I am planning to create flash tutorials on my website. Although they may never be as good as Kirupa’s :ub: , I still feel that I may be able to help many troubled “flashers”. So here goes! Please give me your comments on the following text-only tutorial.
Tutorial : Tracing a Bitmap
Version: Flash 5.0
After using flash for up to one hour, one can easily notice the limited drawing tools in Flash. “How can anyone create decent animations with these enhanced MS Paint tools?” Well, Macromedia hasn’t dissapointed anyone here. Bitmaps and other image files can be easily imported or pasted into Flash’s workspace.
But Flash can do much more than that. After copying and pasting your image, you’ve probably noticed that you cannot edit in flash. Indeed you can with Flash’s Trace Bitmap feature. With this, you can convert your imported bitmaps into vector graphics allowing you to animate and re-edit your image in flash.
The process of it all is very simple. After importing or pasting your bitmap in Flash, make sure you have it selected. Then advance to the menu bar and click on Modify, Trace Bitmap… Another window will appear on your screen titled “Trace Bitmap.” For now, just click OK and ignore the other options. After clicking ok, you will notice that the image is now fully editable. The different colors can be seperated and changed as any other shape created in Flash. This truly is an amazing feature and very useful.
Even after this you may still be dissapointed. You can notice that during this Trace Bitmap process, the vector based image looks different than the original. This change can be controlled. Once again, insert a bitmap into Flash. Now go to Modify, Trace Bitmap… Now just look at the options in the new window. Your given the power to change the Color Threshold, Pixel Area, and smoothness of your image.
The Color Threshold number will affect the variety of colors in the vector based image. To add more color, decrease the number. To have less color, increase the number.
Like the Color Threshold, the pixel area also affects the amount of different colors in the vector image. To have more colors, decrease the number. To have less colors, increase the number.
The Curve fit drop menu affects both the color and smoothness of the vector image. By choosing “Pixels”, the colors of the vector image will be very distinct and sharp. By choosing “Smooth” or “Very Smooth,” the colors of the vector image will blend together and have a more rounded look.
The final option is Corner Threshold. This simply adds more corners and makes the image less smooth or it makes fewer corners and makes the image more smooth.
Even after all these options, you still may not get the effect you want. So you may be forced to edit the image in flash by adding sharper outlines, removing colors, etc. If your planning to create a bitmap and later converting it into vector graphics, keep in mind that using solid lines helps. Otherwise the colors of the new vector image may look mixed and smeared.
It needs to be updated to fit the current layout, but it provides similar content.