Using Adobe Flash to Create Vector Illustration of a Castle

Step 1. Sketch & import

I start off by creating a sketch of what i have in mind to create. This is a simple drawing of a medieval castle since i have been working on a vector illustration theme of medieval set i chose this one at the moment. Draw your artwork, on a piece of paper. Scan it and open it in photoshop. Adjust brightness and contrast to get lines prominent. Next import it into flash document. By going to file > import > to stage.

When your artwork is placed in stage convert it into symbol by right clicking.

Step 2. Convert to Symbol

Adjust the symbol transparency by opening up the property window in Flash. And lock the layer!

Step 3. Tracing the image in Flash

Select the oval tool and draw the circle.

Click on the filling and hit delete.

Use the line tool and start drawing the rest of the shapes. Where you see a curve you can drag a straight line and then just pick from the middle and drag the line to become curved. So in short straight lines stretched to become curved.

For the top of the castle i used the line tool and the selection tool to give curve and straight lines.

Similarly added straight lines at the base. and then curved them up.

Again added straight lines using selection tool curved the line to required shape.

While pressing shift down with the line tool selected. I continued adding bricked lines to the artwork.

What i like most while working in flash is the ability to delete unused lines by selecting parts of it, click on the unwanted lines and clean up the area to get the form out.

Similarly you can clean up the work area by zooming in and picking up the stray lines.

Here i continued tracing the image using line tool and then curving it up. You can select the Joints of two lines and shift them as well to achieve your required result.

Step 4. Exporting From Flash

Once you are happy with the lines now is the time to export it to illustrator. Here is what i did.

File > Export Movie

Adobe illustrator Sequence .Ai extension Version 8.8

Step 5. Importing and painting in illustrator

Open up the file in illustrator. What you have in illustrator is a line drawing completely modifiable. You can adjust stroke width or adjust the nodes. Right click and ungroup to get separate shapes. I select the whole artwork and started painting it using paint bucket. Change shades and drop colour!

Step 6. Adding background

I selected the artwork and changed the stroke colour while placing a shaded rectangle behind it.

Step 7. Finishing artwork

This is the preview of the final outcome! We Created a completely modifiable flash illustration and painted it in illustrator!