Once I have my components in
the library I create a new layer that I will put my paint brush symbols
on. It's not always necessary to convert your images to symbols. I do it
out of habit because I always ended up in the middle of my movie having to
create symbols of some images that I want to do certain things with and I
can't because I didn't convert them to symbols in the beginning.
To create a new layer, click
on the plus sign. I name the new layer "BrushLayer" so all I
have to do is take a quick look to see where they are if I have to change
something.
Now we are going to start
painting. Since I will be painting my background on, I:
-
Select the Background
Image layer
-
On the tool palette I select
the paint brush, use the
pressure
tool, the shape and size of my brush -if you don't have a graphics
tablet the use pressure tool will not work but you can still achieve
terrific results with your mouse
Making sure I am on the
correct layer and that I have frame 1 selected, I then paint a line across
my movie canvas.
And then select my
BrushLayer and drag one of my paint brushes onto the movie canvas. I place
it where I started to paint my line making sure that it is inside the
bounds of the movie canvas. I counted over 5 key frames (you can use as
many or few as you want to get the exact effect you want) and
-
Right click on the
frame>insert key frame
-
I then moved the paint
brush symbol to the opposite side of the canvas where I ended my brush
stroke.
-
Right click on frame 1
of the BrushLayer > create motion tween
-
Click on frame 1 of the
Background Image layer - it will then appear highlighted
-
Drag the dot from frame
1 to frame 5 of the same layer
Now if you select frame one
of the Background Image layer you won't see the line you painted because
we just moved it to frame 5. However, you should see your paint brush
there where you began your line. Making sure you are on frame 1 of the
Background Image layer, put a small dot with the paint brush tool right on
the tip of the paint brush.
-
Right click on frame 1
of the Background Image layer>Properties>Tweening Tab and make
the settings the same as below and click ok.
My paint brush symbols can
all stay on the same layer, but the brush strokes I am creating each need
to be on their own layer.
On the Background Image
layer, select the frame after the last key frame and then add a new layer
by clicking on the plus sign. On the new layer create a key frame where
the red line is on the timeline. Your brush layer should be just above
that and you need to insert a key frame in the same frame as the new layer
below it. In my example that would be frame six.
Once you have the key frame
inserted into the BrushLayer hit your delete button to remove the current
paint brush symbol selection from that frame.
On the new layer, I painted
another line in key frame six starting at the opposite side of the first
one. I then added my paint brush symbol so that it ran in the same
direction as the brush stroke in the same way I did for layer one. From
here on out it's a matter of creating a new layer for each brush stroke
and a new instance of the paint brush symbol on the time line.
Continue creating layers and
brush strokes until the whole movie canvas is full. To fill the canvas
took 29 brush strokes each on it's own layer.
On the brush layer each
frame that is gray with a dot is the end of a motion tween. You can see
below how the brush strokes and the paint brush symbols tweens matched up.
When I finished that up I
add the fading text you saw if you watched the finished version of the
movie linked at the beginning of this page.
As you see, painting with
Flash 4 is extremely easy and opens up all kinds of movie possibilities.
Have fun painting with Flash
4.
