However, there is no reason to use images lower than 8-bit color depth in Shockwave movies. You should, however, use as few colors as possible in your images. The number of colors is more important than the bit depth. After reducing the number of colors, convert images back to 8 bits to avoid reduced performance. Shapes Use shapes instead of bitmaps whenever possible.
Shapes are simple graphics created with tools on the Tools palette.
Shape cast members are rendered on the Stage as vector graphics, so they are much smaller than bitmaps. They also download at the same time as Score data, before all other cast members, so they are always available when the movie requires them. A shape of any size, color, or pattern adds only 64 bytes to the file size of a movie. Fill shapes with custom tile patterns to make them more interesting. Shapes do not distort when they change dimensions.