Although Macromedia Flash MX was never intended for this purpose (at least I think not), you can use Flash MX to digitally ink still drawings. This actually makes a very, very clean line, not much unlike that of professional anime. It allows for you to erase, copy, paste, and many other things analog ink just won't allow for. Also, with this, you can skip a process in the inking process, which is to retrace your own work... as long as it's not too sloppy.
Flash MX is obviously too expensive to just use on drawings alone. If you have a copy, though, this is great! Though if you do want this program, I have a plug at the bottom of the page. I highly recommend not downloading it off of KaZaA, because it hurts the programmers that spent their time writing this. *ahem* Now the introductions is over with...
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1:
Scan in the image you want to ink. You can even take a digital picture of it with a camera if you don't have a scanner. (Though it's 10 times easier to just buy a cheap scanner and scan it in.) Anyhow, you should change anything you want to before you ink it. This can be easily done with Photoshop. You can drag things around and resize them. Then import the picture into Flash MX. (File >> Import on Flash MX.) You should resize the work area in Flash to suit your picture's needs. This can be done by clicking on the white work area, and clicking on the properties tab. Then click on the button next to "Size: " |
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2:
Create a new layer over the original sketch. Make sure you select the new layer, or the lines you draw will simply slide underneath the copy of your original sketch. |
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3:
Now, trace the drawing. Make sure you Smooth on the pencil options on the bottom left, and change your pen width on the bottom in the properties. I highly recommend using a Wacom Tablet, or a similar product to trace. Though a mouse works alright, though much slower. Remember: Don't be afraid to press Undo, and don't be too impatient to completely redraw a complete body part. |
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3 (continued):
This took me well over 4 hours to trace up to this point. Try viewing the picture without the picture in the background. |
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4
Delete the sketch layer, once you are confident enough not to need it anymore. |
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5:
Obviously, if we were perfect, we wouldn't need this step. Even then, computer error can come into play; Flash likes to stick lines to other lines, making things look very awkward. This means you need to micro-manage. Zoom in and drag things around. Look at everything that looks even slightly weird. Here I am dragging the dragon's arm up. I did this by selecting the black cursor on the tools menu, and held shift while I select all of the pieces to his arm. Then, I just clicked and dragged up. After that, you need to do some simple erasing and extending. |
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5 (Continued):
Here, I have copied the wing, by holding shift and selecting it like my last example, but instead of moving it, I just copied and pasted it. Then it was a simple matter of inverting it and rotating it (Using the Free Transform Tool,) then erasing the portions that overlapped.
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6:
Once you feel that you have completed the drawing to the best of your abilities, publish it. Make sure you edit the Publish Settings first. (File >> Publish Settings.) Uncheck the Flash and HTML types, but click on the JPEG. Then click on the JPEG tab in the upper left-hand corner, and change the quality to 100%. Now print it, color it on Photoshop. Whatever you want. |
Flash can also be used for many other things, like actually sketching a rough draft, inking, and coloring. But that's not something I have ever tried. That's a technique from Alpha Shade comics, whom gave me the idea to try this out. (The technique on this tutorial was completely made by me, though.)
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