Flash Curling Paper Tutorial

In this tutorial we will be looking at how to create a paper curl in Flash. We will also be adding some texture to the paper using a bitmap.

1. Draw a rectangle the size you want the paper to be. Make a copy of it and put that aside for use later.
2. Create two large circles within the rectangle that block off the corner to be curled.
3. Remove the corner up to the circles, then draw a straight line from the most south-easterly point of one circle to the most south-easterly point of the other. This should create a diagonal line.
4. Remove the circles but leave the triangular point where the circles met and are based at the diagonal line. This is the curl.
5. Create a gradient fill from light silver to white, and make it 50% transparent. Fill the main body of the paper with this, the silver at the bottom. Do the same for the curl but make it a darker gradient, still at 50% transparency.
6. Group this image (CTRL+G) and duplicated it (CTRL+D). Put a copy aside for now. You need to find a photo of some paper. Place this paper behind the semi-transparent image you have duplicated.
7. Double click the duplicated paper curl and remove the fill from the body and the curl.
8. Select the paper photo. Using CTRL+B, break it up, then select the paper curl, and break that up too using CTRL+B. Then deselect all and select the paper photo outside the paper curl. Delete it. You should be left with a paper photo the same shape as the paper curl.
9. Delete the duplicated paper curl, and you should just have a paper photo shape left.
10. Back to the original paper curl you duplicated earlier.
11. Take the paper curl and place it on top of the paper photo shape of the paper curl. You should now have a paper curl with some nice texture.
12. Lighten the lines of the shape and also remove the diagonal line under the curl.
13. We want to give the paper a drop shadow. To do this, take the copy of the original rectangle you created to start with, and fill it with black at 50% transparency. Remove the outline.
14. Mark on the shadow where the curl begins on the paper, then push the point where the curl is, inwards a little. This is where the shadow is warped by the curl.
15. Now make the two new diagonal line slightly rounded outwards.
16. Select the entire shadow. Modify > Shape > Soften Fill Edges to create a slight blurring of the shadow. Use 10 distance and steps.
17. Place the paper curl on top of the shadow, and shift it north-west a bit.

Thats it!