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_scott__
Legend
April 12, 2025
Question

Why do symbols default to "Movie clip"?

  • April 12, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 220 views

So my understanding is that symbols using the "movie clip" setting can be animaited (web reports as "in Flash" but it must be some other more modern software since Flash is dead). 

 

Why do ALL new symbols default to "Movie Clip" and why can't I set the default to "Graphic"?

 

And is there a difference if there's never any intention to animate anything? Is there a performance hit between the two or something? I can read what the internet says about them, but it's rather ambiguous other than stating "movie clip" is for animation.

 

Even the Adobe help files (https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/symbols.html) seem to lack ANY explanation for the different "export types".

 

 

Of note: Help file are also vacant of any explanation regarding the two "symbol types" - Dynamic and Static. 

 

 

1 reply

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
April 12, 2025

For Illustrator it makes no difference what is selected there.

The setting can be used in Adobe Animate and since Movie Clip is mostly what you need in there, it's the default. But again: for Illustrator it's completely irrelevant.