Thumbnails

I was wondering if there’s a way to load a thumbnail of any pic without having to first load the whole picture in its regular size.

Right now, I’m using XML with AS3 to load about 30 pictures, each 1000x600 in size, and then I make them DisplayObjects and change their size to 50x50. It would be a HUGE help if I could just load a smaller version of each one so that it takes up a lot less bandwidth and a lot less time to load. Thanks.