SO FAR IN this chapter we have looked at several ways of achieving different styles of drawing. From the basics of snapping simple shapes together forming bigger, more complex shapes, to using bitmaps as textural fills. Most of the time the design process demands a combination of tools and techniques to get the job done. For this character design I went from a rough pencil sketch to a fully rendered vector drawing using the Pen tool and basic shapes. The Pen tool, in combination with the Selection tool, offers infinite flexibility when it comes to manipulating strokes and shapes.
1 Start with a scanned sketch or draw directly into Flash. Create a blank keyframe on frame 2 and turn on the Onionskin feature. Using the sketch as reference, trace the hair using the Pen tool by clicking and dragging each point as you go. This will automatically create curves with Bezier handles, allowing you to manipulate the stroke each time a point is made.
2 Using the Subselection tool 
, modify the contours of the hair by clicking an anchor point and adjusting its Bezier handles. Once this shape is complete, temporarily cut and paste it to a new layer and lock it to avoid editing it unintentionally.
3 To add an anchor point, hover the Pen tool over the path until you see the “+” symbol appear and click. Remove an anchor point by hovering over and clicking it.
4 Once you have closed the path, fill it with a color. Here I have mixed a radial gradient to provide a sense of volume to the shape.
5 A linear gradient can be applied to a path without having to convert it to a shape like in older versions. For this gradient I chose to mix 3 colors: a light, mid and dark tone. With this gradient selected in the stroke color swatch in the Color panel, click on the path using the Ink Bottle 
tool to apply it. Edit the gradient using the Gradient Transform tool 
.
6 The Pen tool is clearly a useful tool for drawing paths, but in some situations the Oval and Rectangle tools are a better and faster alternative. The Selection tool 
can be used for basic editing of paths made with the shape tools.
7 The final result is a combination of shapes and paths created with the Pen, Oval and Rectangle tools. Editing of these paths and shapes was the result of using the Selection, Subselection and Pen tools.
Hot Tip
Go to Edit > Preferences > Drawing and make sure the “Show Pen Preview” option is checked. This will allow you to see a preview of what your lines will look like as you are drawing with the Pen tool. Hold down the Shift key to snap your lines to 90 and 45 degree angles as you draw. To designate a control point as the end of your line, hold down the Ctrl/Command key while clicking.
