Adding some shading to characters and objects is a good way to add some depth to your flash animations. The following tip may be an obvious one, but if it’s new to you it may be one of the handiest tips you ever get.

1. Draw, or open up something you want to shade. In this case, I have Rick’s head from Vote4Oz

2. Using the eyedropper tool (I), select the main color.

3. Open up the color picker, and slide the bar on the right down slightly so that you end up with a slightly darker shade of the color.

4. Select the fill of your object

5. Now, choose the brush tool (b), and in the options portion of the toolbar, select Paint Selection

6. Run your brush over the area you want shaded, only what you have selected will be affected by the brush, so go nuts.

And there ya go. She’s a beaute.

Note: If you don’t already, using the keyboard to switch between tools will save you tons of time in Flash. With this technique, toggling between the brush tool and the selection tool using B and V on the keyboard will make you an efficient shading machine.