Apologies - dumbass flash question!

sticker

Hey all,

I've been off the webdesign radar a while now, I'm creating a flash intro movie for a friends company and I'm having trouble at the first hurdle!

Essentially I've created three graphic items in Microsoft Photodraw, a globe, the company text logo and a guy on a bike. When I try to import them into flash mx, they won't import...

I can save them as Jpegs, but then I'll just import the graphics WITH A WHITE BORDER - What I need to do is import the items with clean lines and no border - ie the globe needs to be round!! the bike needs to come into flash with it's contours intact.

These three objects will be ineracting with each other, so clunky white backgrounds just get in the way!

Sorry for the long winded explanation... I hope someone can help!

Thanks in advance

Gordon

Can you export the items to .png? That's your best bet.

sticker

No joy I'm afraid...

I've photoshop - Would this be a better app to port image files from?

What would the conventional way be to have contored images/files brought into Dreamweaver MX or is the only way to create them from scratch with Dreamweaver itself?

I would have thought there would be simple ways to do this!

Bob the Builder

sticker wrote:

No joy I'm afraid...

I've photoshop - Would this be a better app to port image files from?

What would the conventional way be to have contored images/files brought into Dreamweaver MX or is the only way to create them from scratch with Dreamweaver itself?

I would have thought there would be simple ways to do this!

Photoshop is your best bet or Macromedia is well scripted for getting rid of the alias borders
~N

sticker

nevf wrote:

Photoshop is your best bet or Macromedia is well scripted for getting rid of the alias borders
~N

I've tried exporting into Fireworks also and then trying to import into Flash - It's wreaking my head now!

There's just too many variables during each step - I'm just guessing at this stage.

I did a Flash movie for Harley-Davidson Dublin's site four years ago, and I'm trying to repeat the process again... It's like the evolved software just doesn't let me!

Gordon

I don't quite understand the problem.

Microsoft Photodraw is vector graphics right? (I just checked now as I've never heard of the proggy) Can you export to vectors? Can you copy/paste the actual vectors? I remember having strange export problems with vectors in Illustrator and eventually got round it by exporting to svg (afair).

Have you got another vector program? Inkscape is a free vector program afair, like Gimp, but vectors.

sticker

Gordon wrote:

I don't quite understand the problem.

Microsoft Photodraw is vector graphics right? (I just checked now as I've never heard of the proggy) Can you export to vectors? Can you copy/paste the actual vectors? I remember having strange export problems with vectors in Illustrator and eventually got round it by exporting to svg (afair).

Have you got another vector program? Inkscape is a free vector program afair, like Gimp, but vectors.

I've copied each actual image (as in right click copy from Photodraw and right click paste within Flash MX) - nothing appears!

I'm not with you when you say exporting to svg... Do you mean save image as a .svg file and then import into Flash? Will this app Inkscape do this?

Thanks for your help by the way!

Gordon

Actually, I just did a test and exporting to .svg via inkscape doesn't work on Flash Pro 8. Although I exported vector art from Inkscap as Postscript and it imported fine, I can even edit the vectors ok on Flash.

So now the question is - can you get your vector graphics into Inkscape from the program you have? Do you want to zip up a vector image and post it here and I'll test it? Or can you export to Postscript files from your program? Send us a postscript file anyway, just to be sure if you like.

sticker

Gordon wrote:

Actually, I just did a test and exporting to .svg via inkscape doesn't work on Flash Pro 8. Although I exported vector art from Inkscap as Postscript and it imported fine, I can even edit the vectors ok on Flash.

So now the question is - can you get your vector graphics into Inkscape from the program you have? Do you want to zip up a vector image and post it here and I'll test it? Or can you export to Postscript files from your program? Send us a postscript file anyway, just to be sure if you like.

How will I save the vector? - the default extension for Photodraw is .mix

Will I just convert it to .tiff or what suits best?

Gordon

A tiff will rasterize the vectors hence converting it into your average image.

What other outputs/exports/save as does Photodraw have?

sticker

Gordon wrote:

A tiff will rasterize the vectors hence converting it into your average image.

What other outputs/exports/save as does Photodraw have?

Usual - bitmap - jpeg - gif - then...
Tag Image file format
Targa
Portable network graphics
PC Paintbrush

logo here: - the text / globe / bike are seperate entitlies in Photodraw

Gordon

Try exporting the image as a Portable Networks graphics image. Providing you have transparency in your image the transparency should be outputted properly to the .png file. And that should be kept when you import into flash. Fingers crossed.

sticker

Gordon wrote:

Try exporting the image as a Portable Networks graphics image. Providing you have transparency in your image the transparency should be outputted properly to the .png file. And that should be kept when you import into flash. Fingers crossed.

Christ! didn't work!!

It's really bothering me now - What I need to do is so simple with all the latest software, and nothings coming together!

Would Fireworks help I wonder?

Sorry to be such a bother with this problem!

Gordon

Can you stick up an image of the outputted .png?

mathew

get the image into photoshop, and make sure it has a transparent background (or whatever part you want transparent). Select file > export for web.
Play around with the settings on the right, make sure to select PNG format, and then what ever other atributes you want. That should export a PNG with a transparent background. When you try to save in photoshop as a PNG it flattens the image and gives it a white background.. the export for web way doesnt.

sticker

I've found a lazy workaround whereby I add the image into software called Flax, and generate a nice animation with the text. I'm probably annoying the hell out of you guys anyway!

I'm seriously thinking of polishing up my Flash skills though... Anyone know of any fairly decent night classes?

Thanks again for all your help - espicially you Gordon - much appreciated!