All,
Work is still slow. Yay!
So I decided to try something for fun. Animating a TRex skeleton. So I went and found one and imported it and sliced it up into various symbols. Made a bunch of layers, one for each part and then re-assembled it. Decided I didn't need the original bitmap anymore and deleted it from my library. Immediately, every symbol that I'd created by slicing up the bitmap lost all of it's image quality (texture, if you will) and became a red silhouette. Is it necessary to keep the original bitmap from which symbols are created or did I do something odd?
Thanks,
-Mark
If you are using Flash and they are filled with the bitmap, yes you should keep the bitmap in your library. I only adds weight to the fla not the swf, so why not keep it. Somewhere on your computer you must still have that bitmap, import it back in and you should be alright.
Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.
This is a good time to remind people that versioning your work is a good idea, even (or especially) when you're just experimenting.
Also, when in doubt about what do-dads in your library are in use (since the "Use Count" and "Linkage" don't ever seem to tell you anything) you can try copying all the frames in your timeline into a new document and see what it brings along with it to the new library.
Ted Nunes - www.tedtoons.com
You can also use the "select unused items" command in the library. Though far from thorough, it does a pretty good job of hilighting stuff you don't currently have anywhere on the stage.
Well, thanks for the replies but none of them worked. When I re-import the image, nothing happens. I re-imported the image, edited the symbols by cutting out the interesting parts of the bitmap and then overlaying them on the silhouette... and then did a 'select unused', it highlighted the bitmap and so I deleted it and it happened again. Undo, incidentally, doesn't work. That's the first thing I did. The only thing that helped was closing the file without saving changes and re-opening it.
I did copy all the frames into a new doc and it did bring over the bitmap so I don't know why flash thinks it's unused. Oh well.
Is there a way to make a symbol completely standalone so I don't have to worry about this again? Seems like a bug to me but I don't begin to claim to understand flash.
-Mark
Did you break apart the bitmap, before you sliced and diced it, you might want to try that. And stop deleting the bitmap in the library, why do you insist on doing that. Bad move. Or you may even want to maybe trace the outline of the bitmap and come up with something close to your own graphics...maybe try that. Maybe draw your own bones....think you might be able to do that?
Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.
From what I can tell, Flash referecences the bitmap or jpg file onto the symbols and doesn't actually apply it to them. So you will need to keep the bitmap file in the library.
Aloha,
the Ape
...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."
If the bitmap is used for fill it's certainly referenced. Check the color panel and bitmap fill thumbs are they there, then don't delete the bitmap. They won't show up as assets used for symbols, but they are being used by the program. Sometimes you have to be just a little smarter than the software.
Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.