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From: William_Donelson on 1 Feb 2006 06:56
I am taking the tutorials, and they often direct you to make Symbols out of
graphical elements. When SHOULD you do this and why? What are the drawbacks?
If all my graphics are different, would I ever want any of them to be Symbols?

Thanks

From: aswaduraai on 1 Feb 2006 07:02
hi congrats for stepping into the ocean of flash.. ur waves would also rise one
day....whenever u want ur file size to be smaller u can use symbols. there are
three types of symbols u can create buttons ... when the symbol had some
animating affect u can make the different animating parts as Graphic symbols
and nest them in a movie clip.....REFER some flash tutorials more u would get
some idea about them... its so easy u can understand earlier.... All the Best

Regards
Durairaajs

From: David Stiller on 1 Feb 2006 07:03
William,

> I am taking the tutorials, and they often direct you to
> make Symbols out of graphical elements. When SHOULD
> you do this and why?

By "graphical elements," I assume you mean imported JPGs, GIFs, and the
like. Until you convert them into symbols, you cannot tween them. Symbols
can be movie clips, graphics, or buttons. Buttons give you a quick, easy
way to produce an object that has a hover look and a clicked look. Graphics
are pretty basic; they effectively just allow you to do the tweening. Movie
clips are the most powerful kind of symbol; they can do everything that
buttons and graphics do, plus more.

Shapes that you draw by hand in Flash don't *have* to be made into
symbols, but you'll only be able to apply Shape tweens to them. Motion
tweens can only be applied to symbols (of any of the three kinds of
symbols).

> What are the drawbacks?

I can't think of any.

> If all my graphics are different, would I ever want any of
> them to be Symbols?

Sure, for the above reasons. :)


David
stiller (at) quip (dot) net
"Luck is the residue of good design."


From: Chris (mudbubble) on 1 Feb 2006 08:33

aswaduraai wrote:
whenever u want ur file size to be smaller u can use symbols.


That's a little misleading - your file size will *not* become smaller by converting everything to
symbols. When you use a symbol on the timeline, it references the Library symbol source it cam from.
If you reuse that same symbol 100 times, flash only needs to load it once - so the more you use the
instance of the library symbol on stage the more *efficient* your movie will be. If you don't
convert anything to symbols then flash will have to load everything frame by frame, even if the same
object is used throughout the timeline - not very efficient.
You can apply filters and effects to symbols which also give them an advantage.

******************************************
--> Team Macromedia
--> www.mudbubble.com
--> www.keyframer.com
From: William_Donelson on 1 Feb 2006 08:53
page 195 of the tutorial says:
"A graphic symbol is well suited for repeated use of static images, or for
creating animations associated with the main Timeline. Unlike with movie clip
and button symbols, you cannot give instance names to graphic symbols, nor can
you refer to them in ActionScript."

--"You CANNOT refer to them in ActionScript."

Does this mean I can't move (say) a direction pointer around on the screen
according to a script, e.g. to spin it according to where you are looking in a
360 panorama?


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