Drawing with Flash CS5

Step 1 - Let's create a boat for our movie. Begin by selecting the pencil drawing tool from the drawing tool menu. You could also try using the line tool .

Notice how the bottom of the palette changes based on the tool you've selected? Go ahead and select the Straighten line style.

Now, draw the basic hull of the boat. Use the "Volvo" method of design and just try to create a simple box shape.

Step Two: Let's curve the hull a bit. Begin by clicking on the selection tool . Notice how the tool changes when you pass over one of the straight lines of the hull.

Click on the line and drag the tool downwards. See how it bends the shape.

Now use the bending tool for the change the bow and stern of our boat.

Step Three: Let's adjust the bow of our boat a bit. See how the tool changes when you pass over a corner?

Click and move the top of the bow a bit.

Step Four: Let's draw a mast select the rectangle tool in the menu. Notice that this tool has both a FILL color and a LINE color in the Properties Panel.

Select brown as the fill color.

Now, draw the shape of the mast on top of your hull.

When done, it should look like this.

Step Five: Add some sails using the line tool .

Now, draw a diagonal line form the Mast to the Bow

Then, draw the lower part of the sail. When done, your sails should look like this.

Sails usually bend a pit. Select the pointer tool, and warp the sails to look like this.

Step Six: In order to fill to hull with color, click on the paint bucket tool.

Step Seven: Let's fill the the sails with a gradient. Remember, that fills can have gradients while lines cannot. Flash can create a very useful type of gradient called a Locked gradient. To do this, begin by selecting a gradient under the fill tool.

Then, fill the first sail with this gradient fill.

Now, click on the Lock Fill button at the bottom of the tool palette.

Then, fill the second sail. Notice how the fill from the first sail continues through the second.

To adjust this gradient, click on the Gradient Transform tool on the Tool Palette. At first, this tool may not be visible, you must click and hold down on the Free Transform tool. Any tool with a small black triangle in the lower right corner of it's icon has more tools underneath.

Click on the gradient pattern and adjust it.

Step Eight:  For better identification and organization of layers, it is a good idea to re-name the current layer so that it will help identify the layer if and when multiple layers are used.  To to this put your cursor on the Layer name (Layer 1), and right-click.  Select Properties. In the Name dialogue box, insert the new name.  In this name the layer Boat.  Click OK.

Step Nine: Finally, in order to animate this boat properly, we need to convert it to a symbol. A symbol is a graphic, button, or movie clip that you create once in Adobe Flash CS4 and can reuse throughout your movie or in other movies. A symbol can include artwork that you import from another application. Any symbol you create automatically becomes part of the library for the current documet. Before we convert our boat to a symbol we must select the entire object. Under the Edit menu, choose Select All (or hit CTRL-A).

Now, click on Convert to Symbol under the Modify menu ( or hit F8). Name the symbol 'boat' and select OK.

Check your library (the library is a panel located behind your properties panel on the right side of the screen) and viola! You've got a boat!  Save your boat as: BOAT2.FLA

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