Fading Bitmaps

[CoolMoves]

I didn't see anything on this subject so i'll ask here, just in case any other newbees have the same question. I wanted to fade bitmaped pictures in and out. I'm sure this is possible but how? Thanks.

[johnie]

As far as I know it has to be done by hand.

To do it place a shape over your bitmap that is about the same size as your bitmap and is set to the background color.

In the frame that you want to fade in set the transparancy of your masking shape to 255.

I hope that helps.


Transparancy on bitmaps would be a good feature but as far as I know BMP and JPEG do not support them. PNG and GIF supports it though.

[CoolMoves]

Oh boy, i'm sad I just assumed that it would have fading. My next question was going to be how do you set the speed, but I guess that's out of the question now...

Just about everything that i'll use it for involves fading. And yes, .png would be very nice and would solve a lot of other problems too.

[johnie]

It was on a wish list.

Kool Move shapes can fade. Use the trace function or vectorize your graphic.

[CoolMoves]

Originally posted by johnie
In the frame that you want to fade in set the transparancy of your masking shape to 255.

I must be looking for the wrong thing. I can't find anything anywhere that says 'transparancy'. Or should I be looking for something about masking instead ?

[johnie]

There is nothing about masking in the help files.

See this thread

http://www.flashkit.com/board/showth...threadid=27395

and this one

http://www.flashkit.com/board/showth...threadid=23999

[johnie]

The transparancy setting is in the color dialog box. Its the thing that looks like a grid.

[Bob Hartzell]

I added a transparency keyword to the help which I worked on a bit. I will add a slider for transparency soon.

[johnie]

We can go to

http://www.openswf.org

and read the specs to see if its possible.

My guess would be that the image would have to be vectorized first.

Although Swish allows Gifs into it. We could ask them how they did it and whether or not it supports transparancy.

[CoolMoves]

Ok thanks again johnie. I saw the grid thingy, it was on the bottom of the color window, but I thought it had to do with setting how much of the grid you wanted to see

I wish there was a class that I could take and just sit down at a desk and learn this stuff. I'd pick up and learn the whole program in a day or two, but this 'hit or miss' learning on my own just takes so long.

I'm devoting the whole day to Koolmoves today so expect some really dumb questions

[johnie]

More tutorials will fix that.

I will say that Kool Moves is eaiser to learn than Swish and LM and Flash- well not that easy.

That is one of the reasons why I like it.

[CoolMoves]

Bob I went into the help files and typed in 'transparancy' but it only came up with 'trace image'. You have to look up transparancy manually (it's under shapes) to find it. I'm not sure if that's the way you wanted it to work or not.

[johnie]

on GIF transparancy

It is supported.

In fact Swish makes use of it in 1.51. I don't know how though.

[CoolMoves]

well that's a good sign...

Time for those Swish guys to give up their secrets

[johnie]

LOL

We could tie them to a chair and tickle them until they tell us everthing.

[CoolMoves]

Well I think it would be more torturous for them if I just post all of my questions regarding this in their forum. After a week or two they will be begging Bob to learn all of their secrets

[johnie]

Nah,

they'll just tell you that their product is superior and that you should purchase it.

It isn't really a bad product- I feel that it lacks functionality becuase you;

1. Can only move images up and down on a straight line.

2. Can't morph shapes

3. Can't create custom text effects or edit the ones they provide.

4. It uses scenes and a timeline which I don't like- I prefer Kool Moves WYSWIG envirenment to their demi-programer environment.

Of course I do own both programs -60 dollars to own both- and use Swish ocasionally to make text effects.

[CoolMoves]

Yeah i'm going to buy Swish just as soon as I learn how to use Koolmoves. They should have a new version out by then