Understanding bitmap and vector graphics

Flash's native drawing format is vector art. There's another drawing format called bitmap art. In this movie we will talk about the difference bitmap and vector graphics. On the Stage here I have a very simple example. If you look at the three bottles of oil, the quality looks the same on all three of them. However, if I zoom in, you will notice the one in the left looks pixelated or it looks like a bunch of squares. And the one on the right is smooth. The bottle on the left is a bitmap graphic and the bottle on the right is a vector graphic. Bitmap graphics are made up of different pixels. The pixels can have varying colors and transparency. When you zoom in to a bitmap graphic, the pixels are scaled up and you can see the pixels very clearly, as in this example. Vector graphics on the other hand are created using lines in mathematical equations. When vector objects are scaled up or viewed up close, they don't lose any quality, because the equations remain the same. So just know that when you're working with the Flash, you are going to be creating vector artwork. Now I don't show this example to say that vector artwork is better than bitmap artwork, they are just specific cases where you would use one over the other,