Vector vs. Bitmap

[LynnB]

I read, Jack that you said bitmap is better to use then vector because the calculations needed to render vectors is much more processor intensive then bitmap. So why is Flash a vector drawing program and not a bitmap program? So say, If I wanted to create a box with a stroke I should do it in a program like Photoshop and import it to Flash to use?

 

Thanks!

by the way, I signed up for the $99 club membership and glad to be here!

[GreenSock]

Well first off, thanks for joining the club. Welcome!

 

As for the vector vs bitmap thing, yes, in general bitmaps render more quickly (are less processor-intensive) than vectors. In fact, the difference can be huge if you're talking about complex vector artwork. However, be careful not to pigeon-hole Flash as a "vector drawing program" - it can create bitmaps as well. In fact, Flash can take vector artwork at runtime and make it into a bitmap using BitmapData or even just by setting cacheAsBitmap as true. Vectors certainly have their place, though. If, for example, you are going to scale something up in size, vectors are fantastic and render much more sharply than bitmaps which would get blurry/pixelated.

 

If you're going to make a box with a stroke, no, you don't need to do that in Photoshop and import it. If you're in a situation where you must improve performance and you have a vector box with a stroke, I'd just create it in Flash (either with the drawing tools or dynamically with the ActionScript drawing API) and draw() it into a BitmapData and use that instead. It's just making the vector into a bitmap at runtime. That assumes, of course, that you're not needing to scale it up.

 

Make more sense now?

[LynnB]

Yes, Jack that makes for clearer understanding. Thanks for taking the time to answer.

[darngooddesign]

As for why Flash is a vector program.

 

Flash started back when all you had was slooooooooowwwww dialup as a way to delivering animations which had extremely low load times. It was either Flash, Animated GIFs or limited HTML trickery. Any decent bitmap animation would be huge, when compared to a 28.8/56k modems. Originally what you could do with Flash was very limited so it really wasn't processor intensive in the way we think of that now. To put it in perspective, SWFs were originally a compression format.