thing that draw themselves

[creative.watson]

Does anyone know of a tutorial that could help me out?

I am trying to create the effect of something drawing itself on screen.
Example: http://www.jacobbailey.co.uk/flash/flash.htm

The effect that i am looking for is after the opening frames, its when you get to the home page and the cup & saucer draw themselves then the rest of the pic fades in. Think that makes sense.

Any help or pointers would be fantastic.

cheers

creative.watson

[goliard]

There are several ways to do this. The easiest to explain is the "do it in reverse" process:

- Draw your object (eg cup and saucer in the example)
- It's an easier process if you remember to draw things on different levels; top of cup on one layer, sides on another, handle on another etc.
- Make a copy of your work!
- Make a keyframe on frame 2 (F6). Rub out the end of one line.
- Repeat the process on frame 3. Rub out a little more.
- Repeat this process, making keyframes as you go. Youre going to slowly rub out your drawing. You need to decide which order to do this in...can't help you there!
- When you've finished, highlight all the layers you've worked on
- Select: "Modify | Timeline | Reverse Frames"
- Now you have something which draws itself...

Good luck

G

[Natsia]

Nice mini tute goliard.

[The_e-Tahn]

Yeah, what Goliard said probably works better than what I've done-- which is basically drawing a line, F6, adding a little more, F6... etc etc until I have completed my drawing (and that takes quite a few keyframes!) erasing might need to take place, and in that case the animation might look a litle odd.
Butt he effect shown here looks much smoother, like it's a single fluid line. Maybe he's got a mask that has to do with it...
Say you've got a linedrawing. Then you create a mask of it, and with that mask you have a guide. The mask will be hiding everything, but then you could have like a rounded white dot that goes along the guide track... And you could color in every frame behind where it goes, but... in the end it's probably easiest to do what Goliard said

Good luck!

[creative.watson]

Thanks for the replies. These seem to make a lot of sense!
I shall give them a try and see if I can create what I want.

Cheers

[goliard]

Nice mini tute goliard.

Thanks, Natsia! Go, Creative.Watson!

[creative.watson]

Tried it, Done it, Works, Love it. Cheers People!