Here’s a pro-tip I haven’t seen published anywhere else. If you animate, and you’re frustrated with the line quality in Flash, you have options. Of course, you can import frames into Flash from Photoshop – but an even better solution is drawing and importing your frames from Sketchbook Pro. The advantage of using Sketchbook Pro is that you have a more nuanced line to work with. It gives your drawings a real “pencil test” feel that you can’t easily replicate within Adobe Flash.
Sketchbook Pro supports saving files out to PSD format (Photoshop’s native format). Simply create your layered frame sequence in Sketchbook Pro and save it out as a PSD.
Before importing your files into Flash, you’ll want to go into Flash’s preferences first. Under PSD file importer, you’ll want to check to make sure “Bitmap images with editable layer styles” is checked. Not setting this option will cause your frames to appear pixelated.
When you’re importing your Sketchbook Pro file you’ll want to check the visibility for all the frames you plan on importing. Make sure “Convert layers to Keyframes” is selected. This will place all the frames sequentially on one Flash layer. Also important: you’ll want to make sure your stage size is consistent. In other words, if you’re working at 720 x 540 pixels (NTSC) in Sketchbook Pro, you’ll want to insure that your Flash stage settings match.
Below are a few rough animations I’ve created using this workflow. NOTE: You’ll have to click the images to play them from my Flickr page.
-Krishna
