What’s new in Flash 19
Filters Filters let you create more compelling designs by applying visual effects to movie
clips and text. Filters are natively supported and rendered in real time by Flash Player 8. With
these filters, you can make objects glow, add drop shadows, and apply many other effects and
combinations of effects. For more information, see Chapter 9, “Using Filters and Blends
(Flash Professional only),” on page 225.
Blend modes You can achieve a variety of compositing effects by using blend modes to
change the way the image of one object on the Stage is combined with the images of any
objects beneath it. Flash offers runtime control over blend modes, letting you composite
graphical effects that are dynamic and can react to user interactivity. For more information,
see “Using Filters and Blends (Flash Professional only)” on page 225.
Bitmap smoothing Bitmap images now look much better on the Stage when severely
enlarged or reduced. The appearance of these bitmaps in the Flash authoring tool and in Flash
Player is now consistent.
Runtime bitmap caching Runtime bitmap caching lets you optimize playback performance
by specifying that a static movie clip (for example, a background image) or button symbol be
cached as a bitmap at runtime. Caching a movie clip as a bitmap prevents Flash Player from
having to continually redraw the image, providing a significant improvement in playback
performance. For more information, see “Runtime bitmap caching movie clip and button
symbols” on page 81.
Video improvements
Flash Professional 8 provides several new video features to help you more easily create
high-quality video presentations using Flash.
On2 VP6 video codec Flash encodes video files using the On2 VP6 video codec. The On2
VP6 codec provides superior video quality using the smallest possible file size. For more
information, see “About the On2 VP6 and Sorenson Spark video codecs” on page 280.
Improved video work flow The Video Import wizard has been improved to help you
deploy video content for embedded, progressively downloaded, and streaming video delivery.
You can import video stored locally on your computer, or video already deployed to a web
server or Flash Communication Server. For more information, see “Importing video using
the Video Import wizard” on page 284.
Flash 8 Video Encoder (Stand-alone Edition) To improve the work flow for video
professionals, Flash Professional 8 includes a new, stand-alone video encoder that you can
install on a computer dedicated to video encoding. The Flash 8 Video Encoder lets you batch
process video encoding, allowing you to encode several video clips at a time. Flash 8 Video
Encoder also lets you edit videoclips, embed cue points, and crop and trim the video’s frame
size. For more information, see “Encoding video” on page 293.
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