Back to the Foxture!
We begin by creating a
Base Layer for each main part of the character (head, body, arms etc). All of our extra parts will be
Layered on top (eyes, mouth, hair details etc).
I personally like to start with the head. It's entirely up to you where you start so long as you get your base layer down first.
Click the Images to see the Full Picture!
I have selected a
Fill Colour at the lower left side of the screen by
Double Clicking on it and setting a colour. I then set the
Stroke Colour to "
No Fill". This is because I will be using a different technique later on for the character's outline.
After these are set, I begin to draw around the shape of the head.
Straight away I hit a sharp corner. If I clicked again, the
Handle would drag the curve way over to the right, as shown above.
When dealing with sharp corners, a simple technique is to just
click once again on top of the
Vector Point you just created. This deletes the handle leading into the next line, but keeps the handle you just used for your previous line.
Using
Only the techniques I've already discussed, I was nearly able to complete the
Base Shape for the full head. Sometimes you will find that the shape you are creating is covering part of the drawing behind. Most of the time you'll be able to just make an educated guess then
Tweak it after. If on the other hand your shape is pretty complex and you really want to see the drawing then you can do so by clicking on the
Transparency Window and changing the
Opacity value.
0 is fully Transparent while
100 is fully Opaque. Knocking it down a bit will allow you to see the drawing behind while still being able to see the shape you are drawing pretty well.
We finally have our first shape!
Now it's important that you understand the two different types of
Selection Tool.
On the top left of the Tool Bar, you will see
two different cursor icons. While they might look similar, they both have
very different uses.
The first one, is the
Selection Tool indicated by a
black cursor icon. This tool is used for the selection of an entire object or shape. When you click on a shape with this tool a
Bounding Box will appear around the outside. You will mainly use this tool for
Moving a shape around the screen. You can also use it to
Resize the shape by
Dragging the Points on the Bounding Box (Hold shift while doing this to constrain the proportions). Another use for the Selection Tool is to
Rotate a shape by placing your cursor just
Outside of the Bounding Box
Points - this turns your mouse cursor into a
Circling or Curving Arrow (shown above). Just
Click and Drag your mouse when your cursor looks like this to rotate the shape (Pressing Shift during rotate will increment in 45 degree angles).
The second one, is the
Direct Selection Tool indicated by the
grey cursor icon. This tool is used to "Directly" edit the geometry of your shapes. That's not as complicated as it sounds - it really just means you're able to edit the shape similar to how you created it with your pen tool. When you click on a shape with this tool, rather than have a bounding box, you are able to see the
Lines of the Shape just as you do when you use your pen tool. You can then
Move the different
Vector Points by just
Clicking and Dragging them around, or you can edit the
Curve Handle by clicking on the vector point
Once, then
Click and Drag the
Handle for that point to edit it's corresponding curve.
These Selection Tools are Invaluable when you are tweaking your shapes after you have drawn them!
Continue to Part 3 - Body Base
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