Optimization tips to obtain small size flash movies for the web

1. When using text boxes do not include all font option outlines
2. The use of common fonts will not increases the size of your movie
3. The use of minimum frames and small symbols that can be enlarged
4. When importing jpg files try to bring them to flash at the size you need them, meaning if your jpg is 300 by 300 pixels but you need to make it 150 by 150 pixels do this before importing to the flash

Importing a vector file to flash

1. Create a graphic inside Adobe Illustrator
2. When saving the file, a dialog box will appear asking for compatibility, select Illustrator 5.0 or 5.5
3. Open flash, then from file menu select import, browse to the file you wish to import and click OK
4. your vector graphic is now inside of flash and each layer from Illustrator is imported into flash with the graphics on that layer grouped.
Note: It might be a drawback of a slight color shift

When to use motion tween and shape tween

Motion Tween
Move objects around the stage and we can alter objects as they move. You have to remember that only symbols (graphics, buttons, and movie clips) and grouped objects can be motion tweened. As a general rule, use motion tweens whenever you are moving an object without altering, changing transparency of objects as they animate, or when you need to use a motion guide.

Shape Tween
The idea is that at point A in time you have one object, and at a later point B you have another object and between the two points you have a gradual shape-shifting transformation from object A to object B. It is important to remember to only have one shape tween at any time on a layer. Also, it is important to remember when creating shape tween it must involve shapes and not groups or symbols. For a shape tween to work, it must be able to change the basic attributes such as stroke and fill so that it can morph the original shape into something else. It takes more power to perform a shape tween than it does to perform a motion tween. As a general rule, use shape tween when you want to tween shapes into different shapes, changing the color of objects, or moving object while altering them.

Mask an when to use it

Masks acts as a way of selectively showing and hiding content in a flash movie, based on the position of the mask, which lives on a separate layer from the content that it's masking. Masks can be static or animated. When we create a mask, it is as if we lay a piece of card over our animation and block it all out. Next, we cut a window in the card and reveal a section of what's underneath. As general rule, it is a good idea to make your mask areas different color so that you can easily differentiate them from other movie content. Also, when working with mask on one layer, it is a good idea to lock the layer containing the mask objects so you can not suddenly select both objects at once.

Here are some example when to use mask:
1. When you need to show text scrolling from left to right
2. When you want to zoom into an area on a picture and keep the viewable area inside a constant-sized window. As the picture is magnified and gets bigger, we only want to show the zoomed area of the picture and hide all other areas.
3. When you want to simulate text being typed on the screen, making it appear, letter by letter, from left to right.
4. Animating bitmap images as if they were vectors.