FlashApe

Outstanding. One of the things I’ve always hated most in the flash workflow is importing assets from a psd into flash. Flash CS3’s new psd import is friggin sweet. I’ve used PSD2FLA in the past, but this goes way beyond that (or at least, the last version of psd2fla that I used). This is the type of integration I hoped for with ‘the big acquisition’.

You can go layer-by-layer and choose options for each one (or choose not to import the layer at all). For text layers, you can opt to import the layer as editable text, vector outlines or a bitmap image:

For bitmap layers, you can choose to import a flattened bitmap of the layer, or import the layer as a bitmap image with editable layer styles…awesome. I didn’t test every layer style, but from what I did test, everything seemed dead on upon import:

In both cases, whether importing a text or bitmap layer, a simple checkbox click will convert the imported layer to a movieclip, and you can give the instance name right there on the import screen:

A few other nice options for psd import are checkboxes for setting the stage to the same stage as the psd being imported, and placing the import layers at their original positions. You can also choose to merge layers before importing as well.

***UPDATE: was reading up on psd import in the flash help, some interesting notes about it:

• Flash can import the following photoshop blend modes, and maintain their editability: Normal, Darken, Multiply, Lighten, Screen, Hard Light, Difference, and Overlay.
  If you use a blend mode that Flash does not support, you can rasterize the layer to maintain its visual appearance, or remove the blend mode from the layer.
• Image and Fill layers are always rasterized when imported into Flash.
• When importing objects containing transparent areas as flattened bitmaps, any objects on the layers behind the transparent portion of the object will be visible through the transparent area—assuming the objects behind the object containing transparency are also being imported. To prevent this, import only the transparent object as a flattened bitmap.
  To import multiple layers and maintain transparency without having any visible remnants of the layers behind the transparency, import the PSD file using the Bitmap Image With Editable Layer Styles option. This will encapsulate the imported objects as a movie clip, and use the movie clip’s transparency. This is particularly useful if you need to animate the different layers in Flash.