graphics

The Shape class is the most basic Flash class that supports rendering through the graphics property. The Shape hierarchy is: Shape < DisplayObject.

The Flash drawing API is the primary mechanism for rendering interactive graphics outside of the Flash editing environment. The drawing API is a low-level interface that draws primitives such as lines, curves, and triangles (in Flash 10). It can style those primitives with line styles and fill styles that get their content from vector gradients or bitmaps.

The Sprite class is one of the most basic rendering classes available in Flash. It supports the Flash drawing API, can contain other DisplayObjects, and supports user interaction events. Sprite does not have a timeline like MovieClip which makes it smaller and faster if you are not running timeline-based animations. The Sprite class is the base class which most UI components inherit from such as the UIComponent in Flex.