This is my most recent Flash 8 experiment. I used it to see what some of the possible limits of rendering might be; specifically, multiple levels of alpha transparency rendering over a complex background.
It works like this: A .jpg (the background) and a .png with alpha transparency (a Green Floating Chad Head) are loaded at runtime. I copy the .jpg and the Chad Head into Bitmap objects, then run a simple math algorithm to copy 100 instances of the Chad Head onto the background, then clone that bitmap onto the one which is displayed in the Flash player. This combines two concepts known as blitting and double buffering, which help to speed up otherwise lengthy and/or processor-intensive rendering jobs.
SkaBoom, 100 objects moving at a high rate of speed with, in effect, 100 levels of alpha transparency displayed at once. All combined into a single 480 pixel square bitmap.
Thanks to the folks over at Bit-101’s forums for help with some of the new functionality.