Have Fun with your Flash Images!

Ever wanted to make your photographs a bit more “stylized” or look more like an illustration or cartoon? Here is a quick tip on how to use Flash to turn your bitmap images into vectors.

1. Import image onto the Flash stage.

2. Select the image.

3. Select Modify / Bitmap / Trace Bitmap.

4. Adjust the settings as desired.

Here is the details about the settings (From Adobe Tech Notes): Color Threshold: The range is from 1 to 500. This setting determines the degree to which one pixel may vary in color from adjoining pixels before Flash interprets them as different colors. As you increase the threshold value, you decrease the number of colors. Minimum Area: The range is from 1 to 1000. This setting determines the size in pixels of each shape generated by the trace. The lower the setting, the smaller the shapes generated. Curve Fit: This menu has six settings that range from Pixels to Very Smooth. These menu settings determine how closely the edges between the individual vector shapes conform to the bitmap colors. The Very Smooth setting draws longer curves, while the Pixels setting creates many short curves. Corner Threshold: This menu has three settings; Many Corners, Normal, and Few Corners. These menu settings control the degree a single curve can bend before breaking into two separate curves with corners. Many Corners will yield a smoother line.

5. Viola! Fun images that you can use to add a bit of style. You can also manipulate the colors and backgrounds.

Here are a few examples:

Check out our eLearning games and Flash interactions!