So you've learnt how to outline your image in Flash, and now you want to make it
all colourful. Well you're in luck, because that's just what I'm going to teach
you how to do.
Now believe it or not, there are two ways of doing this in Flash. Simple, and
Complex. I'll start off with the simple method.
Quote: Simple
Filling
In the same layer you created your outline in, start lining off all the
different colours and shading areas by using the hairline line tool that you
used to outline with. Then, use eyedropper tool (I) to select the colour that
you are going to fill an area with. Be careful here, because the image will have
varying colours inside that area, so besure you carefully choose the colour that
looks most like the colour you want. Sometimes if you choose one a shade too
dark, it'll look completely wrong. When you've got your colour, switch to the
fill tool (K) and fill away. That's it! You now have a fully coloured vector
with sharp, crisp cell shaded colour! It's so simple, I dont have to supply
images to show how to do it (that and because I'm to lazy to do it XP).
However, some images just don't look right without smooth shading, or the
technically correct word, Gradients. That's when you need to use...
Quote: Complex Filling
Things start getting a bit messy now, however I'll try to keep it as organised
and as neat as possible for you. Underneath the layer you created the outline
in, create a new folder and rename it "Base Colours" (to do this,
simply double click on the folder), then create a new layer and drag it into the
folder. Then hide the outline layer by clicking on the dot underneath the eye,
as it will only get in your way.
In this new layer, choose a mass of the same colour, pick it's medium colour
(the colour that is not a shade nor a highlight) and fill the entire area with
it, regardless of shade and highlights. You can go over any black lines within
this area as long as they dont contain any colour within them. Might I also add
that you don't need to create the outline, you can use the brush tool (B) if you
like. Being neat is not compulsary here. After you've done that, unhide the
outline layer and check to see if you haven't gone outside the outlines.If you
have, just switch to the eraser (E) and nip off the excess colour (sometimes
it's easier to go outside the lines with a thick brush, then comeback and fix it
up with a smaller eraser though... keep this in mind.)
Once you've done that, rename that layer by double clicking on it to a suitibale
name (like Skin, or Shirt), then lock and hide it and repeat the process to the
rest of the colours. Here's one I've done earlier...
Now that you've created all your base colours, create a new folder and rename it
to "Shading" and create another folder and rename it to the first base
colour you filled. Then create a layer to go into it. With this new layer, start
outlining with a harline line tool, all the shades within the first base colour
you filled. Do not outline any deep shades
yet! We'll get to those later. A deep shade is an area that has a second,
more darker shade within compared to the original base colour.
If you come across an area that has gradient shading, outline the area where you
can no longer see the darker shade.
If you've outlined areas that dont have noticable gradient shading, go ahead and
fill them with the shade colour. If not, open the colour mixer (Window>Design
Panels>Colour Mixer or Shift+F9) and select the fill type, gradient or
linear, which ever one suits your fill best.
If you have a linear gradient, select the first notch in the gradient bar (the
one on the left), then choose it's colour to be the shade colour. Then select
the second notch and choose it's colour to be the base colour (unhide the base
colour layer if you need to), and bring it's alpha to 0%. Now click on the area
where the shade begins to fade away and drag the mouse on a right angle to the
gradient to the area where the shade isn't visable anymore (normally just before
the outline). If you don't get it right first go, don't panic, I'll teach you
how to fix it up a bit later, I never get it right on the first try anyway. As
long as the gradient is there.
There are two kinds of Radial gradients though.... they are:
inner radial:
and outer radial:
To create an inner radial gradiant, select the radial fill, and choose the shade
colour for the left tag, and the base colour with 0% Alpha for the right tag and
adjust them to the right gradiant size. Then, click anywhere within the area, as
we'll be editing the fill regardless.
For outer radial gradiants, the process is almost the same, but switch the left
and right's tag position, so that the shade colour is on the right, not the
left.
After you have filled your gradiant, you'll (probably) need to edit it. To do
this, choose Fill Transform Tool (F) and select any gradiant fill you wish to
edit.
For Linear Gradiants, you'll come up with something looking like this,
The two black lines represent the start and end of the gradiant. Clicking and
draging on the square will widen/shorten the gap between the two lines, making
the gradiant larger or smaller. The circle at the tip of one of the lines will
rotate the gradiant and the circle in the middle with move it. Fiddle around
with the graiant until it looks right, then move onto the next.
For Radial Gradiants, you'll come up with something looking like this...
The black line is the end of the gradiant, the colour you chose for the right
most tag. Clicking and draging on the square will squash the circle to an
eliptical shape. The circle in the middle of the 3 icons will increase or
decrease the size of the the circle and the circle on the end will rotate the
circle. The circle in the middle will move the gradiant. Fiddle around with
these until you get the right gradiant.
If you find that you are having filling problems because there are 2 gradiants
in one area, but they're not facing the same direction, like this....
Partition the gradiants off with another line, creating another fill area. If
you don't you'll never get the gradiants done. The same goes for radial
gradiants that go from an inside radial to an outside radial and vice versa.
Find the area where the 2 curves meet, and cut it down the middle with a line.
Just remember that every shape in life is created out of average circles and
lines, just a lot of them.
After doing all that for your shadows, do the same for deep shadows and
highlights. If you have shadow's crossing over eachother, create a layer for
each shadow. Don't be affraid to use layers, the amount of layers you have will
not hurt you. When you finish off, you're layer's list will look something like
this...
And your image, something like this (if you used the same image I did)...
Now, if you can't get a gradiant perfect, don't worry. There's still hope for
it, and I even have some funny looking gradiants in there. If you think you've
got it perfect, think again. There's still more to do to it.
Delete the original image, and then proceed to delete every layer but the
outline and base colours layers (no, I haven't lost my mind, watch and learn).
Go into Publish Settings (File>Publish Settings or ctrl+shift+f12) and
unclick the Flash and HTML boxes and select the Jpeg and PNG boxes. We want it
to publish the image to both these image types. Go into their settings and set
the JPEG to publish at 100 quality and the PNG to publish with Alpha chanels.
After you've done that, publish the image, you'll find the publish images in the
same folder as the flash file (if you've saved it), unless you've told it
otherwise in the directory names next to the check boxes.
When the outline and base colours has been published, hunt for the files and the
JPEG to "(what ever you want here) Base colours" and as we wont be
using the PNG, delete that if you wish. Then go back to Flash, and undo the
deletion of the layers. Now select every layer but the shades and delete those
layers, publish them and rename the PNG image to "(what ever you want here)
Shades" and if you want, delete the JPEG image. Then undo the layer
deltions again, select every layer but the outline alone, delete them, publish
and rename the PNG file to "(what ever you want here) Outline" and
delete the JPEG if you wish. However, for the next step, we'll be going into
Photoshop, so if you don't have Photoshop, save yourself the effort and publish
it with all layers there.
Now we need to bring all the images together in Photoshop, so crank that up and
open up the Base Colour JPEG as the starting image (we use the JPEG and not the
PNG as the base image, as the PNG images have a stubborn alpha chanel and make
the outlines anything but smooth). Then open up the two PNG files, bring up the
Shade file, go into it's layers and crtl+left click on the layer. You'll now
have only the shades selected. Copy them, go into the base colours and paste the
shades, then roughly line them up with the image. After that, do the same to the
outlines (you may have to hide the shades to line the outlines perfectly) and
then do the final alignment to the shades.
When everything's lined up, choose the shade layer and run over what needs
bluring with the blur brush. This will fix up any funny looking gradiants you
may have. Once everything's done, save the lot as a JPEG, and post it on MT for
everyone to admire. Here's the one that I used to create this tutorial with....
http://gallery.minitokyo.net/view/184668/
Before I leave you guys to go flash away, there's one last point I have for you.
Create the eyes on the same layer as the outline, fill and all. Seeing as the
eyes will never have any skin shade interfeering with them and are always an
important part of an image (most people pay attention to how eyes are drawn and
are hammered if done poorly), it's safer to have it published with the outline
PNG.
So you've learnt how to outline your image in Flash, and now you want to make it all colourful. Well you're in luck, because that's just what I'm going to teach you how to do.
Now believe it or not, there are two ways of doing this in Flash. Simple, and Complex. I'll start off with the simple method.
In the same layer you created your outline in, start lining off all the different colours and shading areas by using the hairline line tool that you used to outline with. Then, use eyedropper tool (I) to select the colour that you are going to fill an area with. Be careful here, because the image will have varying colours inside that area, so besure you carefully choose the colour that looks most like the colour you want. Sometimes if you choose one a shade too dark, it'll look completely wrong. When you've got your colour, switch to the fill tool (K) and fill away. That's it! You now have a fully coloured vector with sharp, crisp cell shaded colour! It's so simple, I dont have to supply images to show how to do it (that and because I'm to lazy to do it XP).
However, some images just don't look right without smooth shading, or the technically correct word, Gradients. That's when you need to use...
Things start getting a bit messy now, however I'll try to keep it as organised and as neat as possible for you. Underneath the layer you created the outline in, create a new folder and rename it "Base Colours" (to do this, simply double click on the folder), then create a new layer and drag it into the folder. Then hide the outline layer by clicking on the dot underneath the eye, as it will only get in your way.
In this new layer, choose a mass of the same colour, pick it's medium colour (the colour that is not a shade nor a highlight) and fill the entire area with it, regardless of shade and highlights. You can go over any black lines within this area as long as they dont contain any colour within them. Might I also add that you don't need to create the outline, you can use the brush tool (B) if you like. Being neat is not compulsary here. After you've done that, unhide the outline layer and check to see if you haven't gone outside the outlines.If you have, just switch to the eraser (E) and nip off the excess colour (sometimes it's easier to go outside the lines with a thick brush, then comeback and fix it up with a smaller eraser though... keep this in mind.)
Once you've done that, rename that layer by double clicking on it to a suitibale name (like Skin, or Shirt), then lock and hide it and repeat the process to the rest of the colours. Here's one I've done earlier...
Now that you've created all your base colours, create a new folder and rename it to "Shading" and create another folder and rename it to the first base colour you filled. Then create a layer to go into it. With this new layer, start outlining with a harline line tool, all the shades within the first base colour you filled. Do not outline any deep shades yet! We'll get to those later. A deep shade is an area that has a second, more darker shade within compared to the original base colour.
If you come across an area that has gradient shading, outline the area where you can no longer see the darker shade.
If you've outlined areas that dont have noticable gradient shading, go ahead and fill them with the shade colour. If not, open the colour mixer (Window>Design Panels>Colour Mixer or Shift+F9) and select the fill type, gradient or linear, which ever one suits your fill best.
If you have a linear gradient, select the first notch in the gradient bar (the one on the left), then choose it's colour to be the shade colour. Then select the second notch and choose it's colour to be the base colour (unhide the base colour layer if you need to), and bring it's alpha to 0%. Now click on the area where the shade begins to fade away and drag the mouse on a right angle to the gradient to the area where the shade isn't visable anymore (normally just before the outline). If you don't get it right first go, don't panic, I'll teach you how to fix it up a bit later, I never get it right on the first try anyway. As long as the gradient is there.
There are two kinds of Radial gradients though.... they are:
inner radial:
and outer radial:
To create an inner radial gradiant, select the radial fill, and choose the shade colour for the left tag, and the base colour with 0% Alpha for the right tag and adjust them to the right gradiant size. Then, click anywhere within the area, as we'll be editing the fill regardless.
For outer radial gradiants, the process is almost the same, but switch the left and right's tag position, so that the shade colour is on the right, not the left.
After you have filled your gradiant, you'll (probably) need to edit it. To do this, choose Fill Transform Tool (F) and select any gradiant fill you wish to edit.
For Linear Gradiants, you'll come up with something looking like this,
The two black lines represent the start and end of the gradiant. Clicking and draging on the square will widen/shorten the gap between the two lines, making the gradiant larger or smaller. The circle at the tip of one of the lines will rotate the gradiant and the circle in the middle with move it. Fiddle around with the graiant until it looks right, then move onto the next.
For Radial Gradiants, you'll come up with something looking like this...
The black line is the end of the gradiant, the colour you chose for the right most tag. Clicking and draging on the square will squash the circle to an eliptical shape. The circle in the middle of the 3 icons will increase or decrease the size of the the circle and the circle on the end will rotate the circle. The circle in the middle will move the gradiant. Fiddle around with these until you get the right gradiant.
If you find that you are having filling problems because there are 2 gradiants in one area, but they're not facing the same direction, like this....
Partition the gradiants off with another line, creating another fill area. If you don't you'll never get the gradiants done. The same goes for radial gradiants that go from an inside radial to an outside radial and vice versa. Find the area where the 2 curves meet, and cut it down the middle with a line. Just remember that every shape in life is created out of average circles and lines, just a lot of them.
After doing all that for your shadows, do the same for deep shadows and highlights. If you have shadow's crossing over eachother, create a layer for each shadow. Don't be affraid to use layers, the amount of layers you have will not hurt you. When you finish off, you're layer's list will look something like this...
And your image, something like this (if you used the same image I did)...
Now, if you can't get a gradiant perfect, don't worry. There's still hope for it, and I even have some funny looking gradiants in there. If you think you've got it perfect, think again. There's still more to do to it.
Delete the original image, and then proceed to delete every layer but the outline and base colours layers (no, I haven't lost my mind, watch and learn). Go into Publish Settings (File>Publish Settings or ctrl+shift+f12) and unclick the Flash and HTML boxes and select the Jpeg and PNG boxes. We want it to publish the image to both these image types. Go into their settings and set the JPEG to publish at 100 quality and the PNG to publish with Alpha chanels. After you've done that, publish the image, you'll find the publish images in the same folder as the flash file (if you've saved it), unless you've told it otherwise in the directory names next to the check boxes.
When the outline and base colours has been published, hunt for the files and the JPEG to "(what ever you want here) Base colours" and as we wont be using the PNG, delete that if you wish. Then go back to Flash, and undo the deletion of the layers. Now select every layer but the shades and delete those layers, publish them and rename the PNG image to "(what ever you want here) Shades" and if you want, delete the JPEG image. Then undo the layer deltions again, select every layer but the outline alone, delete them, publish and rename the PNG file to "(what ever you want here) Outline" and delete the JPEG if you wish. However, for the next step, we'll be going into Photoshop, so if you don't have Photoshop, save yourself the effort and publish it with all layers there.
Now we need to bring all the images together in Photoshop, so crank that up and open up the Base Colour JPEG as the starting image (we use the JPEG and not the PNG as the base image, as the PNG images have a stubborn alpha chanel and make the outlines anything but smooth). Then open up the two PNG files, bring up the Shade file, go into it's layers and crtl+left click on the layer. You'll now have only the shades selected. Copy them, go into the base colours and paste the shades, then roughly line them up with the image. After that, do the same to the outlines (you may have to hide the shades to line the outlines perfectly) and then do the final alignment to the shades.
When everything's lined up, choose the shade layer and run over what needs bluring with the blur brush. This will fix up any funny looking gradiants you may have. Once everything's done, save the lot as a JPEG, and post it on MT for everyone to admire. Here's the one that I used to create this tutorial with.... http://gallery.minitokyo.net/view/184668/
Before I leave you guys to go flash away, there's one last point I have for you. Create the eyes on the same layer as the outline, fill and all. Seeing as the eyes will never have any skin shade interfeering with them and are always an important part of an image (most people pay attention to how eyes are drawn and are hammered if done poorly), it's safer to have it published with the outline PNG.
Nice tutorial Katz, thanks. And you win two Internets for vectoring Satsuki \o/
hooray for katz
great tutorial! She's creepy though @_@