Best way to import photoshop graphics into flash?

Hello everyone,

I am building a new flash template which has a lot of photoshop graphics, brushes, overlay blending modes etc. and I was wondering which would be the best way to import it to flash in order to animate it?

Import the psd or export all the images and import them one by one in the flash library? I am asking this because sometimes when importing photoshop graphics blending modes used do not work and it looks bad after transfering it to flash. Is there any way to fix this?

I think You should export (Save for Web, it does not include additional unnecessary data in to the files) them to PNGs if they has any transparency. PSDs may contain additional data, that You don’t need and it will make the final file larger. For blending mode to work, i think you need to import the files then convert them to Movieclips and then apply Flash blending mode. Or You could load the images dynamically, so some of images that will be used later, not on the home page, could load after. This will make the main file smaller and it will load fast and after, in the background, You will load the next images You need!

Or, if you don’t want to export them, you can open flash and import the images as they are, from a PSD to flash. When you do it that way it gives you a choice to load them as MovieClips or …. something else. And it also keeps their layer order, puts them in folders and creates them as movie clips.. or whatever you choose them to be. You can select them individually too. I did it with my Smooth XML Music Portfolio. Worked like a charm. Doing it that way also allows you to keep your text, because it imports text layers as well. Cool no? But for this to go right you need at least Flash CS3 .

Yeah thanks, that’s what I tried to do. But there are some issues when importing alpha layers like gradients etc. Will see how it turns out

If you have Photoshop CS5 , you can export FXG first, and then import it in Flash CS5 . To be able to export fxg from Photoshop, go to http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/photoshopcs5_fxg.html and install the extension. Before exporting, go to File>Scripts>Simplify layers fro FXG .

Ilya.

Ok I tried FXG but the import appears to be having some issues. Colors are not displaying correctly, do I need to set any specific settings?

I think png is the way to go.

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I found the best way to import files from photoshop to Flash is

-Make sure you do all your resizing in Photoshop, Flash can’t seem to cope with the pixels and often gives harsh aliased edges -Save file as PNG from photoshop with alpha if need be -import to stage

I tried every way I could think of, copy paste, drag from desktop, drag from photoshop, import through illustrator, this is the best way I could find. I was hoping that the move from macromedia would of enabled this kind of drag and dropping but alas no. Hope this helps someone