Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Along with integration, there is another feature: user interface uniication.
When Adobe acquired Macromedia, it worked to create a uniied user
interface across all the products. All Adobe products share the same
workspace look and feel, including the docking palettes, menu structure, and
product interface. This is actually quite helpful, as once a new learner gets
familiar enough with the Adobe products, he or she will be familiar with
other Adobe products. For example, the Timeline in both Photoshop and
After Efects is similar: once you learn how to create an animation in
Photoshop, you will be able to create an animation in After Efects without
the need to learn anything else about the After Efects Timeline.
Some products are commonly used together. For example, if you are working
with Adobe products to produce video content for TV and broadcasting, you
need Photoshop, After Efects, and Premier. When you work in web design
and developing, you need Photoshop, Flash, and Dreamweaver. Adobe
produces diferent Creative Suite bundles that match such needs, including
the Web Premium, Print, and Video Premium, as well as the Master
Collection, which includes all the products.
One of the products that is commonly used with Photoshop in web, desktop,
and animation projects is Adobe Flash Professional. Adobe Flash is a mainly
vector-based application that is not used to create bitmap content. Adobe
Flash users are generally dependent on Photoshop to create bitmap
resources and edit images for their Flash projects. And Photoshop users
depend on Flash to create web animations. One common repeated task
in the design and animation process is to move iles between Photoshop
and Flash.
Therefore, we begin our discussion on integration by covering the worklow
between Photoshop and Flash, with particular attention to 3D content and
3D animation. Although this chapter requires a basic knowledge of Flash, it
will take users with no Flash experience to the next step for extending their
design abilities by using some easy Flash features to bring their Photoshop
animation to the web.
As mentioned, Flash does not provide the best method for bitmap and
image editing. For example, resizing bitmaps in Flash can cause distortion to
the bitmap quality. So the best method is to prepare the bitmap iles in
Photoshop prior to taking them into Flash. The irst step is to prepare the
resources in Photoshop.
Prepare Files in Photoshop
Most of the projects that use bitmap in Flash are concerned with the size of
bitmap images, especially when working with web animation or if the Flash
animation includes a large number of sequence images. Flash iles that
include large number of sequence images can be large and slow over the
web. On the other hand, Flash animation that uses image sequences
