Cartoon Animation Tutorial

Summary 18 lessons index

Lesson Eighteen Import and Trace Bitmap

French Version download all the (.fla)s

choose a lesson index introduction download the flash movie lesson 1 open the flash movie lesson 2 create a new layer lesson 3 drawing straight lines lesson 4 modify the straight lines lesson 5 trace the head and the body lesson 6 trace the eyes lesson 7 repositioning the body lesson 8 trace the legs lesson 9 smooth the lines lesson 10 change layer lesson 11 trace the pupils lesson 12 positioning the legs lesson 13 switch on to mode movie lesson 14 positioning the animation lesson 15 create the final animation lesson 16 example 1 walking Kohlrabi lesson 17 example 2 flying blue bird lesson 18 import and trace bitmap

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1. To Import the Animated Gif into Flash


Open Flash

First at all, please create a New Symbol
in which you will Import
your little cute bird Animated Gif

To create a New Symbol,
go to Insert...



Then flow down till you reach
Create New Symbol et let it go...



A Dialogue Box will open.

Yes, I know. Me neither.

I never could have
the slightest little bit of dialogue
with those so-called Dialogue Boxes,
but what can we do ?
That's the name of the thing
so please no ifs and or buts.

Besides, instead of arguing,
take advantage of the
this so-called Dialogue Box opening
and give
a name to your New Symbol.

Like this...



Hey ! What 's that ?
...
It is the french name for
"my litte birdie of mine"
...

You are learning to Import and to Bitmap in Flash
and
on top of that
you are learning French...

So what are you complaining about ?

Okay ?

So Click on OK
and please stop arguing.



Well done.

Thank you.

What ? You don't need to learn Franch ?

Let me tell you :
You never know !

Maybe one of this day
Jacques Chirac will become
the Master of the World
and you
will be in a real mess...

Who is Jacques Chirac ?

Never mind.

Once you have clicked on OK
will will be sent
into
the Symbol's Working Aera.
...

You can see
you are on the Symbol's Working Area
because the Scene includes a cross
just in the middle...



Do you see this little cross ?

Absolutely !

Good. So, everything is Okay.

This Symbol's Working Area
has
one empty Key Frame
on
its Time Line.

This is normal since you created an empty Symbol.

For now.



In this empty Key Frame
you will now
Import your Animated Gif.

Select
this first Key Frame on the Time Line
by Clicking once
on it.

One Time.



Then go to File.
Flow down till you reach Import and let it go.



A Dialogue Box then appears...



Don't try to argue with this box.

She will not answer anything.

Rather go and find the Animated Gif of your little birdie
where you have stored it before.

If you remind the place.

Select it and Click on Add

In French : Ajouter.



And then on Import



And hop ! It's Done!



Bravo !
You have just Imported your first Animated Gif !

As you can see
The eight images of your bird3.gif are now
on the Time Line,
each image taking up three frames
on the Time Line.

Now let's see How to Trace Bitmap.

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2. Trace Bitmap one Image in Flash

Select
the first image
by Clicking on it on the Time Line...



...or by Clicking on the little birdie image in the Scene.
It's just the same.



Then go to Modify,
flow down till you reach
Trace Bitmap and let it go.



A Settings Window will open.

Enter the following settings
and Click on OK.



Flash will do his calculations
Blub ! Blub ! Blub !
and Hop !

Here is the result :



Bravo!
You just have Trace Bitmapped your first image in Flash !

Click anywhere outside your image
to deselect it



Then
you can Click on each color zone,
color by color
to delete them all
and to have just the outline drawing.

Like this :

Click on the Blue zone...



She is turning Gray !

Don't panic. It's normal.

On your Keyboard
push the deleting Key.

The Blue zone has disappeared now !



Normal. You just deleted it !

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Proceed
just the same way
for all the colors.

Why to do that ?

Because
once you will get
the outline drawing only,
you will be able to activate the OutLine Mode
and
it will be easier to see through
your layers
and it will be easier
for your further tracing work.

That's why we need to Trace Bitmap thoses images,
you see ?

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Select now Image 2

Trace Bitmap it.

Clean it
and go to next Image.

And so forth
till you have
your eight images of bird3.gif
bitmapped and cleaned
(colors off)
on your Time line

Now you can create a second Layer
upon the first one
to trace a new
animation...

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That's all !

So long
and thank you for the fish !

...as was saying the dolphin in
The hitch hiker's
Guide
to the Galaxy.

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return to lesson seventeen