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Draw and create objects with Animate

  1. Adobe Animate User Guide
  2. Introduction to Animate
    1. What's New in Animate
    2. Visual Glossary
    3. Animate system requirements
    4. Animate keyboard shortcuts
    5. Work with Multiple File Types in Animate
  3. Animation
    1. Animation basics in Animate
    2. How to use frames and keyframes in Animate
    3. Frame-by-frame animation in Animate
    4. How to work with classic tween animation in Animate
    5. Brush Tool
    6. Motion Guide
    7. Motion tween and ActionScript 3.0
    8. About Motion Tween Animation
    9. Motion tween animations
    10. Creating a Motion tween animation
    11. Using property keyframes
    12. Animate position with a tween
    13. How to edit motion tweens using Motion Editor
    14. Editing the motion path of a tween animation
    15. Manipulating motion tweens
    16. Adding custom eases
    17. Creating and applying Motion presets
    18. Setting up animation tween spans
    19. Working with Motion tweens saved as XML files
    20. Motion tweens vs Classic tweens
    21. Shape tweening
    22. Using Bone tool animation in Animate
    23. Work with character rigging in Animate
    24. How to use mask layers in Adobe Animate
    25. How to work with scenes in Animate
  4. Interactivity
    1. How to create buttons with Animate
    2. Convert Animate projects to other document type formats
    3. Create and publish HTML5 Canvas documents in Animate
    4. Add interactivity with code snippets in Animate
    5. Creating custom HTML5 Components
    6. Using Components in HTML5 Canvas
    7. Creating custom Components: Examples
    8. Code Snippets for custom Components
    9. Best practices - Advertising with Animate
    10. Virtual Reality authoring and publishing
  5. Workspace and workflow
    1. Creating and managing Paint brushes
    2. Using Google fonts in HTML5 Canvas documents
    3. Using Creative Cloud Libraries and Adobe Animate
    4. Use the Stage and Tools panel for Animate
    5. Animate workflow and workspace
    6. Using web fonts in HTML5 Canvas documents
    7. Timelines and ActionScript
    8. Working with multiple timelines
    9. Set preferences
    10. Using Animate authoring panels
    11. Create timeline layers with Animate
    12. Export animations for mobile apps and game engines
    13. Moving and copying objects
    14. Templates
    15. Find and Replace in Animate
    16. Undo, redo, and the History panel
    17. Keyboard shortcuts
    18. How to use the timeline in Animate
    19. Creating HTML extensions
    20. Optimization options for Images and Animated GIFs
    21. Export settings for Images and GIFs
    22. Assets Panel in Animate
  6. Multimedia and Video
    1. Transforming and combining graphic objects in Animate
    2. Creating and working with symbol instances in Animate
    3. Image Trace
    4. How to use sound in Adobe Animate
    5. Exporting SVG files
    6. Create video files for use in Animate
    7. How to add a video in Animate
    8. Draw and create objects with Animate
    9. Reshape lines and shapes
    10. Strokes, fills, and gradients with Animate CC
    11. Working with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects
    12. Color Panels in Animate CC
    13. Opening Flash CS6 files with Animate
    14. Work with classic text in Animate
    15. Placing artwork into Animate
    16. Imported bitmaps in Animate
    17. 3D graphics
    18. Working with symbols in Animate
    19. Draw lines & shapes with Adobe Animate
    20. Work with the libraries in Animate
    21. Exporting Sounds
    22. Selecting objects in Animate CC
    23. Working with Illustrator AI files in Animate
    24. Applying blend modes
    25. Arranging objects
    26. Automating tasks with the Commands menu
    27. Multilanguage text
    28. Using camera in Animate
    29. Graphic filters
    30. Sound and ActionScript
    31. Drawing preferences
    32. Drawing with the Pen tool
  7. Platforms
    1. Convert Animate projects to other document type formats
    2. Custom Platform Support
    3. Create and publish HTML5 Canvas documents in Animate
    4. Creating and publishing a WebGL document
    5. How to package applications for AIR for iOS
    6. Publishing AIR for Android applications
    7. Publishing for Adobe AIR for desktop
    8. ActionScript publish settings
    9. Best practices - Organizing ActionScript in an application
    10. How to use ActionScript with Animate
    11. Accessibility in the Animate workspace
    12. Writing and managing scripts
    13. Enabling Support for Custom Platforms
    14. Custom Platform Support Overview
    15. Working with Custom Platform Support Plug-in
    16. Debugging ActionScript 3.0
    17. Enabling Support for Custom Platforms
  8. Exporting and Publishing
    1. How to export files from Animate CC
    2. OAM publishing
    3. Exporting SVG files
    4. Export graphics and videos with Animate
    5. Publishing AS3 documents
    6. Export animations for mobile apps and game engines
    7. Exporting Sounds
    8. Best practices - Tips for creating content for mobile devices
    9. Best practices - Video conventions
    10. Best practices - SWF application authoring guidelines
    11. Best practices - Structuring FLA files
    12. Best Practices to optimize FLA files for Animate
    13. ActionScript publish settings
    14. Specify publish settings for Animate
    15. Exporting projector files
    16. Export Images and Animated GIFs
    17. HTML publishing templates
    18. Working with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects
    19. Quick share and publish your animations
  9. Troubleshooting
    1. Fixed issues
    2. Known issues

 

About drawing

The drawing tools in Adobe Animate let you create and modify lines and shapes for the artwork in your documents. The lines and shapes you create in Animate are all lightweight vector graphics, which help keep your FLA file size small.

Before you draw and paint in Animate, it is important to understand how Animate creates artwork, and how drawing, painting, and modifying shapes can affect other shapes on the same layer.

Vector and bitmap graphics

Computers display graphics in either vector or bitmap format. Understanding the difference between the two formats helps you work more efficiently. Using Animate, you can create and animate compact vector graphics. Animate also imports and manipulates vector and bitmap graphics that were created in other applications.

Vector graphics

Vector graphics describe images by using lines and curves, called vectors, that also include color and position properties. For example, the image of a leaf is described by points through which lines pass, creating the leaf’s outline. The color of the leaf is determined by the color of the outline and the color of the area enclosed by the outline.

Lines in vector art.

When you edit a vector graphic, you modify the properties of the lines and curves that describe its shape. Move, resize, reshape, and change the color of a vector graphic without changing the quality of its appearance. Vector graphics are resolution independent; that is, they can be displayed on output devices of varying resolutions without losing any quality.

Bitmap graphics

Bitmap graphics describe images using colored dots, called pixels, arranged in a grid. For example, the image of a leaf is described by the specific location and color value of each pixel in the grid, creating an image in much the same manner as a mosaic.

Pixels in bitmap art.

When you edit a bitmap graphic, you modify pixels rather than lines and curves. Bitmap graphics are resolution dependent, because the data describing the image is fixed to a grid of a particular size. Editing a bitmap graphic can change the quality of its appearance. In particular, resizing a bitmap graphic can make the edges of the image ragged as pixels are redistributed within the grid. Displaying a bitmap graphic on an output device that has a lower resolution than the image itself also degrades its quality.

Paths

Whenever you draw a line or shape in Animate, you create a line called a path. A path is made up of one or more straight or curved segments. The beginning and end of each segment is denoted by anchor points, which work like pins holding a wire in place. A path can be closed (for example, a circle), or open, with distinct endpoints (for example, a wavy line).

You change the shape of a path by dragging its anchor points, the direction points at the end of direction lines that appear at anchor points, or the path segment itself.

Components of a path

A. Selected (solid) endpoint B. Selected anchor point C. Unselected anchor point D. Curved path segment E. Direction point F. Direction line. 

Paths can have two kinds of anchor points: corner points and smooth points. At a corner point, a path abruptly changes direction. At a smooth point, path segments are connected as a continuous curve. You can draw a path using any combination of corner and smooth points. If you draw the wrong type of point, you can always change it.

Points on a path

A. Four corner points B. Four smooth points C. Combination of corner and smooth points. 

A corner point can connect any two straight or curved segments, while a smooth point always connects two curved segments.

A corner point can connect both straight segments and curved segments.

 Don’t confuse corner and smooth points with straight and curved segments.

A path outline is called a stroke. A color or gradient applied to an open or closed path interior area is called a fill. A stroke can have weight (thickness), color, and a dash pattern. After you create a path or shape, you can change the characteristics of its stroke and fill.

Direction lines and direction points

When you select an anchor point that connects curved segments (or select the segment itself), the anchor points of the connecting segments display direction handles, which consist of direction lines that end in direction points. The angle and length of the direction lines determine the shape and size of the curved segments. Moving the direction points reshapes the curves. Direction lines don’t appear in the final output.

A smooth point always has two direction lines, which move together as a single, straight unit. When you move a direction line on a smooth point, the curved segments on both sides of the point are adjusted simultaneously, maintaining a continuous curve at that anchor point.

In comparison, a corner point can have two, one, or no direction lines, depending on whether it joins two, one, or no curved segments, respectively. Corner point direction lines maintain the corner by using different angles. When you move a direction line on a corner point, only the curve on the same side of the point as that direction line is adjusted.

After selecting an anchor point (left), direction lines appear on any curved segments connected by the anchor point (right).

Adjusting direction lines on a smooth point (left) and a corner point (right).

Direction lines are always tangent to (perpendicular to the radius of) the curve at the anchor points. The angle of each direction line determines the slope of the curve, and the length of each direction line determines the height, or depth, of the curve.

Moving and resizing direction lines changes the slope of curves.

Drawing modes and graphic objects

In Animate, you can create several different kinds of graphic objects by using different drawing modes and drawing tools. Each kind has its own advantages and disadvantages. By understanding the capabilities of the different graphic object types, you can make good decisions about which types of objects to use in your work.

 In Animate, graphic objects are items on the Stage. Animate lets you move, copy, delete, transform, stack, align, and group graphic objects. “Graphic objects” in Animate are different from “ActionScript objects,” which are part of the ActionScript® programming language. Do not confuse the two uses of the term “objects.” For more information on objects in the programming language, see About Data Types in Learning ActionScript 2.0 in Adobe Animate, or Data types in the ActionScript 3.0 Developer’s Guide.

Merge Drawing mode

The default drawing mode automatically merges shapes that you draw when you overlap them. When you draw shapes that overlap each other in the same layer, the top-most shape cuts away the part of the shape underneath it that it overlaps. In this way, drawing shapes is a destructive drawing mode. For example, if you draw a circle and overlay a smaller circle on top of it, and then select the smaller circle and move it, the portion of the second circle that overlaid the first circle is removed.

When a shape has both a stroke and a fill, they are considered separate graphic elements that can be selected and moved independently.

Shapes created with the Merge Drawing mode merge together when they overlap. Selecting a shape and moving it results in the overlaid shape being altered.

Enter Merge Drawing mode

  1. Select the Merge Drawing option in the Tools panel.

  2. Select a drawing tool from the Tools panel and draw on the Stage

 By default, Animate uses the Merge Drawing mode.

Object Drawing mode

Creates shapes referred to as drawing objects. Drawing objects are separate graphic objects that do not automatically merge together when overlaid. This lets you overlap shapes without altering their appearance if you move them apart, or rearrange their appearance. Animate creates each shape as a separate object that you can individually manipulate.

When a drawing tool is in Object Drawing mode, the shapes you create with it are self-contained. The stroke and fill of a shape are not separate elements, and shapes that overlap do not alter one another. When you select a shape created using Object Drawing mode, Animate surrounds the shape with a rectangular bounding box to identify it.

 Set preferences for contact sensitivity when selecting shapes created using the Object Drawing mode.

Shapes created with the Object Drawing mode remain separate objects that you can manipulate individually.

Enter Object Drawing mode

To draw shapes using Object Drawing mode, you must explicitly enable it.

  1. Select a drawing tool that supports Object Drawing mode (the Pencil, Line, Pen, Brush, Oval, Rectangle, and Polygon tools).

  2. Select the Object Drawing button  from the Options category of the Tools panel, or press the J key to toggle between the Merge and Object Drawing modes. The Object Drawing button toggles between the Merge and Object Drawing modes. You can set preferences for contact sensitivity when you select shapes created with Object Drawing mode.

  3. Draw on the Stage.

Convert a Merge Drawing mode created shape to an Object Drawing mode shape

  1. Select the shape on the Stage.

  2. To convert the shape into an Object Drawing mode shape, select Modify > Combine Objects > Union. After conversion, the shape is treated like a vector-based drawing object that does not alter its appearance by interacting with other shapes.

 To join two or more shapes into a single, object-based shape, use the Union command.

Primitive objects

Primitive objects are shapes that let you adjust their characteristics in the Property inspector. You can precisely control the size, corner radius, and other properties of the shape at any time after you have created it without having to draw it from scratch.

Two types of primitives are available, rectangles and ovals.

  1. Select the Rectangle Primitive Tool  or Oval Primitive Tool  from the Tools panel.

  2. Draw on the Stage.

Overlapping shapes

When you draw a line across another line or painted shape in Merge Drawing mode, the overlapping lines are divided into segments at the intersection points. To select, move, and reshape each segment individually, use the Selection tool.

A fill; the fill with a line drawn through it; and the three line segments created by segmentation.

When you paint on top of shapes and lines, the portion underneath is replaced by whatever is on top. Paint of the same color merges together. Paint of different colors remains distinct. To create masks, cutouts, and other negative images, use these features. For example, the following cutout is made by moving the ungrouped kite image onto the green shape, deselecting the kite, and then moving the filled portions of the kite away from the green shape.

Making a cutout with the kite image.

To avoid inadvertently altering shapes and lines by overlapping them, group the shapes or use layers to separate them.

 Adobe

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