graphic design for Flash question...

[Romulus]

I'm seeing all of these intense graphics that people are creating for their movie clips in Flash and I would like to know where they are designing them. I would like to use a program like Photoshop where you are able to add things like drop shadows, etc. to give everything a much more realistic feel, but the file sizes of some of the graphics that you have to import to Flash can be rather big. Is there a better program out there that has all of the realistic effects + more, of something like Photoshop, but can still provide a reasonably sized file for Flash???

WILL

[poab]

Hi,

Nope nothing beats photoshop. Except on price. If you've got it use it. For vector production, Freehand, or Illustrator are great. But as I said, for images like drop shadows Photoshop beats all. Some effeccts are achievable in Fireworks, but not as many.

The answer to your question is really how you use what you create. Consider saving files as .png rather than .jpg or .gif. .png's have better support for transparency, and thus, produce more 'realistic effects'.

After that one of the most valuable design skills you'll ever learn in Flash is getting good at trace bitmap. That will potentially save you file size.

Also it's worth noting that when you look at a Flash site that uses drop shadows etc. They nearly always use the same effect on every button (or whatever). This is because they're using the library properly and only importing the bitmap once. Remember you can alter instances of objects, which will allow you to utilise the drop shadow you've created in a number of different guises.

cheers.

[JRBT]

Yes, photoshop rules!

I would even say that a good portion of the universe actually revolves around Photoshop. Before you plunk down the $600 +/- dollars I recommend the following:

1) ...[edit]...

2) search EBAY for photoshop. 'nuff said.

FYI: Photoshop versions 5.5 and 6.0 both come with one of the greatest features I have ever seen in the bitmap world - the "save for web" feature. It allows you to add custom compression to .jpgs .pngs & .gifs. while viewing what each compression level will look like.

Once you are back in the flash enviroment, turn your bitmaps into movieclip symbols, and be sure to go into "publish settings" and change your .jpg comression to "default".

Or you could REALLY be cheap and look for some shareware paintshop pro programs.

Good Luck!

[pinkaboo]

Hey, JRBT can I just point out the forum rules thread and the last point in particular to you please. Don't get the forums into trouble.

forum rules (http://www.actionscripts.org/forums/announcement.php3?s=&forumid=10)

K

[JRBT]

Oops!

I never even read the rules to be honest. I didn't think that mentioning the thing I did would be a cause for possible problems if the wrong person views it.

It exists and is legal as far as I know......oh well.

[KarenInPA]

There was an interesting thing the authors of Flash Bible did around this.

They took the same bitmap image and compressed it using like quality settings among Photoshop, Fireworks and BoxTop. The results were amazing. Fireworks won, hands down, in compressing the images to the smallest filesizes.

I use both. :) Photoshop for image editing/creation whatever. Then, to compress, (and if I'm not in a lazy mood), I use Fireworks.

One other thing I've heard, but have never been able to verify, is that Flash likes Fireworks compressed images better than those compressed by photoshop or other software. It would make sense, because both are Macromedia products, but I've never seen the difference. They say that Flash will try to "recompress" images done in the other software, but that it "recognizes" Fireworks compression and doesn't try to do it again. I dunno.

:)
Karen