User Guide

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ADOBE GOLIVE CS2
User Guide
Like a video track, a sprite track consists of a sequence of frames that play back at a certain frame rate. Unlike a video
track, which is a continuous stream of pixel images, a sprite track relies on a pool of images that are stored with its
first keyframe. The advantage of a sprite track is that subsequent frames need not contain the pixel image itself, but
simply areference to an item in theimage pool.Asaresult,thistypeofmovie is much smallerinfilesizethanpixel-
based video, thus making animations load faster.
To create sprites
1 Add the sprite track and set sprite track properties.
2 Import images into an image pool to make them available to you when you are adding individual sprites.
3 Set behaviors and actions on the sprites.
To add sprite tracks and set sprite track properties
1 Drag a Sprite Track icon from the QuickTime set of the objects toolbox into the track list area of the Timeline
Editor.
2 Set the following sprite track properties, in the Sprites tab of the Sprite Track Inspector:
Visible Displays the sprite track in the movie viewer window. By deselecting this option, you can temporarily hide
the sprite track to view tracks under it. Unlike the Show/Hide option in the Timeline Editor, this option doesn’t affect
the movie’s boundaries.
Scale Sprites When Track Is Resized Ensures that your sprites scale smoothly if you resize the sprite track. Select
this option if your sprites contain vector graphics. If this option is not selected, sprites with vector graphics may look
jagged after resizing.
Background Color Specifies a background color. The default background color is black. To select a color, click the
color field, and then drag a color from the preview pane of the Color palette to the color field in the Sprite Track
Inspector.
Idle Frequency Specifies the frequency at which idle events are sent to sprites in increments of 1/60th of a second.
Add New Sprites Specifies the number of sprites you want to add. GoLive assigns the first image listed in your image
pool to each sprite you add with this option, which is a default image until you import your own images into the sprite
track image pool.
See also
“To add or remove tracks” on page 532
“To set the basic track and sample properties” on page 534
Importing images and adding sprites
Before you can use images as sprites, you must first import them into the image pool. You can use images with the
following formats: BMP, GIF, JPEG/JFIF, JPEG2000, MacPaint, Adobe Photoshop, PICT, PNG, QuickDraw GX
(Mac OS only, requires the QuickDraw GX extension), QuickTime Image Format, SGI, Targa, and TIFF.
When you first add a sprite track, GoLive automatically adds a default sprite object (called Sprite) and assigns it a
default image (called Untitled Image 1)thatcontainsawhitecolor.You caneitherkeepthe defaultspriteobjectand
default image, or delete them after adding your own sprite objects and importing your own images.
You can also import a Photoshop file and automatically create a sprite for each layer in the file at the same time.