This is an Advanced Inkscape Video, the first video in a series on Tracing a Cartoon Character.
Right click on a PNG or a JPEG file.
Select Open With/Inkscape
There are two options you have to change from the defaults:
Change the import type to link.
This keeps the image file from making my saved inkscape file larger.
Change the image DPI to default import resolution.
I do this because in my version of Inkscape, my imported images tend to show the wrong
resolution.
Click OK.
We'll remove the page border.
Select Document Properties, Uncheck Show Page Border.
Press the 5 key on the top row of the keyboard to zoom to page.
On our canvas is our imported image.
The first thing to do is set up some layers.
I create layers because it allows me to hide a complete set of objects while I work on
detailed work of a single object.
It also makes it much easier to stack objects on top of each other,
without having to worry about accessing the ones that are lower in the stack.
Click on view layers.
You can add a layer.
I call my first layer picture .
Click add.
It created a layer, but there's nothing in this layer.
If you click on the picture, an look at the bottom of the screen, it says the current
layer is "Root", that's where the image is right now - Certainly not in the layer we
want it to be.
I then right-click on it and I click on "Move to Layer" / "picture"
Now we have a bottom layer which we can turn on and off with this little eyeball.
We want to add a second layer.
I'll call it "hair".
"Add."
You'll notice it puts above the picture layer.
Create a red square, then look to see where that square is, I look down here, and it says
it's in "hair".
Now let's click on the picture layer.
I'll create a blue square..
I had the pic layer highlighted, and so the object appears in the pic layer.
Often times I may trace something and my tracing ends up in the wrong layer.
For instance, I'll trace this earring
Select with the S key. If we look, this earring appears in the current highlighted layer, which is "picture".
That's the wrong layer. I wanted the earring to be in the "hair" layer. I want the picture layer free from any objects I create.
I right click on it, and "move to layer "hair"
I can delete all items in a layer
by turning off other layers, then hit control-a to select
everything and hit "delete"
Thanks for watching :)