Using Bitmap(photoshop) images in illustrator

[Guest_imported]

I'm new to the vector graphic world. I'm a web developer for a firm in El Paso Texas, and I've been given the task of making a flash based website for our company.Because I have greater control over graphics in photoshop, I was trying to construct the graphics in photoshop and then copy them over to flash. Well, as I'm sure you know, I get a white box filling in the areas left by the shape to form a rectangle.
So far, I've just been erasing the white part to get the imageinto something I can work with. I was wondering, is there a moe efficent way of donig this? I was trying some masking in illustrator, but haven't worked that out quite yet. Also, any good book suggestions would be helpfull too. Thanks!
Ken
redwolf@sirius-images.com

 

[herur]

Try drawing them in Illustrator, Freehand or QuarkXpress and save or export them as EPS files which can then be imported into Flash.

 

[hohriver]

I really got lost on what any of your process had to do with Illustrator, but.....as for eliminating the 'white' background in the selection area: do that in ImageReady, or within FireWorks if you have it.
In either of these modes you receive a palette of 'eye dropper tools' when choosing Save Optimized As....and then you can choose the eyedropper to remove a designated color and click on the white part. Basically, this produces a transparent background.
Now, this may not be 'enough' for getting a nice, sharp or distinct image into Flash. You may find that you have also carried a 'halo' along with the image, or a rough and irregular discolored mass surrounding your preferred image object(s). There is a technique to dampen the halo effect, too....so if you get that far and this is relevant....just ask and I'll include the steps.

 

[hohriver]

dawndragon: aw what the heck...here's the steps to remove the 'halo', which is simply the 'dithered' pixels surrounding an image:

.] REMOVING the 'HALO' surrounding transparent GIF's and text
1.) two layers in photoshop, turn off background layer
2.) Under 'File' (still in PS), select 'Save for Web'
3.) click Optimize tab
4.) Select 'Matte' option, and with color wheel select
appropriate background equivalent color
5.) Save as Optimized
*this technique will outline the text with the background
color so dithering between colors will be avoided

I hope I was on the right wavelength here! Good luck..

 

[ranthon]

dawndragon,
the way i've brought AI files into flash is to save them as 5.0/5.5 and import them in from flash...this may be an old and useless with AI 9.0, but that is how i did it from 8.0.....good luck..


also if you import raster images(.gif) into flash, it kind of defeats the purpose of using flash because one of the best features of vector art (flash,illustrator,freehand) is that if it is scaled up (zoomed in) there is no loss of image quality, also the file is just has to calculate the location of the points and how they connect...with raster it has to store every setting per pixal....

 

[askIllustrator]

.png files my friend