I have worked on too many projects that require the use of a world map in flash (and I say this because its always difficult to find a good one to use that isn’t terribly expensive). However, if you are willing to do a little work, you can generate some outlines or shapes based on PDF world maps, such as the ones found at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/. With a little persistance you can get some really nice maps this way. However, I would recommend making any change to the maps that you want to make in Illustrator first. For example, to remove all text from a map, do the following:
- Open the map in Illustrator
- Find and select an example of text you want to remove
- Choose Select :: Same :: Fill and Stroke
- Delete selected
- Now Choose File :: Save for Web…
- Select your save settings (.swf) and save
- Now import into your Flash movie
Of course, its not quite that simple — there is always a bunch of other lines and artifacts that end up in there so you have to be patient, and selecting all those outlines in Flash can be painful (which is why I recommend clearing out everything you don’t want in Illustrator first. Once you get the map into flash, you can then make adjustments to the fills, lines, and optimize the curves more. Once again I stress – be patient…and you shall be rewarded…