filling drawings

[David Herscher]

Ok, maybe I am an idiot, I admit I am new to freehand and am still struggling
to learn. But how do I fill in a drawing? I am drawing characters for some
animations. I cannot get them to fill in. If I try to add a fill, it either
does nothing or adds a fill to whatever path/paths I have selected. Ok, say I'm
drawing a characters head, I want to be able to make his hair brown and his
face skintone, how do I do it? Feel free to call me a moron, as long as you
have an answer I don't mind.

Cheers,
David %^)

[Wes Rand]

David Herscher wrote:

> Ok, maybe I am an idiot, I admit I am new to freehand and am still
> struggling to learn. But how do I fill in a drawing? I am drawing
> characters for some animations. I cannot get them to fill in. If I
> try to add a fill, it either does nothing or adds a fill to whatever
> path/paths I have selected. Ok, say I'm drawing a characters head, I
> want to be able to make his hair brown and his face skintone, how do
> I do it? Feel free to call me a moron, as long as you have an answer
> I don't mind.
>
> Cheers, David %^)
>

That is the way vector programs like Freehand work: the fill goes in the
path you have selected (provided they are closed paths.) When drawing I
like to think of it like I'm cutting out pieces of colored paper. If you
want brown hair you need to draw the shape of the hair and then give it
a brown fill. For the face, the same: draw the shape of the face and
give it a skin tone fill. If you want lines around each shape you can
either give the shapes a stroke or draw the line as a separate closed
path. Brush strokes look pretty cool for this and I have to play around
with them a bunch more to see if they'll do what I want them to do.

If you want to draw the whole head with one path you'll need to draw
each color as a separate shape (after filling the head with one basic
color) and then cutting and pasting inside the separate shapes.

Hope that helps some.

-Wes

[David Herscher]

So..... I have to draw whatever shape I want without letting the mouse up? So
that it can be a single closed path? And I also have to draw the hair and the
face as two seperate shapes? and then try to match them together? That's kinda
rediculous isn't it. I mean this is supposed to be like a premiere drawing
program. Flash has a paint bucket, they couldn't include that? If this is
really how it is, I wasted a good chunk of money. But I do really appreciate
your advice and I thank you for responding. Maybe I'm not understanding, or I'm
missing something, (I hope so). Thanks Again :^)

Cheers,
David %^)

[Martin Gamache]

David,

There is a preference setting that allows you to show a fill without having
your paths closed.
There are also alot of tools that allow you to do things like punch, divide
and crop to make your shapes match better.
You may want to spend some time with a manual learning the basics of drawing
with freehand so you get a good idea how the basic tools work. It is a
little bit different than flash. Once you get the feel for vector drawing it
will start feling more natural to think in terms of closed paths. I would
suggest a good book/website like ron rockwell's [url]http://www.brainstormer.org/[/url]

mg



"David Herscher" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:c86gin$21k$1@forums.macromedia.com...

> So..... I have to draw whatever shape I want without letting the mouse up?

So

> that it can be a single closed path? And I also have to draw the hair and

the

> face as two seperate shapes? and then try to match them together? That's

kinda

> rediculous isn't it. I mean this is supposed to be like a premiere drawing
> program. Flash has a paint bucket, they couldn't include that? If this is
> really how it is, I wasted a good chunk of money. But I do really

appreciate

> your advice and I thank you for responding. Maybe I'm not understanding,

or I'm

> missing something, (I hope so). Thanks Again :^)
>
> Cheers,
> David %^)
>

[Wes Rand]

What Martin said.

Plus, you don't have to hold down the mouse. You can stop and continue
drawing with any line. Just highlight and end point of the line and draw
from there. Drawing in Freehand (or Illustrator) is most definitely NOT
the same as drawing in Flash or Photoshop or Painter.

Another tip is that you don't have to match shapes up. You can overlap
them and also organize them with the layers panel. One of the advantages
of working with a vector program for drawing is that it is much easier
to adjust things after having drawn them. One of the disadvantages is
that it often takes more time in the beginning.

Martin Gamache wrote:

> David,
>
> There is a preference setting that allows you to show a fill without
> having your paths closed. There are also alot of tools that allow
> you to do things like punch, divide and crop to make your shapes
> match better. You may want to spend some time with a manual learning
> the basics of drawing with freehand so you get a good idea how the
> basic tools work. It is a little bit different than flash. Once you
> get the feel for vector drawing it will start feling more natural to
> think in terms of closed paths. I would suggest a good book/website
> like ron rockwell's [url]http://www.brainstormer.org/[/url]
>
> mg
>
>
>
> "David Herscher" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
> news:c86gin$21k$1@forums.macromedia.com...
>

>> So..... I have to draw whatever shape I want without letting the
>> mouse up?

>

>> So that it can be a single closed path? And I also have to draw the
>> hair and the face as two seperate shapes? and then try to match
>> them together? That's kinda rediculous isn't it. I mean this is
>> supposed to be like a premiere drawing program. Flash has a paint
>> bucket, they couldn't include that? If this is really how it is, I
>> wasted a good chunk of money. But I do really appreciate your
>> advice and I thank you for responding. Maybe I'm not understanding,
>> or I'm missing something, (I hope so). Thanks Again :^)
>>
>> Cheers, David %^)
>>

>
>
>

[David Herscher]

Ok, Thanks guys. Sorry about the temper tantrum, I just kinda freeked out when
I realized that I was going to have to redraw an entire Saturdays worth of
work. (I guess I can be a bit of a baby) But I was up late last night redrawing
and getting more familiar, it's definately different, but I like the results
that I am getting now that I know. There really are some nice tools to, I just
have to get more familiar and used to using them. Well, it's a learning curve
and a style change, but I think I am starting to like it. On a side note: Is
there an equivilant to the paintbrush tool in Flash? I really like the stroke
it gives me but I haven't been able to find it in Freehand. Thanks Again :^)

Cheers,
David %^)

[Wes Rand]

David Herscher wrote:

> On a side note: Is there an equivilant to the paintbrush tool in
> Flash? I really like the stroke it gives me but I haven't been able
> to find it in Freehand. Thanks Again :^)

There is a variable stroke pen (default location is the pencil tool icon
submenu.) I don't use it much as I don't like the results though you may
put it to better use than I do. If you double-click on the variable
brush tool you can check the box to remove overlap and other options.

If you are looking to get brush-like strokes then try out the brush
stroke option in the object panel. I like the results of those much
better than the variable stroke pen.