Illustrator CS2 - Export Illustrator Layers to SWF Frames

(Beginner to Intermediate Level)

The Export Layer's to SWF Frames feature, as its name implies, allows you to create artwork on a series of layers in Illustrator and then export those layers to Flash where each layer will become a seperate frame of animation. This is particularly useful for frame by frame animations where you may have a number of objects in one frame that change for each suceeding frame.

We are going to work through the creation of our cartoon explosion graphics, export those graphics from Illustrator and import them into Flash. This tutorial is comprised of 3 main sections, Creating the Illustrator Explosion, Exporting to Flash and, Importing to Flash. If you are already comfortable with Illustrator's drawing tools and working with layers you can create your own multi-layered drawing and skip to the next section.

Creating the Illustrator Explosion

Step 1

Starting with a blank page in Adobe Illustrator, create an irregularly shaped cloud by drawing multiple overlapping elipses using (you guessed it) the elipse tool. Choose a nice hot colour for the fill and leave the stroke blank.

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Step 2

Open the Pathfinder palette (Window > Pathfinder or for hot-key enthusiasts Shift + Cmd (mac) / Ctrl (win)+ F9) if it is not already showing. Select all the various objects by using the Selection tool and drawing a marquee around the shapes.

With the objects selected click the Merge button on the Pathfinder palette.

Step 3

Add a stroke to your merged object from the Stroke palette. This example uses a 14 point stroke and has Caps and Joins set to rounded. This will be the first big bang of the explosion.

Step 4

A word about layers - when you start with a new blank Illustrator document it has exactly one layer. To build the rest of our explosion will we have to have all the sequential frames appear on different layers.

Because layer 2 will be pretty similar to layer 1, we are going to use our Layer 1 as a starting point. We will duplicate it by dragging the blue Layer 1 bar over the Create New Layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette and releasing the mouse button. Lock layer 1 by clicking in the column next to the layer thumbnail so you can't accidentally edit it.

Step 5

It makes sense that the second frame of our explosion animation will be a bit bigger and slightly differently shaped than our first frame. We are going to use the FreeTransform tool to make some changes on our duplicated layer. Select your object and click the Free Transform tool. Use the tips below to make some changes to your Layer 2 cloud.

Hot key enthusiasts can launch the Free Transform tool by clicking "e" on the keyboard.

The free transform tool allows you to move, scale, rotate, skew, and distort an object or objects:

• Scale - click and drag on any of the control handles on the bounding box
• Rotate - hold the cursor over a corner handle and wait for the cursor to change to a double-headed arrow (see below) and drag in the direction you wish your object to turn.
• Skew - drag one of the side handles towards the opposite side
• Distort - This is tricky! Click on one of the corner points and just barely start to drag, then hold down the Ctrl or Cmd key. The point you are dragging will suddenly move independently from the other points allowing you to distort the object.
  

Step 6

We are going to add a bit more drama to our explosion by using one of Illustrator's Distortion Effects. Make sure your object is selected. Then bring up the Pucker and Bloat dialog box by choosing Effects > Distort and Transform > Pucker and Bloat.

By clicking the Preview checkbox you can see what effect the Effect will have before you commit to it. Move the slider back and forth until you like what you see and then click OK. The awesome thing about Effects, unlike Filters, they do not change the underlaying structure of the object and are fully editable.

Tip: If you find it disconcerting to see the objects on other layers when you are working on a layer simply Alt (Win) / Opt (Mac) click the eye icon in the layer you are working in to hide all other layers. I like to keep the preceeding layer visible at least part of the time to allow me to see just how far to take the changes on the current layer.

Step 7

In this step we are going to add a bit more drama to layer two artwork by adding a second object to provide some spikey bits (see example below).

We are going to use the Star shape tool to create the basic shape and then we are going to modify it using the direction selection tool (white arrow). If we simply choose the Star tool and click and drag we get the standard rather fat and rather boring star, but... if we hold down the Cmd or Ctrl key while dragging out the star we can control the inner radius. For even more control you add points to the star by holding down the up-arrow and subtract points by holding down the down-arrow while drawing out a star.

a) b)

To modify the star simply select one of the end points of the star with the Direct Selection tool (white arrow) and drag it to a new location.

You will know that you have correctly selected a control point when it becomes filled. When using the Direct Selection tool only the filled control points will move, all other points will remain exactly where they are. Use the Direct Selection tool to alter your star so it more irregularly shaped.

Once we have shaped the star the way we want, select it with the Selection tool and choose Object > Arrange > Send to Back to place the star behind the other part of the explosion. This places the star behind the cloud in the stacking order but keeps it on the same layer.

Step 8

Create another new layer - follow the directions in Step 4 - except the second layer.

Step 9

We are now working with a duplicate of Layer 2 (see left). At this point the explosion is going to start to disolve so we are going to alter the artwork on layer 3 to reflect this. We are going to scale out the cloud to make it larger and we are going to chop a hole in the middle of the cloud as though the force of the explosion has passed and only the outer ring is still growing larger.

Start by selecting the red star shape and deleting it. Next select the cloud and using the Free Transform tool (hot key e), make it somewhat larger, and by all means rotate and distort as well if you feel the urge.

Then select the pencil tool (hot key n) and draw an irregular shape in the middle of the cloud.

	Then select both sections of the cloud by dragging a marquee with the Selection tool (hot key v) and open the Pathfinder palette if it isn't already. From the Pathfinder palette choose Exclude (see below) . This will chop a hole in the middle of the cloud.
	You will lose the fill colour but don't worry you can add it back.
	Just select the object and click on the colour you want in the swatches palette.
Step 10 We are going to create another layer but this time we are not going to duplicate the existing layer (the new layer will be too different for that to be useful). Click on the New Layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette, this will create a new blank layer. In Layer 4 we are going to draw isolated shapes just beyond the perimeter of the existing cloud to imply that the explosion is losing its force. Leave Layer 3 visible so you can gage where to draw your new objects. Use the Pencil tool to draw a number of irregular shapes at the edge of the cloud (see below). I chose slightly darker colours from the swatches palette to sell the idea that the explosion is ending. (Please note that layer 3 is still visible - only the darker shapes are part of layer 4. Step 11 Start by dragging layer 4 on top of the New Layers button to duplicate it. Then using the Free Transform tool, make the shapes smaller and position them slightly further out - not too far- as we don't want the size of the objects to change too much from one layer to another. I also chose to darken the stroke. That's it for the explosion creation stage. At this point your Layers palette should look something like this. Next Exporting for Flash