There are thousands of free images in the VideoScribe library. Rather make your own? Here's how to create SVGs in Adobe Illustrator that draw perfectly in VideoScribe.
These instructions are for creating basic, smooth line drawings in Adobe Illustrator that draw well in VideoScribe. They don’t cover any of the advanced things that you could potentially do with SVG images.
Draw a sketch of what you would like your image to look like. Take a photo and upload it or scan it into your computer. Or, find an image online of something similar to what you want.
Save this reference image.
Open your reference image as layer 1 of a new file in Adobe Illustrator. Then:
Go to the appearance panel
Set layer 1 to 40% opacity
Lock layer 1
This will help when you start tracing over it.
Create a new layer, layer 2. Then, from the toolbar on the left:
Set the colour fill of layer 2 to none
Choose any colour you like for the stroke, and any weight
Now, in the top toolbar:
Set the stroke to uniform
Choose the pen
The pen tool will give you lines that look smooth and simple. Start tracing over the lines of your reference image onto layer 2.
Draw your lines in the order that you would like VideoScribe to draw them for you.
The pen tool works by creating a series of reference points as you draw. VideoScribe sees your reference points as the dots of a dot-to-dot picture. It draws the full image by connecting the 'dots' in the order you made them.
When you've completed your image, you no longer need your reference image (layer 1) – delete it now.
Your image must be saved in a certain way for it to draw well within VideoScribe.
When you're happy with your image:
Click File
Select Save as
Choose SVG (svg) from the menu
This will open up another dialogue box:
Select Embed under Options > Image Location
Select Presentation Attributes under Advanced Options > CSS Properties
Leave all other options unchecked
It's really important that CSS Properties is set to Presentation Attributes. A 2015 Illustrator update by Adobe means that your image won't draw properly in VideoScribe without this setting.
And that's it folks. Follow these steps and your SVG images should draw beautifully in VideoScribe every time.
Download an example SVG file and use its settings as a guide for your own images.
If you want to add color to your image, go back to the end of step 4 and:
Lock layer 2
Create a new layer - layer 3 - for the fill colour
Arrange your layers so that layer 3 sits directly below layer 2
Choose the blob brush tool
Set the stroke to none and the fill to the color you want to use
Start applying color
When you've added all your color, follow the instructions at step 6 for saving your file.
That's it. In a future post, we'll look at how to make SVGs for VideoScribe in Inkscape.