Re: FLASH: Filter/plugins for Flash 5?

[Daniel Gray]

Dan wrote:


> > In many cases a single highly compressed bitmap can be more efficent

> > than a gaggle of vector objects.


John wrote:


> That's true, there can certainly be some cases where they're appropriate.

> 

> This does not invalidate what I actually said, though: Each and every day,

> on each and every list, we see people hurt by an over-reliance on

> pixel-based imagery.

> 

> The fact that they're often bad, does not imply that they're always bad...

> the fact that they're sometimes good, does not imply that they're always

> good.


Sure thing, John!  That's why we need to enlighten folks as to the

proper use of bitmaps, rather than frighten folks from using bitmaps

entirely.


Vector head that I am, I've never bought into the pure vector dogma. 

The *art* is what's most important.  We need to help folks figure out

what to use and when.


> > Perhaps future versions of the Flash player could improve upon the

> > present version's performance with bitmaps?  Maybe it could support

> > advanced compression techniques?  That would be a very very cool thing.

> 

> Work could go there, but there's already a far superior fixed-resolution

> bitmap display engine... the Shockwave Player is on the majority of

> consumer systems out there. For compositing it's many, many times faster

> than the realtime vector-rendering engine, and also supports other media

> types like digital video and realtime 3D.


By some accounts the Shockwave Player is at about 50% installed, no? 

And just so that folks don't get the wrong impression, the 3D stuff

isn't there (yet), right?


> For "advanced compression techniques" we use mostly precompressed GIF and

> JPG graphics, with live links to the source material... no matter which

> brand of photo-processor or painting tool you use, you can hit the "Update"

> button in Macromedia Flash to retrieve a newly-compressed version. (There's

> also internal bitmap compression, but it seems more sensible to rely on

> dedicated bitmap utilities for tweaking compression.)


What about something like Altamira's fractal compression?  Could this be

hotwired into the Flash Player? 


Again, I'm thinking about cartoon backgrounds with vector character

animation.  I was just watching "Hey Arnold" with the kids and saw this

very technique used (yet again).  I'm guessing that high end animation

software like ToonBoom makes this standard fare...


> Compression techniques also include the core vector curves, and bringing

> many types of vector graphics into the Macromedia Flash authoring

> environment can result in an overall reduction of the size of the curves...

> this vector compression occurs behind the scenes. (If you don't mind

> possible changes to the visuals then you can also manually manipulate this

> with the smoothing options for even greater vector compression.)


Here's where I (as the artist) can go a bit bonkers.  The subtleties of

line work are easily destroyed with automatic smoothing techniques.  The

integrity of great art shouldn't be comprimised with the click of a

button.  


But hey, that's just me.  :)


Cheers,

Dan

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