Saving space: Backrounds

[Roe-Sharp]

I heard elsewhere that drawing a background in a program like Photoshop and then importing it to stage as an image would save more space than if I drew the background in Flash, and I have questions about that.

First: I'm curious if that's true. There are plenty of people who talk, but don't actually know for certain.

Second: [If the first question is true], if I drew the background in Flash and published it as a picture file, would it still save me the space. I'm asking that because I don't own Photoshop or any other art programs outside of MSpaint.

Third: [If the second question is true], what sort of picture file would save the most space while still keeping maximum quality? When it comes to saving space, I do not want to sacrifice the quality of my animations for lowering the size of the .SWF file.

I'm still trying to learn all I can to keep my animations small sized to save bandwidth, and keep my animations within the 10 MB limitation.

Thanks for your help.

[SirAlex]

At 8/22/11 06:45 PM, Roe-Sharp wrote: I heard elsewhere that drawing a background in a program like Photoshop and then importing it to stage as an image would save more space than if I drew the background in Flash, and I have questions about that.

First: I'm curious if that's true. There are plenty of people who talk, but don't actually know for certain.

Yes it is true.

Second: [If the first question is true], if I drew the background in Flash and published it as a picture file, would it still save me the space. I'm asking that because I don't own Photoshop or any other art programs outside of MSpaint.

I guess so.

Third: [If the second question is true], what sort of picture file would save the most space while still keeping maximum quality? When it comes to saving space, I do not want to sacrifice the quality of my animations for lowering the size of the .SWF file.

Jpeg

I'm still trying to learn all I can to keep my animations small sized to save bandwidth, and keep my animations within the 10 MB limitation.

If you go over 10MB just PM Tom he's a nice guy and if your flash is good he'll let it pass regardless of the size, but keep in mind Pico's School is only 487.4 KB!

Thanks for your help.

your welcome

[Damien]

At 8/22/11 06:52 PM, Alex616 wrote:

Third: [If the second question is true], what sort of picture file would save the most space while still keeping maximum quality? When it comes to saving space, I do not want to sacrifice the quality of my animations for lowering the size of the .SWF file.

Jpeg

I actually disagree. PNG is a way better filetype for:
-Perfect compression
-Perfect quality

But hey, whatever floats your boat.

[SirAlex]

At 8/22/11 07:01 PM, Damien wrote: I actually disagree. PNG is a way better filetype for:
-Perfect compression
-Perfect quality

But hey, whatever floats your boat.

yeah he's right I just tested it in flash and it works.

[fluffkomix]

At 8/22/11 07:01 PM, Damien wrote:
I actually disagree. PNG is a way better filetype for:
-Perfect compression
-Perfect quality

But hey, whatever floats your boat.

yeah you should only really use jpg for website presentation

[Damien]

At 8/23/11 01:37 PM, fluffkomix wrote: yeah you should only really use jpg for website presentation

JPG should die in a fire.

[JayMoyes]

In general, not just flash:

Jpg: if you're using a photo, especially something flattened after adding a lot of effects like blurs, and artistic filters.

Png: if you've got a cartoon like graphic with line art and simple colors. Also if your image is on a layer with no background. (Also very handy for things like Cafe Press, but that's another subject).

Difference I recently learned between flash and both formats, there are issues with tweens and resizing. Flash of course, being vector, is smoother, whereas if you're doing a tween with a jpg or png, you may get some distracting pixelation and artifacting.

Alternative: Try a vector based program like illustrator. You get the benefits of small file sizes, and a clean vector look.

[Emrox]

If you draw it in flash and save it as an .SVG that saves a little space (and lags less.) Unless you have movieclip effects. Then JPEG it up all the way.