Alot of people have asked for a new background tutorial so here it finally is. Chewy's NEW BACKGROUND TUTORIAL! In this tutorial I will not only explain outdoor
backgrounds but indoor background as well.

This tutorial does not show you the 'perfect way' to make backgrounds, it shows you my way of making one.


We will be going through these following subjects in the tutorial:

Part A. Outdoor backgrounds:
1. Creating a sky (two ways to do this)
2. The ground
3. Creating depth

Part B. Indoor backgrounds:
1. Setting it up (with use of the line tool.)
2. Coloring
3. Shading/lighting



Part A.
Outdoor backgrounds

1. Creating a sky
For the sky we will be using the gradient tool. The first thing you do is just create the gradient square in the same size as the canvas (if you are using
a vcam it doesn't really matter how big it is.)



Clouds: Method 1
Now we're going to add clouds, and there are 2 ways to do this. You can either draw the clouds with the brush tool yourself or you can use a
texture/image of some clouds (however, this will definitely limit you if you want to do some crazy angles involving the background.) Let's start with
creating the clouds with an image. A simple image of clouds will do perfectly. If it doesn't look too bad, use the free transform tool to put your cloud
image on top of the gradient you made in the previous step (on a new layer of course.) Then change the blend mode to whatever looks good and then reduce
the opacity to balance it.



Clouds: Method 2
If you prefer drawing the clouds, keep following this step. What I mostly do when drawing clouds is using three layers. On the top layer I draw big clouds,
on the middle layer I draw them medium sized and on the bottom layer small clouds. After that I place them like in the screenshot below.




All you have to do now is convert them to symbols (seperately), blur them out (optional) and play around with the blend modes and the opacity to balance
it again. Something like this would look okay.




2. The ground
The ground should be simple so you don't make it difficult for yourself if you wanna do some angles. A simple gradient bar will do, like here below in this
screenshot. Make sure the color blends in nicely with the sky (I usually use the 'tint' option for this)




3. Creating depth.
To create depth I usually draw some hills in the background but of course you can draw whatever you want if it looks good. In the screenshot below
there are some hills with houses and trees on it. The hills should be the same color as the ground you made in the previous step. If it blends in too
much use the 'brightness' option to make it darker or lighter so that way it doesn't completely blend in. You can repeat this step as many times as
you want. What I mean with that is creating more hills/trees or anything else you want in the background.





That's it for the outdoor backgrounds. It's not very complicated, the most important part is choosing the right colors so everything blends together
into a simple yet effective background.






Part B.
Indoor backgrounds.

For this part I will be using a background originally made for Round 9 of BSE. The background is mostly indoors but it has an outdoor part as well.

(objects tutorial not included since I'm pretty sure you guys can do that yourself.)



1. Setting up the background with the line tool.
TIP: It's smart if you have a simple sketch of your background concept before doing this step. If you've got the idea in your head,
work everything out with the line tool so you have something like this




2. Coloring
Again, the same thing applies as for the outdoor backgrounds. Choose the right colors so that everything will blend in nicely, if it doesn't just
wait for the next step when we will go to shading and lighting, which is also a big part of the blending in.




3. Shading/lighting
This is the part that I like the most when I'm creating backgrounds. Good shading and lighting will give great results and a beautiful looking
background I can assure you.

Let's start off with the walls. If you have not yet converted the walls into symbols, do it and go inside the symbol. Copy the walls and paste them onto
a new layer in the same position as the original walls. Now, on each wall, use a radial gradient and do what I did in this screenshot below.




When you've done that, change the blend mode to overlay (or any other blend mode that looks good) and mess around with the opacity/alpha again like here
below, and it will look like this.

If you want to, you can repeat the same process for the floor.

Note: if you wish to use textures like I did, it's the same process. You paste the texture image on the wall and change it's blend mode
and change the alpha.



Now for the lighting part. As you see in this background, there's an outdoors area which gives a perfect opportunity for a ray of sunlight in this
lovely garage. Create the sunlight like a gradient on the floor, as showed in this screenshot below. Color should be white.

When you're done, convert it to a symbol.



Now you can change the blend mode of it to whatever you like/looks good, and (you guessed it!) change the opacity/alpha to make the sunlight bright or
a bit moody. It will look like this.




For out last step, we are going to give the outside area a nice bloomy effect. All you have to do is take that little outdoors part of the background
and put it on top of the original, blur it out and change the blend mode to whatever looks nice to you and once again, play around with the opacity/alpha

It will look like this



The posters on the wall were all image traced in illustrator(16 colors) saved as .ai files and pasted into flash as shapes (by breaking them apart) and then I
used the distortion tool to match the perspective on the wall. Might be useful to know.


This is the end of the tutorial, if you've learned anything feel free to post your results. What it basically all comes down to is that you learn to mess
around with diffirent colors and blend modes. Seriously guys, use those blend modes. They're useful.

Nice tutorial man great job :)

Yeah!! its finally here!! nice tutorial there chewy ;D hope you make more of this when you have the time :P

Yes CHEWY YOU LISTEN TO US!

Thanks a bunch.

amazing tutorial man. this is gonna be really helpful

FINALLY THANK YOU

thanx chewy plz make more such tuts.

Chwey you dont even know how to ddaw background images!
stop trying to hlep if u cant do it. I know how to draw images because I watched à video on youtueb of a guy making a background. IM sure you didint evne see it!
I can do way better than anyone right now!

Quote from CheeseEmperor

Thanks for the tutorial Chewy! It really helped me a lot!

This tutorial is helpful! i'm glad chewy made it :)

Really helpfull tutorial :D
Jeez that person (idk if its a man or a woman) is a beast (lol)

too Amazing ;-; made me cry

Hum.... I can't seem to find the overly in flash 8.... someone help me?
NVM

This helped a lot, thanks.

Incredibly helpful. Thanks!