Growing Branches With Adobe Flash

CATEGORIES: Flash, Tutorials | Chad Neuman | June 15, 2007

Using the Blend command along with a white shape can create some interesting effects in Adobe Illustrator now that we can export them to a Flash animation.

Step 1

Place a photo image of a tree into Illustrator (File>Place). This one is from Istockphoto.com (CREDIT: Maurice van der Velden).

Step 2

Apply a Live Trace from the Control Palette. I used the Black and White logo preset shown here.

Step 3

The result is this image.

Step 4

Select the Pen tool.

Step 5

Click the Create New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette, so our shape we’re about to draw will be on its own layer to keep things organized. Next, draw a shape that completely covers the tree, with Stroke set to None and the Fill set to White.

Step 6

Click the Eye icon next to the layer that our new shape is on (Layer 2) on the Layers palette to hide the shape temporarily. Click the Create New Layer again to create a third layer (Layer 3). With this layer selected, draw out another shape that is above and to the right of the tree. It shouldn’t cover the tree, but be close to it.

Step 7

Next, let’s put both of our white shapes onto the same layer. To do this, click the right-facing arrow next to Layer 3 and this will allow us to see the layer contents. Click-and-drag the contents, called , onto Layer 2. There should be two paths now on Layer 2 and nothing in Layer 3. Delete Layer 3 by selecting it and pressing Delete Selection icon, which resembles a trash can.

Step 8

With all the layers visible, we still can’t see the tree because the white shapes are now covering it.

Step 9

We want to select just the two white shapes on not the tree. With the objects on their own layer, separate from the tree, that’s easy. Just Option-Click (PC: Alt-Click) Layer 2 in the Layers palette. This selects everything on that layer, which are the two shapes.

Then go to Object>Blend>Make and then immediately go to Object>Blend>Blend Options. Change the blend to a specific number of steps. I used 50.

Step 10

Our Layer palette should look like this, with the tree on its own layer.

Step 11

Go to File>Export and set the Type to SWF, a flash movie. When exporting, make sure you have Layer 1 set to Use as Background. This way the tree is the background of the movie. Make sure Animate Blends is checked, so that each step of the blend is a different frame in the movie. Make sure Loop is not selected if you want it to only play once. Use the settings shown here to create a similar flash movie.