A Workaround to a Nasty Image Distortion Problem

Introduction

Have you ever put a graphic image (gif, jpg, whatever) into a symbol, inserted a second instance of that symbol in the same level at a later timeline (such as for motion tweening the symbol), then found out the image came out grossly distorted, like Image 1 below?

Obviously, I had. I still have no idea why this happens, but since the buck stops here, I had to find a way to fix it (clients don't like to hear it's Macromedia's fault!). Image 2 shows the results of this workaround.