Foundation Game Design with ActionScript 3.0, Second Edition by Rex van der Spuy
Authors: Rex van der Spuy
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accidentally change the blending mode while you're working. If you notice that your game graphics suddenly become, dim, transparent, strangely outlined, or wildly psychedelic, there's a good chance that you might have switched a layer's blending mode.
As you can see, the Layers panel gives you an awful lot of control over your work. However, although you'll possibly use all of these features when creating your own game graphics, you don't need to worry about most of them for now. The most important thing to know is this: anything on a layer above will hide things on layers below.
Before you start work drawing on a new layer, give the sky layer a name and lock it so that you don't accidentally select or change it.
Double-click the words “Shape 1” in the Layers panel. This makes the text editable. Change it so that it reads “Sky.” (Press the Enter key to apply the name change.) It's a good habit to give your layers namesso that you can easily find them. You'll appreciate this when you're working on complex graphics with 20 or 30 layers.
Click the padlock button to lock the layer. Again, it's a good habit to lock layers after you've finished working on them so that you don't accidentally select and change them while working on new layers above. (You can easily unlock layers again to work them by again selecting the locked layer and clicking the padlock button.) Your Sky layer should now look like Figure 2-31 .
Figure 2-31. Give the layer a name and lock it to prevent accidental changes.
There are plenty of very advanced layer features that I haven't mentioned here. You won't need to use any of them to create the game graphics in this book because many are specialized for photo editing, but for a comprehensive explanation of what they all do, refer to Adobe's most recent online documentation at
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/photoshop/cs/using/index.html
Browse to the chapter called “Layers.”
Let's create some hills for your game world scene so you can see this concept in action.
Drawing with the pen tool
Photoshop's Pen Tool lets you make complex shapes. Even though it's called a pen, it doesn't work like any pen that exists in the known universe. It's better to think of the Pen Tool as a way of making dots, and then connecting those dots with straight lines. Connect enough dots together, and you have a shape. You can then bend the lines in the shape to make really complex shapes with curves. Learning to use the Pen Tool properly is one of the most powerful and flexible graphic design techniques you can acquire.
Anchor points and paths
You're going to create two hills for your game world. Each of them will be on a different layer. For the first hill, click the “Create new layer” button at the bottom of the Layer's panel. (It looks like a new page with a corner turned over.) A new layer will appear above the Sky layer. Double-click the name of this new layer and give it the name “Hill 1.” Figure 2-32 shows what your new layer should look like.
Figure 2-32. Create a new layer to draw a hill.
You now have three layers, and it's on this new layer, “Hill 1,” where you're going to do your next drawing.
Select the Pen Tool from the Tools panel ( Figure 2-33 ).
Figure 2-33. The Pen Tool
You're going to use the Pen Tool to roughly draw the general shape of the hill by creating a series of dots and connect them with straight lines. In further steps, you'll refine it by adding curves.
With the Pen Tool selected, click once anywhere in the canvas. (You're now drawing on the Hill layer.) A black square will appear. This is called an anchor point ; it's the starting point of your shape.
Figure 2-34. Click with the Pen Tool to add an anchor point
Click to add a few more anchor points in a zigzag fashion, down and to the left of the first point, as in Figure 2-35 . You'll notice that each time you add a point it's connected by a line to the previous point. This is called a path .
Figure 2-35. Create
As you can see, the Layers panel gives you an awful lot of control over your work. However, although you'll possibly use all of these features when creating your own game graphics, you don't need to worry about most of them for now. The most important thing to know is this: anything on a layer above will hide things on layers below.
Before you start work drawing on a new layer, give the sky layer a name and lock it so that you don't accidentally select or change it.
Double-click the words “Shape 1” in the Layers panel. This makes the text editable. Change it so that it reads “Sky.” (Press the Enter key to apply the name change.) It's a good habit to give your layers namesso that you can easily find them. You'll appreciate this when you're working on complex graphics with 20 or 30 layers.
Click the padlock button to lock the layer. Again, it's a good habit to lock layers after you've finished working on them so that you don't accidentally select and change them while working on new layers above. (You can easily unlock layers again to work them by again selecting the locked layer and clicking the padlock button.) Your Sky layer should now look like Figure 2-31 .
Figure 2-31. Give the layer a name and lock it to prevent accidental changes.
There are plenty of very advanced layer features that I haven't mentioned here. You won't need to use any of them to create the game graphics in this book because many are specialized for photo editing, but for a comprehensive explanation of what they all do, refer to Adobe's most recent online documentation at
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/photoshop/cs/using/index.html
Browse to the chapter called “Layers.”
Let's create some hills for your game world scene so you can see this concept in action.
Drawing with the pen tool
Photoshop's Pen Tool lets you make complex shapes. Even though it's called a pen, it doesn't work like any pen that exists in the known universe. It's better to think of the Pen Tool as a way of making dots, and then connecting those dots with straight lines. Connect enough dots together, and you have a shape. You can then bend the lines in the shape to make really complex shapes with curves. Learning to use the Pen Tool properly is one of the most powerful and flexible graphic design techniques you can acquire.
Anchor points and paths
You're going to create two hills for your game world. Each of them will be on a different layer. For the first hill, click the “Create new layer” button at the bottom of the Layer's panel. (It looks like a new page with a corner turned over.) A new layer will appear above the Sky layer. Double-click the name of this new layer and give it the name “Hill 1.” Figure 2-32 shows what your new layer should look like.
Figure 2-32. Create a new layer to draw a hill.
You now have three layers, and it's on this new layer, “Hill 1,” where you're going to do your next drawing.
Select the Pen Tool from the Tools panel ( Figure 2-33 ).
Figure 2-33. The Pen Tool
You're going to use the Pen Tool to roughly draw the general shape of the hill by creating a series of dots and connect them with straight lines. In further steps, you'll refine it by adding curves.
With the Pen Tool selected, click once anywhere in the canvas. (You're now drawing on the Hill layer.) A black square will appear. This is called an anchor point ; it's the starting point of your shape.
Figure 2-34. Click with the Pen Tool to add an anchor point
Click to add a few more anchor points in a zigzag fashion, down and to the left of the first point, as in Figure 2-35 . You'll notice that each time you add a point it's connected by a line to the previous point. This is called a path .
Figure 2-35. Create
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