There are different ways to draw images on the computer, but vectorising a scanned image in Macromedia Flash, must be one of the easiest ways. The Manga Generation, as I call them, or anyone who needs to draw any little image with curved lines on the computer, will find out soon enough that vector is the way to go. Photoshop offers nice bitmap tools for colouring images too, but the fun thing about vectors, is that you can stretch them into infinity without losing quality PLUS you can animate them while keeping a relatively low file size.


So you’ve scanned the picture you drew on paper and now the daunting task of getting the outlines in vector format lies ahead. Of course a drawing tablet is the easiest way to go, but we are going to do this with the mouse. Open a new layer above the one that contains your image, and use a colour that will contrast with the lines of your original drawing. First we’ll use the line tool to draw straight simplified lines on the main lines our drawing. Use a single straight line per curve. Now use the black arrow tool to manipulate these straight lines. You’ll see that when you hover over the line, your curser indicates that it is now in line modifying mode. Just click and drag the line to form a curve. It is as easy as that! When you drag the ends of the line, you can modify the line’s position, length, etc.


When you have finished tracing the whole image like this, you can delete your original layer, and start filling in the colour with your paint bucket tool. You can also modify the colour of your lines by using the ink bottle tool. The only other thing you’ll need, is patience… Even though this is not a difficult task, complex images may take a while to trace.