Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
N
Fill properties
Flash will render flat fill-color types,
plus linear, circular, and elliptical gradients. A gradient
can contain up to eight color transitions (color stops).
Fill tiling is limited to Simple, and the Fade Fill effect is
the only option on the Infobar that Flash will understand.
Transparency
N
If you apply transparency to a gradient-
filled shape, you are limited to the Mix transparency type.
However, when you fill a shape with a flat (solid) color, you
can use linear, circular, and elliptical transparency shapes.
Text
N
The Flash rendering engine in Xara can accept
any typeface you have installed. You can also animate
inter-character spacing (kerning) values.
Bitmaps
N
Photos and digital paintings can be exported
to a Flash animation, but they cannot be as efficiently
compressed as vector shapes. A good idea is to make a
copy of high-resolution images at the size you intend to
use, in JPEG file format. To do this, you first import a
bitmap to a page, scale it to the required size, and then
press CTRL - SHIFT - C (
Arrange | Create Bitmap Copy).
After scaling the picture, open the Bitmap Gallery,
click the copy of the image, and then click Save. Then
import the copy to your animation file. If you don't care
about optimizing the saved image size, you can leave
the bitmap image in the animation file and successfully
export a Flash animation. You can export colorized
images, saturation, temperature color, and blurring
with the Photo Tool without making a copy. However,
brightness and contrast changes need to be exported
and then imported. Fractal cloud and plasma fills export
without making a copy; they are automatically converted
to bitmaps, so expect a larger Flash file as a result.
Effects
N
All effects—Contours, Blends, and Moulds
applied to shapes—can be exported, and the parent
shape can be moved, scaled, and so on. The effect
itself can be changed over time, but Xara will not
automatically 'tween frame changes and the animation
might look a little choppy. Soft shadows and bevels will
be written out as bitmaps.
3D extruded shapes can be written to a Flash file, but you have to hand-animate frames;
Xara will not perform tweening on this sort of object. The good news is that if you're into
3D animation, Xara 3D is available for less than $30. It accepts shapes you've designed with
Xara Xtreme, and Xara 3D does indeed export complex 3D animations flawlessly to Flash file format.
 
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