Fading an image in flash

I think I'm doing it the hard way.

[Powdork]

So far, since I've never used flash before yesterday, this is how I'm going about it. I've gotten the image how I like it in Photoshop. It's a 2 layer image with a feathered edge and a background layer equal to the webpages background. I've dropped the opacity of the image layer in photoshop by 5% increments, saving as a bitmap after each increment. The I made a frame by frame animation with the twenty frames as the image fades in and the same twenty in the opposite order as it fades out. Given I want to have this happen simultaneously with three images fading at the same time, each with two different images to cycle through, its getting to be a pretty large file. I'm certain there is an easier way to do this that will result in a smaller file size. The manual mentions an alpha setting for bitmaps on the property inspector but I haven't seen that option yet. I'm using Dreamweaver MX (educational).

[benihana]

what version of flash are you using?

to simply fade one image in flash5/mx/mx2004: (adapt to suit your needs)

import the image to the stage and press f8 to convert to symbol. choose graphic as the symbol type.

in the timeline at the top of the work area, right click in say, frame 10 and choose 'insert keyframe'.

now click back on the image on the stage - at the bottom in the properties inspector there is a select menu that says 'color' - select alpha from that, a percentage slider will popup at the right - drop it down to 0.

now go back to the timeline - frames between 1 and 10 should be greyed out - right click on frame 1 and choose create motion tween.

if you press the enter key youll be able to preview the effect.

ben

[Powdork]

Thank You Benihana,
You are very wise and can catch shrimp in your pocket.:)
I'm using mx so I'll go try it. I could never get the color tab to show up on the property inspector, probably because I had never switched it to a symbol.