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Optimizing a Flash Movie

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6. Adding Frames

I can further reduce the delay by adding a number of frames to the initial animation so that frame 32 is shunted along, giving more time for the Jpeg to download:

By adding extra time, frame 32 has moved to frame 47. The bump on the scale has gone down from 8 to 6kb.

Caution: Do not over do animation. Usually designers love creating animation but if the viewer has come to the site to find out what time his train leaves the station, he does not want to sit through a feature film animation, no matter how good it may be!

Size of the Jpeg
Another solution would be to make the original picture smaller. By smaller I mean by how many pixels (or inches/cm) it measures. The small in pixels the picture is, the smaller the file size will be. In my animation the the lower part of the image is never visible! To do this you need to go back to PhotoShop (or similar) and then re-import the file into Flash.

Swapping the Image
If you do edit your image outside Flash when you re-import it will over-write the previous symbol. If you do not want this to happen change the name before you import it to Flash: myPicture2.jpg

Once you have your new picture in Flash you do not need to re-do all the animation that you have created with that image. You can swap it.

1. Double click on the image on stage.
2. Continue to do this until you reach the original image.
   You know when you reach the original image because the Property Inspector tells you:
   
   
   
3. Right click (Mac - Ctrl click) and select: Swap Bitmap

What is a Bitmap ?
A bitmap is an image that has been created in a Paint/Photo type program or scanned into the computer and is made up of thousands of dots. Jpegs, Gifs and Pngs are all Bitmap images. Bitmap images usually have large file sizes.

Vector Images
Vector images are things which have been drawn in Flash or a Graphics program such as Freehand, Illustrator or CorelDraw. Unlike a bitmap the size (in pixels) of a Vector image does not increase file size! Vector images are almost always small file sizes !!

Even though vector images have small file sizes in comparison to Bitmaps you should be sparing with the use of Gradients and Alpha settings (semi transparency) as they may increase the file size if over used.

Cross Ref: For more detailed info on Images see tutorial: Beginners - Pictures for the Web