Moho Animation Forum

Recently I downloaded the Free Jack resources, which are mostly Flash FLA files. How can I get some of the characters from these Flash files into ASP9? I tried exporting from Flash into a FXG file, to import into Photoshop which doesn't work, so then tried importing it into Illustrator, and it doesn't seem to work very well (missing pieces). I had hoped to import them with layers intact, and as vectors instead of images. Anyone have any tips or suggestions?

Only possible way would be to export from Flash to AI, then AI to AS. But this is cumbersome and the result may not satisfy.

except Flash CS6 no longer exports to AI files, it uses the intermediary FXG file format, which has problems.

I've done a lot of this in the past, using an old copy of Flash (Flash Eight)*. You can probably pick it up cheap on eBay. You can save out AI files and then import them into AS. Trouble is, you can spend hours getting rid of all the hundreds (sometimes literally) of unneccessary nodes/points. I found it easier to export shapes as .png segments, import them into AS, and then trace them as vectors. A lot less heartache.

* I used the number here, but it was turned into a smiley face with sunglasses. How is this helping anybody? Guess I should turn smileys off!!

jahnocli wrote:I've done a lot of this in the past, using an old copy of Flash (Flash Eight)*. You can probably pick it up cheap on eBay. You can save out AI files and then import them into AS. Trouble is, you can spend hours getting rid of all the hundreds (sometimes literally) of unneccessary nodes/points. I found it easier to export shapes as .png segments, import them into AS, and then trace them as vectors. A lot less heartache.

* I used the number here, but it was turned into a smiley face with sunglasses. How is this helping anybody? Guess I should turn smileys off!!

Thank you, I hadn't thought of this nor tried it. How difficult is it to export the individual pieces? (I have Flash, just not too familiar with it...)

All of this depends on how "creative" you are or how well you can work around the obstacles.

You could export individual parts, which would require isolating the parts in Flash (or illustrator if you convert) and exporting each part as a png and importing into AS to trace. This would require making sure all the exported parts are the same relative size, and if you need to have exact placement some sort of registration marks, or exporting all parts to the same canvas size so they all import into AS in the same position. This might be a good use of Photoshop if you have it. You could assemble the images as layers and simply import the psd as separate layers and trace.

Now, this seems like a lot of effort (and it is), an easier solution would be to simply export the characters as images without doing anything. You just have the full character image, then import into AS and trace it. You would have to guess some areas that are covered up (like what is under the arm) or guess how the parts work together. This is what I mean about "creative problem solving". The benefit to this is that you are using AS to build the character using the AS tools. If you are going to us AS instead of Flash anyway, avoiding having to use Flash is a good thing.

The second solution is exactly how I do original characters I create from scratch. I simply draw the character and don't bother creating image parts. I just trace over my drawing and refine it as I go along.