As it stands, it's unsuitable for creating a vector Flash file because it uses too many effects such as feathering, graduated transparency, etc. not supported in Flash. So, in order to create our animation we need to convert the graphic to an alpha channel (semi-transparent) bitmap, which we will then color. Luckily Flash is great at supporting colored bitmaps, and this color transform is one of the core animation types supported. This means that only one copy of the bitmap is stored in the Flash file and the color animation is applied to that, making the resultant Flash file really small. To create a Flash animation of this file: • Resize it as required for the final Flash animation • Edit the named Base color and give it a mid-grey color, (it has already been done in this example). We’re going to be re-coloring the bitmap in the Flash file, not the vector version. • Select the Xara part and create an alpha-channel bitmap of the shape (use the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+C, and then click Create when the dialog appears). This will create a version of our logo as shown here: You can drag it around over objects to show its semi-transparent nature. (You can re-color this bitmap just by clicking on a color. Bring up the color editor and you can see it’s easy to create any colored version of the bitmap you like. This is the principle used in the Flash animation.)     © Xara Group 2011