This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Q&A
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I'm having trouble importing images from a digital camera. I have some great shots of my cactus collection but they're so huge after I import them. How can I resize them?
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Because multi-megapixel cameras produce originals that can be 1000s of pixels wide, you don't want to import these directly. Instead, first use an image editing program such as Fireworks to resize the image to something that will fit comfortably on a normal screen size—that is, less than 1024x768 or 800x600. By the way, taking a megapixel image and scaling it down inside Flash will not improve the sharpness. Actually, it will do the opposite, plus the filesize will be huge. Don't do that; resize (and possibly optimize) before importing!
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I have an original graphic as an Illustrator file, but I want to take a stab at recreating it in Flash (to see if I can make it smaller). To do this, do I have to redraw it completely from scratch or are there any tricks I can use
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Here's a great technique that you can use to effectively trace a raster graphic. Import the graphic (even though you'll delete it when you're done). Lock the layer by clicking the dot under the padlock. Select Insert, Timeline, Layer and draw into that layer. Additionally, (before locking the layer) you can convert the graphic to a symbol (select Modify, Convert to Symbol) and then set the instance's Alpha to 50% to make it easier to trace. (Layers are covered in Hour 11 and converting to a symbol in Hour 4.)
You can also use this tracing technique to align individual objects (that need to be animated separately). The artist can deliver the complete layout as a single, full screen, graphic that you import into a locked layer.
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I have a photograph that must remain as a raster graphic. After I scan it into the computer and touch it up, what file format should I choose? There are so many.
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Generally, you want to keep all your raster graphics in the highest-quality format possible before importing into Flash. One exception is when you use a tool such as Fireworks to produce an optimally compressed image (say, with varying degrees of compression using a JPEG Mask). If you use an outside program to compress the image, you should just make sure you don't recompress in Flash (simply leave the default setting Use Imported JPEG Quality). Alternatively, if you import a high-quality .pct, .bmp, or .png, you can compress it in Flash until you're satisfied with the compression level. JPEGs are all right, but they always have some compression that could result in artifacts. GIFs are not a good alternative because they can't have more than 256 explicit colors. Simply changing the file format of an existing image will never make a graphic better, and it will potentially make it worse. You should start with the best quality possible and then bring it down as the very last step.
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How do you determine how much one graphic is contributing to the final movie's file size?
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If it's a raster graphic, you can explore the Bitmap Properties dialog box, which tells you exactly how big a graphic is. With vector graphics, determining the size is more difficult. Ultimately, you should copy the graphic into a new file and export a .swf of that file (by selecting File, Export). You can look at the file size. Sometimes it's not so important how much one graphic is contributing, especially if it's an important graphic. However, your concern should always be to not add to the file size unnecessarily.
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I've imported a raster graphic and then used Trace Bitmap to turn it into a vector graphic. The result looks fine, but the file size has grown larger than when the image was a regular bitmap. How can that be? Vectors should be smaller than bitmaps, right?
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Not necessarily. This is a very common misunderstanding. It's possible to trace every pixel of a bitmap so that there is a tiny vector shape for each pixel. This takes more file space than the original bitmap. You can convert bitmaps into vector graphics (by using Trace Bitmap) anytime, but it really makes sense only when the nature of the image is appropriate or when you want a special effect. When Flash takes a very long time to execute the Trace Bitmap feature, it's a good indication that the file size might actually grow. (The delay occurs because the process is so complex.)
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I have a fairly simple graphic (as an Illustrator file) that I would like to import into Flash. It's impossible to redraw in Flash, so I have to import it, right?
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This sounds like a contradiction to me: The file is simple, but it's impossible to draw in Flash. Make sure you're fully exploiting the potential of Flash. (Read Hour 2, "Drawing and Painting Original Art in Flash," again if necessary.) If you have to import the image, do so. Of course, you should export it from Illustrator as a .swf or at least try to simplify the image as much as possible.