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Flat design is a style of art that is commonly used on the Scratch Website.
About Flat Design
Flat design rose around 2012, and became popular on Scratch in 2013.[citation needed] Drawings made in this style look simple and modern. There are many projects that are made using flat design on Scratch.[1]
The flat design style is especially popular with vector artists due to how easy it is to reshape and distort shapes that have been created.[citation needed]
Using Flat Design in Art
It is highly suggested that when using flat design that vector art program is used, such as the vector art editor on Scratch. This can be done by clicking the "Convert to vector" button in the bottom right of the paint editor when in bitmap mode.
Shapes
In flat design, the goal is to achieve a smooth minimalist look. This means that minimal detail will be used. Here are some tips to keep this art simplistic:
- Avoid reshaping circles. Use full circles or half circles, but reshaping can make shapes look lumpy instead of smooth and modern.
- Use plain or subtle gradient backgrounds.
- Cover shapes with other shapes to make smoother transitions. This benefits from the previous tip.
- Use rounded rectangles. A tutorial about making these can be found here .
- Using lines can round the shapes and make them look nice. Make a small thin line, then enlarge the width and then grow the line. This can also make rounded rectangles.
Shading
Shading with flat design is very simple, and often uses just a shadow underneath the objects. When making the shadow, one must simply take the color of the surface an object is on, darken it, and create an oval underneath the object giving off a shadow with that color.
For example, if the surface used is white, then a very light grey would be used for the shadow. If the surface is light blue, the shadow should be a slightly darker blue. If the surface is black, however, shading may not be applicable.
Colors
Most art made using flat design does not use bright, flashy colors. What this means is that one should not just use a bright red or a bright yellow whenever one would like. The colors used are usually more light, and pastel-like. Most users do not use black inside of their art, either; rather, they use a dark grey or a darker tone of what is around it, to make their art appear more washed-out and pastel-like.[citation needed] This normally means staying away from the default Scratch palette and using the advanced color palette.
If one chooses, they can also search up a color palette to follow.
Other Tips
One can create "round" squares by simply using a thick brush and creating a non-filled square or other rectangular shape close together enough so that looks like it is filled and filling it with a gradient using two sides of the same color.
Vector or Bitmap?
Both Vector and Bitmap can be used to create flat design, but they both have advantages and disadvantages. Vector art is sharp and is not pixelated but the fill tool is not as easy to use in Vector mode. Bitmap is beneficial for pixel art, and the fill tool works as expected, but the final image quality is not as good because it will look slightly more pixelated than if it were made in Vector.
