How to Cheat in Adobe Flash CS4

Trace Bitmap and JSFL

LET’S SAY YOU’RE WORKING on a project and decide to give some video an artsy rotoscoped effect. A great way to achieve this in Flash is with the Trace Bitmap command. Trace Bitmap converts bitmap images into vector graphics that can be edited using Flash’s drawing tools. Using a video program such as After Effects or QuickTime, you can export the footage as a sequence of images and import them into Flash, ready to be traced.

But the Trace Bitmap command only works for one image at a time. That means to trace a series of images, you must tediously apply the effect to each and every image. Luckily, this is just the type of ...