Introduction:
General Photo-Realistic Drawing Techniques
In this tutorial, I’ll show you my way of rendering a photorealistic vector in Macromedia Flash. I personally use Flash 8 now, but this vector was done in Flash MX 2004 and the tutorial as such will work for any version of Flash, at least back to version 4.
You won’t need a graphic tablet for this, because I don’t need one either, but using one will probably speed up the whole process. What you should have, though, is a basic understanding of Flash and its tools. I’ll try to explain every step I take in detail, but not in a way that users who never touched the program will understand what I mean.
Anyway I explain my technique on a rim of a car. However, the process is the same for any subject you intend to render. Be it a tree, a house or a person. The reason why I’ve chosen to explain everything with this rim is that it used to be my living hell for a couple of hours. The lighting situation on it was so complex that it almost drove me crazy. Or in other words: This reference is not the easiest one to start with, but shows everything you need to know to render a photorealistic vector.
But, let’s take a look at the final outcome:
Doesn’t look all that bad, does it? Maybe you want to see the vector and the original in direct comparison, too. There’re some parts which differ from the original but the vector itself is still very believable as photorealistic.
OK, let’s get straight to work. Open up Flash, import your reference and insert 4 additional layers. You won’t need more than this.
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