corta Wrote:..how'd we get onto gradients, now?
Gradients were only an added info. The main info is: we can draw vectors directly. Artists do that already (using tablets).
Some use tablets. I use the mouse, and in Flash itself. There are tons of advantages:
1 - while bimap images (traced to vectors) can perpass 4,000 points (curves), a well crafted vector image can reach less than 200 points. It you have a 21mb game, 20mb of it due to traced images, and 1mb of it due to the copy of these tiled images, it can be cutted down to 2mb (1mb of optimized traced images)! With better quality!
2 - as said above, better quality. When you draw using vectors/shapes, you have total control of each line. You can add points and move lines around. You can make it curvy as well. The women's body (which is curvy) will be even more sexier and perfect. Samus's face and hair will improve like 200%!
3 - Its not pixelated, even if you zoom 200x, because you made it with perfect lines and curves. By using 'brush', for sure you can draw faster, but when you zoom, you see imperfections (pixel-like formations), even without being a true pixel because its already a vector art, be it by tracing, painted by brush, or painted by pen tool.
4 - You can divide its counterparts faster. You can click in a given shape (e.g. cheeks) and paint it only. You can copy a given nail and paste in other areas. If you divide a torso with 4 symbols: "naked torso, navel, stomach and stomach shadow", you can paint them easier and you can reuse them in other images.
5 - You can import and export to Illustrator (actually you can do that too if you vector picture is made from brushes), but you will get better control of it in AI.
6 - Of course, as expected, the game will be faster! (less CPU usage). If you have a floor with 10 grassy tiles, 10 sky gradients (blue to white) and 10 clouds (each one having 400 points), total 12,000 points, the game will be up to 20x SLOWER than having 20 points in each one (total 600 points). This an incredible huge difference when you have to walk around a backgruond full of shapes.
The only way to circunvent '6' and make it faster is to configure each image as 'Movie Clip' and click on 'Render as Bitmap' in Render options (below settings like instance name, sound and X and Y.
See what I was doing since OCT 2012 (each backgroud 'tile' of a forest with leaves using only 18 points!):
viewtopic.php?f=34&t=2265&p=185899&hilit=forest#p185899
This was the older version. Please check those excess points in the purple path (we dont need many of that to make curves). Actually we need just 2 for each circular band, which turns to be only 1 because the other will be used in another band.
There is also an interesting thing I did. I made a circle using only 2 points! (I call 'semi balled' circle because it appeared to be 2 circle bands), but then I optimized it in a way its now a circle. So when I want to create eyes, flowers, etc, I copy and paste those. I can make complex flowers using like 16 points only!