source: http://www.nicolasrapp.com/pharmawater_update/
In this lab (which consists of several phases), you'll recreate a simple but elegant animation which explains how pharmaceutical drugs end up in drinking water. You'll learn a few more useful tools in Illustrator and some important strategies for creating animations in Flash.
Phase 1: Draw the little guy
Step 1: Watch the video
a. Go to this site: http://www.nicolasrapp.com/pharmawater_update/ and watch the video that explains how drugs get in the water supply (by the end of this lab, you'll have watched it many times so if any one asks you how drugs get into the water supply, you'll have it nailed 8-).
There's a lot going on in this video and you'll end up using a number of Illustrator and Flash techniques to reproduce it.
Ultimately, you'll be drawing all of the elements in a long strip that will look like this:
We'll start with the animation involving the little guy at the beginning of the video.
b. Download this Illustrator file which contains a series of screenshots which include all the elements you'll want to draw:
Step 2: Draw the the man facing forward
At the end of this step, you'll have a drawing that looks like this:
a. Create a layer above the screenshot layer and call it 'man'
b. His head is a circle so use the ellipse tool and hold down the shift key to draw a circle.
c. Use the pen tool to draw his torso.
d. Watch this video to learn how to merge or intersect shapes using the ‘pathfinder’ panel
e. Merge the head and torso. Use the eye-dropper tool to make it the correct color.
f. Use the ellipse tool to draw the circles of his glasses
When you hide the screen shot layer, you should now see this:
Step 3: Draw the house, table and toilet
a. Create a new layer called "house toilet table" and use the pen tool to draw these three elements:
b. Lock this layer.
Step 4: Draw the man eating a pill
a. Create a new layer called "man with pill"
b. Scroll over to the screenshot that shows the man eating the pill. This drawing is a little more complex because there are several elements that ovelap (the pill, the mouth, the arm, and the head). I found myself working with layers and sublayers to create this. Go ahead and figure it out yourself and/or watch this video:
c. Lock this layer.
Step 5: Draw the bathroom door, bathroom wall & glasses
a. Create a layer called "bathroom door," scroll to the screenshot that shows the bathroom door, and draw it:
c. Create a layer called "glasses" and draw the glasses:
b. Create a layer called "bathrom wall," scroll to the screenshot that shows the bathroom wall, and draw it:
Step 6: Align all of the elements
Hide the "screenshot" layer. You now have an array of elements spread out over the page like this:
g. Move these elements in place so they overlap like this:
i. Delete the screen shot layer and adjust the artboard so house just fits:
Final Illustrator Product: DrugAnimation_Man.ai
SUMMARY
Pathfinder panel (video)