Flash MX 2004 Games : Art to ActionScript

Flash MX 2004 Games
As you get experienced using a CG program you will be able to create a short animation for a
Flash game sprite very quickly.
Importing the animation into Flash
One method for creating animation that will be suitable to use in Flash is to use one of the specialist
exporters. Vecta3D and Swift3D both work well with 3D Studio Max animations, while Flicker is
a plugin for Lightwave. Unfortunately both these options involve you spending another US$200–
US$500. If you use it regularly then no problem, but if you only use it rarely then here’s a couple
of techniques that you might like to consider that don’t involve extra cost.
The first method is to use bitmaps in Flash. Although Flash is a vector package it does handle
bitmaps fairly well. All computer animation programs have an option to save an animation as a
sequence of frames. When saving the frames it is important to consider the on-screen size in pixels
of the bitmaps. Unlike vector images bitmaps have a definite size, if you create the bitmaps too
big then you can resize them in Flash, unfortunately this will incur a performance hit and a files
size hit. Create them too small and the picture quality will be poor. If the little guy is going to
be 200 pixels high then render the animation with the little guy 200 pixels high. Most computer
animation packages will allow you to save off an alpha sequence, a silhouette of the animation.
You need the alpha to cut out the bitmap so that an irregular-shaped bitmap can be placed over a
background. An alternative approach is to render a png sequence that can contain an alpha.
When importing artwork into Flash you choose ‘File/Import…’. Make sure you are on a clear
layer and navigate to the folder where the colour images have been rendered. Select the first in
the sequence. Flash prompts you with a dialog box.
Figure 4.12 Multiple bitmaps dialog box
Each consecutive file in the sequence of images is placed on a new frame of the current layer.
Repeat this action on a new layer for the alpha sequence if your images use a separate alpha.
If the alpha images are larger than the colour images then use scale to size them down using
‘Window/Design Panels/Transform’ or the context menu ‘Panels/Transform’.
Make sure that ‘Constrain’ is checked and type in 50 per cent if the image was rendered at
double the size. You will need to repeat this for each image in the sequence. Once the sequence is
sized appropriately, make sure it is in exact alignment with the colour image. To do this, zoom in
so that the bitmaps fill the stage area. Make the stage as big as possible by minimizing the Actions
and Properties windows. Use the magnifying glass tool by dragging a rectangle around the bitmaps.
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