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Before we start working in Flash, it's very important to understand the way Flash creates
art. In this movie,
we'll talk about Flash's native drawing format, how it works and why Flash uses that method.
If you're following along, you can open up Bitmap_VS_Vector.swf
in the chapter 02 folder in the Exercise Files folder. Flash's native
drawing format is a format called Vector graphics. Vector graphics
are drawn with lines and shapes rather than with pixels,
like Bitmap graphics. An example of a program whose native data format is Bitmap graphics
is Adobe Photoshop. To understand the difference between Bitmap
graphics and Vector graphics, we have an example here. On the screen, there
are two circles. At first glance,
they may appear pretty similar, but if we drag the slider at the bottom of the screen,
notice the circle on the left, zoomed in, becomes somewhat pixilated
or blocky, while the circle on the left
remains smooth. So Bitmap drawing programs like Adobe Photoshop
are meant for working with Bitmap graphics which are drawn with pixels.
Vector drawing programs like Flash
draw shapes with lines. Not only are shapes drawn with lines in Vector
graphics, but they're drawn using mathematical formulas.
So Scaling the shape up or down doesn't affect the outline of a shape,
or any of the art inside of the shape. The reason why Flash uses vector graphics
is because vector graphics give you a very small file size, which is great for
putting content on the Web. And even though Flash's native drawing format is Vector graphics.
So all the content we'll create in Flash will be drawn using Vector
graphics. Any content that we want to have in a Flash animation that uses
Bitmap graphics will have to be imported. We'll talk about all of this throughout this
title. Now that you understand the difference between
Bitmap graphics and Vector graphics, let's start learning a little bit more about Flash.