Understanding Vectors In Flash
Many people regard Flash as the most exciting element in Adobe CS4. We’re always being told that Flash animations are brilliant and have a reputation for being extremely compact in file size. However, this compactness can only be achieved when vector graphics are used for animation. If large high resolution graphics are used in Flash animations, they will inevitably become correspondingly large in file size.
There are essentially two methods for getting vector graphics into Flash. The first is to create them using the program’s impressive array of vector tools. The second is to create your artwork in Illustrator, Adobe’s dedicated vector program, and then import them into Flash. A third option is to take bitmapped graphics and convert them to vectors using Flash’s Trace Bitmap facility.
Just as you would expect, Adobe Flash has a series of tools for creating shapes and lines and in many ways, they function in much the same way as they do in every other program. However, there are a few peculiarities. For one thing, objects created in Flash are not as unified as they appear. For example, if you draw an orange rectangle with a blue border and then use the selection tool to click on the orange interior, you will only select the interior. If you move the selection, the border of the rectangle will be left behind. The trick here is that if you want to select the entire shape, you should double-click on the interior.
The borders of shapes behave in much the same way. If you use the selection tool to click once on one of the borders of a rectangle, you will only select that side. To select all four sides, you need to double-click.
Another slightly unexpected but useful feature is the ability to distort and twist a shape just by dragging one of its borders. To do this, the shape in question cannot be selected. As you move the selection pointer over any of the edges of the object, you will notice that a curved line appears next to the cursor. Upon this signal, you can simply drag the edge of the shape and it will curve and bend as you do so.
Working with Flash vectors can often be similar to working with bitmapped graphics. For example, in most vector drawing programs, dragging a selection rectangle around part of an object will either select the object or have no effect. In Flash, this action selects only the section of the object enclosed by the selection rectangle. If you then drag the selection, it moves, leaving the rest of object behind. If you choose a fill colour, only the selection will change.
This behaviour is far more usual when working with pixels than when manipulating vector object. There is even a lasso tool which enables you to drag around any part of an object to select an arbitrary and irregularly-shaped portion of the object.
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