One of our first assignments was to draw a cartoon character. I used the "Zip the Bunny" character I created for this website. The original drawing was created in Photoshop and saved as a jpg file. I imported this file into Flash and placed it into its own layer. I then created a new layer and traced the original drawing using the pencil tool. Lines drawn with the pencil tool look like a technical pen. They have no variation in weight or thickness. I then filled the various shapes with color.

Next, I made a new drawing in a new layer using the brush tool and a Wacom pressure sensitive tablet. This created thicker lines with more variation. I then filled the shapes with color.

I saved each image from each layer as a separate gif file and then opened each one in Photoshop and pasted them into layers in a new document. I then saved this document as an animated gif.

© 2001 James D. Blodget
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