Flash CS4: The Missing Manual

Chapter 9. Incorporating Non-Flash Media Files

Flash gives you a ton of drawing and painting tools you can use to create original artwork, as you saw in Chapter 2 and Chapter 5. But if you’ve already got some cool logos or backgrounds that you created in another program (like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop or the orphaned Macromedia FreeHand), you don’t have to redraw them in Flash. All you have to do is pull them into Flash—import them. Once you do, you can work with them nearly as easily as you do the images you create directly on the stage. You can also add sound clips, video clips, and scanned-in photos to your animations.

This chapter introduces you to the different types of media files that Flash lets you work with. It also gives you tips for working with imported files: You’ll see how to apply effects to bitmap graphics, edit video clips, and synchronize (match) sound clips to specific animated sequences.

Note

After you’ve incorporated non-Flash media into your animation, you can control that media using ActionScript. For more details, flip to Chapter 11.

Incorporating Graphics

Theoretically, you can cut or copy graphic elements from any other program you have open, paste them into Flash, and then tweak them. For example, say you’ve created a drawing in Microsoft Paint. In Microsoft Paint, you can choose Edit → Copy. Then, in Flash, you can choose Edit → Paste in Center to transfer the image from Microsoft Paint to your stage, and then edit it using Flash’s drawing and painting ...