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Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Creating a Texture with an Opacity Mask Using Adobe Photoshop
  3. Creating a Texture with an Opacity Mask Using Macromedia Flash (PNG)
  4. Leveraging the 256 Levels of Transparency in Alpha Channels Using Macromedia Fireworks
  5. Creating a Picture with an Alpha Channel Gradient for Display in a Transparent Flash Animation Blending with the HTML Page Background
  6. Creating an Alpha Channel Feather Effect in Photoshop (PSD)
  7. Creating an Alpha Channel Feather Effect in Fireworks (PNG)

Creating Bitmaps with Alpha Channels for Transparent Flash Applications, Director Bitmap Sprites, and Shockwave 3D Overlays

Creating a Texture with an Opacity Mask Using Flash (PNG)

  1. Open Macromedia Flash.

  2. Using the drawing tools, create a shape on the stage such as the one in Figure 10.

    Drawing a shape

    Figure 10. Drawing a shape

  3. Resize the stage to the size of the symbol or to the desired width and height. You can do this in the Document Properties dialog box: Select Modify > Document, or click the Size button in the Properties panel or press Control+J.

    Resizing the stage

    Figure 11. Resizing the stage

  4. Select File > Export > Export Image.

    Exporting the shape to a bitmap

    Figure 12. Exporting the shape to a bitmap

  5. In the file request window, select the PNG as the file format, give a name to the file and click Save. The Export PNG dialog box will appear.

    The Export PNG dialog box

    Figure 13. The Export PNG dialog box

  6. Select Full Document Size in the Include pop-up menu.
  7. To create a transparent 32-bit PNG bitmap with an alpha channel, select the 24 bit with alpha channel option in the Colors pop-up menu.
  8. Select None in the Filter pop-up menu, and click OK. Import your bitmap into the Director internal cast.

  9. Drag the arrow bitmap cast member from the internal cast to the stage twice, hence creating two overlapping bitmap sprites. As you can see, the arrow shape is transparent and the two bitmaps anti-alias smoothly against the stage and against each other, using the alpha channel data.

    Overlapping alpha bitmaps

    Figure 14. Overlapping alpha bitmaps

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