Am I correct in thinking that it is not possible to create a mask directly from the opaque portion of an imported image? In everything I’ve read that involves applying masks, the author either makes the shape/text in Flash (and can select its outline), or manually paints a mask. This seems unnecessary if the image you’re trying to mask is already transparent.
Here’s why I ask: I would like to apply the “Lighting Mask” effect from Kirupa on an image instead of just text. The problem is that I need to create a mask that is opaque in the same areas as the image, and transparent in the transparent portions of the image. After a couple hours of headache, I realized you cannot simply use the image as a mask (as one might think), because the mask will just be a rectangle the same size as the image, regardless of any transparent portions in the image. So the lighting effect only works if your mask exactly matches the opaque portions of the text/image/whatever.
How can this be done without manually drawing the mask or creating the object in Flash originally?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
-Mekin
