Flash problem, Anyone know?

[octavius]

I'm using Flash MX with OSX.2.4 and my problem is that when I import gifs, etc... the image looks fine on the stage but when i export it to a movie it has wierd jagged areas in some spots of the former gif. Does anyone know how to get around this or what im doing wrong?

most of the images are photoshop exports if that has anything to do with it. Thanks!

[octavius]

I just tested it with photo jpgs and pngs. Still no luck. :(

[frankko]

Do you have sample files we can look at? I'm not visualizing what you're describing.

If not, some things to consider: in Flash, what quality are you exporting the images as? JPEG quality or Lossless? When you place them on the stage, are you scaling them? If so, do you have allow smoothing turned on?

That's about all I can think of without having seen anything.

[octavius]

Well, I'm new to Flash too so let me explain what I can.

Here is a flash movie I made:
http://www.applekore.net/tests/jsa_logo2.html

As you can see, the "A" and "S" are jagged. Maybe it has to do with resizing? Is there a way to make a swf movie NOT resize?

I'm using Lossiness as my export settings and I'm not resizing on the stage at all. Thanks for your help!

[frankko]

Okay, unfortunately that's normal for Flash. Because of its scalability, Flash lets you place objects at the subpixel level. It's fine for vector/line art, but can make bitmap stuff look weird. What you can do is, after you place a bitmap on the stage, select it and look at the info palette. Make sure the X and Y coordinates end in .0. The width and height should end in .0, too, but if you haven't scaled the bitmap, that shouldn't be an issue.

Hopefully that will help.

[octavius]

I tried again, still didnt work. I just dont see how all these people make such pretty stuff with flash. Flash's art tools suck, in my opinion. Is there anyother way to go about this?

[bluehz]

Another tip I picked up somewhere long ago and it may not even apply to the newer version of Flash - is to change the scale on imported graphics by just a little - change the scale to 99% x 99%.

[octavius]

worked perfect!!

oh wait.. I tried the same thing on the same file in a NEW project and it failed! haha.. what the hell is wrong with this app???

anymore advice???

[decimaldust]

try breaking apart the bitmap (*B) and then grouping it (*G), that sometimes helps, although you will lose 1 pixel from the outside edge of your bitmap. Flash is strangely inconsistent sometimes, the only way to get around certain problems can to play around with it until it starts working properly. Flash MX doesn't seem too different than flash 5 or 4 in this respect.

[bluehz]

Yes - Flash tools DO suck pretty much. I do almost all my src material creating in other apps. Freehand and Illustrator are great for outputting vector are directly to Flash format, and Fireworks is excellent for working with PNG files - which is teh only type of bitmap I use in Flash because of its transparency capabilities.

Originally posted by octavius
Flash's art tools suck, in my opinion. Is there anyother way to go about this?