vector colouring/shading

spasmodic_cheese · Post by **spasmodic_cheese** » Thu Nov 04, 2004 8:44 am

what is your technique for colouring in moho...

atm I am tracing my images... then i create a shape... then i start drawing my shaded/highlighted areas from the edges of that traced shape.. then select those points and make it a different colour... however this is illegal in flash export...

So i've have to delete athe main shape and recreate it, unfortnatly
becuase of all the points ive created during shading its very hard to select this distorted main shape... and taking alot of time.

Now when i have trouble in moho like this, its usually because its my lack of knowledge(im dumb).. but this im not so sure about.. so please enlighten me!
Am i missing a quick way to select prespective shapes areas?

I think it may actually be less tedious for me to import(did a cool chill go down my spine??) and fix imported artwork up in moho.

cribble · Post by **cribble** » Thu Nov 04, 2004 10:14 pm

You can name your shapes within a layer. You can do this by:

- Whip out the Select Point tool,
- Select Your shape (make sure you have all the points)
- And in the top tool bar (come under the 'File' 'edit....' part) you'll see a box you write in. Type the name of the shape, and click create next to it.
- Now if you want to go back to that shape later, In either 'Select Points' , 'Translate Points' , 'Add Points' , Curvature' , 'Magnet' , 'Fill' Tools, you can click on a drop down box titled 'select group' and click on the desired shape and badda boom fo' shizzle bling, your shape shall appear and only that shape.

Hope this is to help with your points selecting problems.

spasmodic_cheese · Post by **spasmodic_cheese** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 1:20 am

...thanks but...not really,

well it does help but its a pain in the ass still

7feet · Post by **7feet** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 4:13 am

You might try putting your highlighting and shading on a separate vector layer.
That would quickly solve any selection issues. If you wanted, when you were satisfied with the drawing, you could copy the highlight and shading shapes onto the original drawing layer. But I would think keeping them separate might make it easier to modify later. Also, if you did it like this and used the original layer as a mask, you wouldn't have to worry about following the outlines exactly, which should speed the precess up for you..

--Brian

spasmodic_cheese · Post by **spasmodic_cheese** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 4:23 am

yah thats what ive been thinking...
unfortunatly masks (from my tests) don't export to flash.

I might just do it all in flash, export as ai, bring in flash image as tracing paper, fix it up and away i go

Post by **Lost Marble** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 4:29 am

I'm not sure what exactly is the difficult part - if you could post a sample file and describe which shape you're having trouble filling, we could all probably give more specific tips.

Here's one tip though: for many shapes, if you just select one or two points, and then press the Tab key, all the connected points will get selected. (The Tab key is a shortcut for "Edit->Select Connected".) This doesn't work for shapes that have been welded to neighboring shapes, but for many shapes it's a very quick way to select them.

spasmodic_cheese · Post by **spasmodic_cheese** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 4:41 am

that tab thing works well, but still not what im getting at

http://www.peoplewhoeat.com/moh5/demony.moho <- exports to swf fine, but PAIN in the ass to setup

See the body layer

i want to go around it and do shading. the body is filled with that green, I found that if i now make points off that body , fill it in with a shape, export to flash it will produce some glitchy error in flash player.

so what i had to do is delete the shapes, make the points for where shading it, then create all the fills for the shaded areas, then try and select all the points for the main body to fill it, but the body shape gets more and more complex, so its harder to select, and if i do the tab thing it selects all the points.

-----

I just reproduced the glitchyness, thats with one shape over the other
http://www.peoplewhoeat.com/moh5/demonyglitch.moho

export that to swf

spasmodic_cheese · Post by **spasmodic_cheese** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 8:55 am

is there any recommended solutions?? Sorry to push but im leaving tomorrow. and i woint be on these forums for a few months... except maybe to put my moho competition entry in.

Post by **Lost Marble** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 5:25 pm

OK, here's another tip: with the Create Shape tool, if you click on a curve segment (between two points), that entire curve will be selected. On the body shape in your file, if I hold down the shift key (to select multiple objects), I can click on three curves to select the entire outline. Then, I need to click on four or five interior points to de-select them.

About eight clicks total, not too bad. I'm not sure how you could make it less, with all the interconnected shapes you have for shading effects. If those "shading shapes" weren't attached to the main body shape, it would be a lot easier to select just the body. As it is, selecting just the body is still not too many mouse clicks.

spasmodic_cheese · Post by **spasmodic_cheese** » Sat Nov 06, 2004 1:21 am

ahh yes perfect!

Now i just copy a section of bodies curve... drag it away... make my shading... drag it back over body layer and remove outlines..and I group every section of points i make =P

I have no idea why i didn't make them seperate before

Its fun(after the frustration) to unlearn ways of doing stuff and relearn them

Okay well im off now, hopefully when i return I will have some cool stuff to show you!