Re: FLASH: Need drawing tips

[Marc Hoffman, Poison Dart Frog Media]

At 08:44 PM 10/24/1999 , you wrote:

>Can someone give me any tips on drawing curves in Flash? Take a look at 

><http://www.onepixel.com/DrawingFlash>http://www.onepixel.com/DrawingFlash

>

>On the first page you will see I have a pretty nice curve going on the 

>bottom left side, now I want to complete the curve. Go to the next page, 

>you will see I have a square symbol when I put my cursor near the line. 

>Next page, see what happens when I push up on that line? The green and 

>blue lines are just guides to follow.



Steve,


Seems to me you're on the right path to figuring it all out.


Start with a single straight line. Drag it into a curve from the center, 

then continue dragging toward one end or the other of the original line. 

This teaches you how to modify a single curve to make it skew the way you 

want.


Then you need to figure out where to add points in the line to create more 

complex curves. Add a point by holding Control (PC) while dragging the line.


When drawing complex shapes you need to plan ahead a little -- as soon as 

two lines intersect, you've added another point, so each line is now 

segmented and cannot easily be pulled into a single curve (you 'd have to 

modify both segments and drag the intersection point as well). So when you 

drag lines out you need to do the outermost lines first, so they don't 

intersect the inner lines (hope this makes sense -- a hands-on 

demonstration would be much easier than a long description).


Seems to me the shape you're trying to draw might be achieved by starting 

with a short vertical line and pulling it to the left, perhaps adding on 

point in the center. If you get an unwanted point, you can delete a 

segment, turn on Snap, and pull the two points (the end points of the 

deleted segment) together.


Don't forget to zoom in as necessary, to establish better drawing control. 

Also, displaying the grid with Snap enabled will help you to draw 

symmetrical objects, especially if you center them in the stage using 

Align. Sometimes it helps to draw components on separate layers and combine 

them only when they're shaped and positioned correctly.


A digitizing tablet (such as Wacom) is a great investment if you're doing a 

lot of drawing in Flash. It allows far greater precision than a mouse.


Hope some of this is helpful.




Marc Hoffman

marcdartfrogmedia [dot] com (mailto:marcdartfrogmedia [dot] com)

.

My Flash Portfolio: <http://www.dartfrogmedia.com/sampler>

(featured in Flash 3 Web Animation, by Ken Milburn)



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