Designing for Flash Development

Images

Flash can import Illustrator AI files in version 10 or earlier. If the raster file in Illustrator is linked, only JPEG, GIF, or PNG is imported with native format reserved. All other files are converted to PNG format in Flash. Additionally, conversion to PNG depends on the version of QuickTime installed. AI files are best for images that will be scaled and/or animated. While png, jpeg, and gif are best for loading external images that are typically inanimate.

Note: To use an AI EPS save the file as a CS3 compatible AI file. The AI Importer was developed to import AI files created with Illustrator CS3. While there are no known issues importing AI files created in earlier versions of Illustrator, we recommend importing AI files created using Illustrator CS 3. If you encounter issues importing AI files created in earlier version of Illustrator, open the file in Illustrator CS 3, and save the AI file as a CS 3 compatible file and re-import it into Flash.

9 Slice

You should always design your images to be 9 sliced for scaling and dynamic display.

Components

Components are all the bells and whistles that make the flash application usable. Knowing what assets are available in flash and how to customize them (or what can be customized about them) is important when designing an interface that is both pleasing to the eye, programmatically possible, and within the project’s scope. In other words, we try not to re-create the wheel if necessary.

Style Sheets

It’s very important to note your final design comp with color codes, font families, font size, font style and component properties (alpha, x, y, z). You will also want to include as many views and states as possible. If a button has a roll over affect both its roll out, and roll over states should be represented in the comp and noted as so.