|
|
Flash: Interactive Web Animation Excerpted and modified from the Macromedia MX Flash Help File A symbol is a graphic, button, or movie clip that you create once in Macromedia Flash MX and can reuse throughout your movie or in other movies. A symbol can include artwork that you import from another application. Any symbol you create automatically becomes part of the library for the current document. An instance is a copy of a symbol located on the Stage or nested inside another symbol. An instance can be very different from its symbol in color, size, and function. Editing the symbol updates all of its instances, but applying effects to an instance of a symbol updates only that instance. Using symbols in your movies dramatically reduces file size; saving
several instances of a symbol requires less storage space than saving
multiple copies of the contents of the symbol. For example, you can reduce
the file size of your movies if you convert static graphics such as background
images into symbols that you then reuse. Using symbols can also speed
movie playback, because a symbol needs to be downloaded to the Flash Player
only once. Each symbol has a unique Timeline and Stage, complete with layers. When you create a symbol you choose the symbol type, depending on how you want to use the symbol in the movie.
|
