreciated.
have you thought about working the whole process in Flash itself? it would save u all the time in the world and you can create separates for parts directly in there and not have to use illustrator other than for touchups.
I actually find Flash's pen tool to be somewhat inferior to Illustrator's. This is probably because it works a bit different, but so far I haven't figured it out. And I'm fairly quick with Illustrator so there isn't much of a time issue at the moment.
My next idea is to actually ink, seperate and color the parts in Illustrator. Would that be more affective?
Ontiaous
Black Anvil Designs©
is this for a specific project or is this your MO entirely? if your process works for you continue with it. personally i think you should cut around your parts on separate layers in flash itself.
I'm just doing this for my own education on animating directly in Flash with Symbols.
Currently, what I'm doing for this one (my first one) IS cutting it up and coloring in Flash. But, I just found it to be somewhat of a hassle because I couldn't use the Paint Bucket tool effectively and was wondering if maybe I was doing something wrong or maybe its just not a good way to do things.
And as before, I'm finding the Flash Pen tool to be inferior to the one in Illustator so, for now I'll stick with Illustrator for now.
Ontiaous
Black Anvil Designs©
If you're already inking in Illustrator, then I think you should continue to color in Illustrator. Just break your drawing up into separate pieces and then bring them into Flash.
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My thoughts exactly. Break them up (or color them on layers) in illustrator first.
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That probably would be better than what I ended up having to do in Flash. My chief concern is at that point will editing the shapes in Flash be more difficult?
Ontiaous
Black Anvil Designs©
I would do it all in Flash my self. I think keeping it native is far more simple. But since you know Illustrator so well, I agree that you should color in Illustrator.
The way to fix your paint problem is to not have groups and to color on layers. Lets use a hand as an example. Import the line drawing into Flash. Make it a "graphic" symbol. Double click into it to edit. The line should be raw artwork. Create a new layer in the timeline and put it below your line drawing. Paint bucket your color into the line drawing layer, then select the color, hit "ctrl + X" to cut it out, and paste it into the layer below. It sounds unneccesary, but it helps a lot if you have to go in and edit the line later on. Thats how I work. Just leave the color and the line work as raw art, you don't have to group it inside the symbol.
Aloha,
the Ape
...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."
I usually draw everything in Illustrator first, and then import it into Flash. I find Flash's drawing tools annoying (having learned Illustrator first).
I create a sort of library just spread out on the drawing board in the Illustrator file, and adjust things there.
I've also created animations using just Flash, but if you know Illustrator very well, it's the faster route to create new drawings.
It's all personal preference, and I recommend trying both to see what you're most comfortable with.
-S
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I think the biggest mistake most of you have with Flash is you are insisting on using the pen tool. Try giving the pencil tool a go. It's like being in free transform mode from the start. No bezier to worry about until you want to fine tune. With the pencil tool you can set the mode to straight, smooth or ink. Ink will record every flaw, whereas smooth will create a basic sketch with fewer points that you can later fine tune through basic pulling and stretching or take out the bezier tool and get as anal as you like. The straight mode is better for large straight expanses or angular geometrics. Also remember to set that pesky snap to objects option.
And make sure when filling to set your gap settings set appropriatley. When using the paint brush, things like paint inside, paint selection, etc.. It seems remedial but how about running through the tutorials that come with the program.
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I like using the brush - chaos - lines everywhere. Otherwise I create everything with shapes.
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How do you move your work in Illustrator to a Flash format to run on the web?