Hi thanks for this!
Do you know of a neater way to export flash drawn images to illustrator? I have tried everything and had zero luck. the paths don't import well.

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"maggy, para hacer esas ilustraciones tan... provocativas hay ke estar exitado y ser hombre..."

when you say "paths" are you talking about "fills"? also what exactlay are you trying to import, each thing needs something a little diffrent so...?

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SesshÙmaru: [after witnessing a small argument between Inuyasha and Kagome] Inuyasha, your patience with this creature is astonishing to me. You protect her, indulge her, even seem to love her.
Inuyasha: Uhh...

let me start over haha. i draw everything in flash using the brush tool and i'd like to be able to import the files into illustrator seamlessly for edits. since flash has size limitations and all that. things like adding patterns and even doing complicated gradients are hard to do in flash itself because the program either lags or you have to enter patterns manually using the copy and paste command.

by paths i meant the stuff between each anchor point basically, they distort when importing something from flash to illustrator and illustrator adds about 6,000 new anchor points which aren't in the original flash file. the outcome is not only inaccurate when it comes to placement of strokes and anchor points, but somehow the files usually slow down illustrator all together because of all the added anchor points. it's like illustrator makes the flash file more complex than it is.

what i usually do is that i export the flash file as an EPS file and open it in illustrator, but that doesn't conserve groupings, layers, transparencies or most color information. then i tried exporting the file directly as an AI and that was even worse.

so that's it. i'm totally lost. do you have any advice for me?

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"maggy, para hacer esas ilustraciones tan... provocativas hay ke estar exitado y ser hombre..."

The only thing I know that can help you in this situation is after import into Illustrator go to Object> Path> Simplify this only helps a little with the amount of anchor points and it is best if you reduce the amount of points only by a little like 98% or something...[link]

... The thing is when they were making flash they did not intend for you to import into Illustrator for that purpose...the Export image for flash is mainly intended so you can print the image, not continue to edit once in another program. The only way to get that resolved is go to the Adobe website and leave a comment requesting that they update the program for the next version of Flash. I agree with you though, the brush tool in Flash is really nice to work with and I can see why you are working in it that way.

As far as I know there is no way of exporting from Flash to Illustrator and retaining your Layers. I could always be wrong though.

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SesshÙmaru: [after witnessing a small argument between Inuyasha and Kagome] Inuyasha, your patience with this creature is astonishing to me. You protect her, indulge her, even seem to love her.
Inuyasha: Uhh...

sorry I was not of much help.

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SesshÙmaru: [after witnessing a small argument between Inuyasha and Kagome] Inuyasha, your patience with this creature is astonishing to me. You protect her, indulge her, even seem to love her.
Inuyasha: Uhh...

yeah i tried simplify and it warped the image even more. took away a lot of the curves in the image instead of getting rid of the unnecessary anchors. i know adobe had to do a lot of tweeking with flash in order for it to be semi-workable with their other programs. i hope cs4 has better compatibility. it would be amazing to be able to simply drag an image from one program to the other while keeping everything exactly in tact, wouldn't it?

we can all dream. thanks for the advice!

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[link] - join!!

"maggy, para hacer esas ilustraciones tan... provocativas hay ke estar exitado y ser hombre..."

I think they will eventually make one giant Adobe program with everything in it...but that will be a while. lol!

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SesshÙmaru: [after witnessing a small argument between Inuyasha and Kagome] Inuyasha, your patience with this creature is astonishing to me. You protect her, indulge her, even seem to love her.
Inuyasha: Uhh...

you are wonderful! please more illustrator with flash!! love that adobe bought macromedia, and can't wait to see what this 2 programs together can offer.

I too am glad Adobe bought Flash it makes it much easer to move between them. Im hoping they will make it easier to go from Flash to Illustrator (which is the oposite of my tutorial) because the brush tool in Flash is really fun to draw with. Also the previous person who commented here also is interested in this process.

I would be happy to make more turorials, but I only do them if people ask for something specific so let me know if you want anything, ok?

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SesshÙmaru: [after witnessing a small argument between Inuyasha and Kagome] Inuyasha, your patience with this creature is astonishing to me. You protect her, indulge her, even seem to love her.
Inuyasha: Uhh...