Importing Photoshop Layers Into Flash

You have already created the Flash project file for your app. Open this fla file into Flash CS5.5. Right now, we only have one layer with one frame on the Timeline. To have room to work on our animations, we can add a few frames (100) to this layer. Right-click on the Frame 100 and choose Insert Frame.

Let's import the Photoshop image with all the design elements for the Welcome scene into the Flash Main Timeline.

Click File - Import - Import to Stage. Browse to the psd file you wish to import.
In the Import dialog box, you will see the individual element layers listed on the left. Click on the top layer to view the Import Options panel on the right.
Under Import this image layer as, click the Bitmap image with editable layer styles. This will automatically check the box next to Create movie clip from this layer.
Below this, you will see a text box where you can give this movie clip an Instance Name. I usually set the instance name to the name of the layer. In the example, the instance name for the purpleOrn layer will be purpleOrn.
Repeat this for each layer on the left. Then click OK.

You will now see that all the design elements are imported onto the stage and there is a corresponding layer in the Timeline. You can delete Layer 1. We won't be using this layer.

A little about Flash movie clips: Flash movie clips are the building blocks for any Flash animation. Making each design element that we import into the project a movie clip will "identify" the elements to Flash. As you would expect, each movie clip must have a unique name.

A littel about image resolution: Although some iOS SDK frameworks ask for the graphics to be at 300 dpi, Flash requests that we optimize our graphics as much as possible. So I reduced the resolution of the graphics to 72 dpi. All graphics were converted to movie clips when importing.

|
Join us in the Digital Art and Design forum. | Join us in the Flash forum.