Re: FLASH: Duh! jpgs in Flash

[Marc Hoffman, Poison Dart Frog Media]

At 03:33 AM 5/23/2000 , you wrote:


>If I compress my jpg externally (Fireworks, Photoshop 5.5) and then import

>it into Flash does Flash recognise that its been compressed? If I then set

>the export options to 100% in Flash, does it keep the original compressed

>size? Or does it treat it as a 100% jpg and blow its filesize up again?

>What is the best way for dealing with jpgs in Flash?

>Do I use external compression or not?


James,


By default, Flash applies jpeg compression (from zero to 100) to all images 

upon export. It doesn't analyze whether an image is already optimized.


If you have optimized a jpeg prior to import to Flash, the best thing to do 

is not let Flash re-compress it on export, otherwise you will degrade the 

image. This is because jpeg is a lossy compression scheme -- every time you 

open a jpeg and resave as jpeg, it loses more quality. A good alternative 

is to import non-lossy formats such as .bmp, pict, and .png, and experiment 

with different compression settings in Flash.


The way to avoid running an image through Flash's jpeg compression during 

export is to find the image in the library (make sure you're dealing with 

the bitmap image, not a symbolized version of it), double-click the little 

icon to its left (looks like a painting of a tree) and set compression to 

Lossless. You may choose to do this for each bitmap image in the library.


If you set export options to 100, this is not the same as Lossless. It 

still compresses it the image, it's just using the minimal amount of jpeg 

compression. I don't believe it will make the image larger than on import, 

it should still be smaller than the imported image size, but you can test 

this by generating a size report (an Export Movie option) and reading the 

report (a text file that's generated along with the .swf) to see the import 

and export sizes of each image used in the movie.




Marc Hoffman


Poison Dart Frog Media

Flash portfolio: http://www.dartfrogmedia.com/portfolio



flasher is generously supported by...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

World Animation Celebration - Big Internet Animation Pow Wow Discount Offer


Register before May 25 mention flasher and save 25%!! www.wacfest.com


Be discovered, get a job or have your web series picked up.  A big talent search for Shockwave

and Flash animators is happening May 30-June 4 in Hollywood.  Featuring Rob Burgess, Matt

Groening, Brad Bird and more.   www.wacfest.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To unsubscribe or change your list settings go to

http://www.chinwag.com/flasher or email

helpchinwag [dot] com