Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
you
ll need to figure out the best way to cut those images out of
the Photoshop file and get them into your Flash ad. Most of
the time, the choice of image format is extremely obvious. A few
general rules of thumb that I like to follow are (1) if you will
need to use transparency in the image, save it out as png-24;
(2) if it
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s a photographic-type image and you do not need trans-
parency, the best option is most likely .jpg; and (3) if it
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sadraw-
ing or line art of any kind, try using vector art first, and if you
can
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t, go with the .gif format. Whichever format you use, take
care not to overcompress when exporting from Photoshop.
Save the images at a high enough quality that they are very clear
and you don
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t see any pixilation or fuzziness, and let Flash do
some of the compression when it has its turn with the images.
Now, for just a moment, let
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s step back a few sentences to my
rules of thumb on .pngs and .jpgs. In the past, best practices for
Flash have indicated that the best bitmap format to import into
Flash is .png. However, while .pngs are very crisp and clear
images, the file size for a .png image is typically larger than a
.jpg, and one of your major goals is to fit your banner within a
certain file size. Again, I
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ll cover more on image compression
later in Chapter 5.
Cut Away
On to the actual cutting of the images. Since you spent a little time
planning out your ad, you should be well aware of which elements
from your Photoshop file will be static, which ones will be ani-
mated, and which ones will be interactive. When cutting out the
images that will animate, you want to crop the Photoshop file
down to the size of the object you need, hide all the layers you
don
t need, and export the image to the appropriate format. As you
set the size to which you are going to crop, keep in mind that
you should not cut exactly at the edge of the object you are cutting
out. If at all possible, you should give yourself (and the Flash
Player) a bit of room all the way around the image. I usually give
about a three-pixel buffer, and that works out pretty well. The
reason I allow this extra space is because of an old bug in the
Flash Player that would sometimes cut off the edge of an image or
shift the image data over by a few pixels. To the best of my know-
ledge, Adobe has fixed that issue, but I prefer to err on the side of
caution in cases like this.
As for the static elements, try to include as many of them as
you can in one image that can be used as the background of your
banner. A lot of times you can treat interactive elements the same
as static elements and include them in your background image as
well. For example, if you have a logo that will remain in the
top-left corner of the ad and that will link out to the client
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