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Retracing Detailed Artwork in Flash

By Adrien-Luc Sanders, About.com

9 of 10

For this part it isn’t actually necessary to have a graphics tablet, but unless you’ve a far steadier hand with a mouse than I, having one helps.

For details such as the fringe, the texture marks on the sneakers, and the hatching on the edgings of the shirt and the…sleeve thingies, I’d suggest using the Brush Tool in a fairly small size, with one of the elliptical brushes selected for a calligraphic line. Turning on the option for variable line width lets Flash respond to your tablet’s pressure sensitivity; if you’re working with a mouse, make sure to leave that off (it’s the little swoosh up at the top of the brush options) or Flash will by default draw the thinnest, squiggliest line possible.

I drew in my details using short, sharp strokes, working on a new layer; because we’re painting with the Brush Tool instead of using the Pencil Tool or Pen Tool, these are solid fills--as opposed to stroke outlines--that could easily be accidentally painted over when adding the fill for color. Keeping them on a separate layer lets me lock them, and also place them above the color fill later.

You may want to try smoothing it afterwards, depending on your lines. I chose not to, because my lines are so small that smoothing made them disappear.

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