Re: FLASH: My wishlist

[John Croteau]

Hi Franke,


> I'm having fun with flash but I wish they had incorporated certain features

> that are common in other programs, such as:

It is an animation program and the developers have concentrated on that

(rightly so).


> One of the elegant virtues of flash is that it is vector based. Why does

> Flash not have a pen tool that is as sophisticated as Adobe Illustrator? The

> pencil does not produce as beautiful a line, and bringing the Illustrator

> files in is not as good as creating the graphics in Flash. I want bezier

> curves and handles.

Curves with hanles have nothing to do with drawing but rather modifying

a curve once drawn. Flash uses a different bezier method to descibe

curves than other most other graphic programs. It takes less bytes to

describe a curve but does not lend itself easily to the standard bezier

handles we are used to. However, it is just as easy to draw and modify

in Flash as in Illustrator but you need to learn some different

techniques.


But modifying curves to be exact is generally easier in full graphics

programs such as Freehand, Illustrator, etc. Plus these full blown

graphics programs have lots of tools to make creating special shapes

easy. With the addition of FlashWriter for Illustrator 8 you are able to

bring in even more complex items into Flash with less optimization

neeeded. Now both Illustrator and Freehand both can bring in good

graphics for use in Flash. Note, you should not bring normal text into

Flash via Flash writer because it brings all text in as drawn elements

(basic shapes and not text elements). Add your text in Flash.

http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/download/flashwriter/


> Wouldn't it be nice to be able to crop the flash file as easily as you crop

> an image in Photoshop -- eg. position the file (and all the layers) in the

> center, or over to one side -- as I understand Flash, you can only crop from

> the left and lower edge.

It will never be as easy as PhotoShop because you are talking about a

single image and cropping a single drawn image in Flash is just as easy.


If you are talking about cropping an image for display in HTML this is

built in.

Use excat pixel dimensions, Scale = NoBorder, and set the SAlign as

needed.

This will allow limited cropping from center, or any side or corner.


Also, if you set the image to be in exact pixels that match the stage

and set Scale as showall (the default) the image will be cropped to the

stage.


-- 

Coming Soon    Flash 4 Web Animation F/X and Design

  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1576105555/flashcentral

-----------                               -----------------------

John Croteau

croteauerols [dot] com (mailto:croteauerols [dot] com)

-------------                             -------------------------

FlashTek  (Advanced Websites with Flash) http://www.FlashTek.com/

Flash Bible (Fast track to good Flash)  http://www.FlashBible.com/

Flash Central(The Universe Starts Here) http://www.FlashCentral.com/

The Flash Tech Resource (Tech Notes)   http://www.FlashCentral.com/tech/

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



flasher is generously supported by...

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

Streaming Media WEST '99 Conference & Exhibition

"The Worlds largest Internet Audio & Video Event"

December 7 - 9, San Jose Convention Center, California


Reserve your space today at http://www.streamingmedia.com

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

To unsubscribe or change your list settings go to

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

helpchinwag [dot] com