Exporting your entire animation—or one or more of the individual frames that make up your animation—is very similar to publishing. In both cases, you get to specify which file format you'd like Flash to write, and in both cases, you get to tweak file settings based on the file format you choose. Flash designates the most common file formats (.html, .swf, .gif, .jpg, .png, and projector files) as publishing destinations and all other file formats as export destinations. Most of the time, you'll export (rather than publish) an image, sound, or your entire animation when you want to work with it in another graphics or animation program.
To export to a single frame image, select File→Export→Export Image. To export to an animation (multiframe) file format or an audio format, select File→Export→Export Movie. In Flash Professional CS5, there are very few differences in the available formats for Macs and PCs. The most significant is that Windows computers can write to the Windows BMP, AVI, and WAV formats. Table 20-1 shows the available formats.
Table 20-1. File formats to which you can export your Flash animation
Format | Extension | Note |
|---|---|---|
SWF Movie | .swf | Single Frame Image |
Adobe FXG | .fxg | Single Frame Image |
Bitmap | .bmp | Single Frame Image |
JPEG Image | .jpg | Single Frame Image |
GIF Image | .gif | Single Frame Image |
PNG Image | .png | Single Frame Image |
SWF Movie | .swf | Animation |
Windows AVI (Windows only) | .avi | Animation |
QuickTime | .mov | Animation |
Animated GIF | .gif | Animation |
WAV Audio (Windows only) | .wav | Audio |
JPEG Sequence | .jpg | Animation |
GIF Sequence | .gif | Animation |
PNG Sequence | .png | Animation |
Exporting the contents of a single frame of your animation lets you create a one-frame animation or (more commonly) an image file you can edit with another image-editing program.
Note
Exporting an image from one animation and then importing the image into another animation is one way to share images between Flash documents. You can also share by saving the image as a graphic symbol in one animation, and then using the Library panel's drop-down list to add the symbol to another animation, as described in Chapter 7.
On the stage, click to select the frame you want to export.
Flash highlights the selected frame.
Choose File→Export→Export Image.
The Export Image dialog box you see in Figure 20-16 appears.
From the pop-up menu, choose the file format to which you want to export.
In Windows, this menu is called "Save as type"; on the Mac, it's called Format.
In the Filename (Save As) box, type a name for your exported file.
Leave the file extension Flash suggests.
Click Save.
Flash displays an Export window containing format-specific settings, as shown in Figure 20-17.
In the Export window, set one or more export options, and then click OK.
Flash exports the contents of your frame to the file format you chose in step 3.
Exporting your animation to another file format lets you edit the animation using another animation program, like Apple's QuickTime. You might want to do this if, for example, you want to combine frames from Flash and QuickTime animations into a single animation.
Choose File→Export→Export Movie.
The Export Movie dialog box you see in Figure 20-18 appears.
From the pop-up menu, choose the file format to which you want to export.
In Windows, this menu is called "Save as type"; on the Mac, it's called Format.
In the Save As box, type a name for your exported file.
Leave the file extension Flash suggests.
Click Save.
Flash displays an Export window containing format-specific settings, as shown in Figure 20-19.
In the Export window, set one or more export options, and then click OK.
Flash exports the contents of your frame to the file format you chose in step 2.
Figure 20-19. When you export your animation, Flash displays the same settings you see when you publish your animation. From Flash's perspective, the two processes are the same, but you may appreciate the convenience of publishing over exporting. For example, when you publish your animation, Flash lets you save your settings in an easy-to-reuse publish profile (see the box on page 653). Not so when you export your animation.
