Re: FLASH: A bitmap wipe transition

[John Dowdell]

At 1:26 PM 8/26/98, Ash Patrick-CPA016 (aka "Fletch") wrote:

>I have a problem and whoever can help that would be great. I am still

>kinda new at Flash and I am trying to perform a graphics wipe.

>I want to have a main Bitmap in the background and then have it

>gradually wipe away from one side to the other, but I wanted to try and

>get the edge of the wipe to be kinda like a fuzzy haze rather than a

>sharp line.  I tried to use a mask layer w\ a gradient as the mask but

>the edge was still sharp.  Any help would be great.  And I am sorry if

>this was discussed before and I missed it.


Tip: If you're using pixel-based images in the background, and want to do

pixel-dissolves to other pixel-based images, then you may wish to consider

Director and Shockwave instead of Flash.


(If you're instead wiping between small feature items then David's tip

sounds great.)


Background: Flash's strength is in fast, vector-based animation. It also

offers sound, some interactivity, effects, and some bitmap support. But if

the bulk of your filesize is from pixel-based images then you haven't

really saved much, and you might as well use the Shockwave engine -- it's

faster for pixels and offers other features, too.


(Although Flash has the greater download rate now, last I checked there

were still more Shockwave engines out there. Shockwave can use Flash movies

within it, offering the standard Lingo scripting language instead of

varying JavaScripts. Shockwave can also generate new content on the

clientside, by reaching out to databases on the web and assembling the

movie dynamically. Director's easy to learn yet there's always something

new you can achieve, too.)


Sidenotes: If your project is sort of a slideshow of scanned images, then

you may be able to deliver this in DHTML instead.


Summary: If much of your content is bitmaps, then Shockwave may be more

appropriate. When delivering with Flash you'll get best bang-for-the-buck

with vectors.


jd





John Dowdell, Macromedia Tech Support, San Francisco CA US


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