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Flash Reference Guide

Aug 22, 2003

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So far, you have seen how a Flash movie can be broken up for efficient delivery over the Internet.

Additional tools exist that you can use to maximize a user's online experience. Today, more than 75 third-party tools export files in Macromedia SWF file format. Not all of these tools do a good job of making sure that your files are kept small; indeed, Adobe's Live Motion notoriously outputs large clunky files that aren't very useful for delivery over the Internet.

With that said, even more tools are being specifically developed for delivering more efficient content over the Internet.

Sorenson Squeeze

As discussed in the video section, Flash MX now supports video. The compression format, often known as a CODEC (compressor/decompressor) used to convert video for delivery over the Internet through Flash, is called Sorenson Squeeze. To get your video to this format, you need to use Sorenson's Squeeze Pro, a tool that converts video (such as AVI or QuickTime) to the Spark CODEC.

Flash MX ships with the Spark CODEC. You can import video and compress it. It is okay for standard video, but the video quality can be better optimized.

Sorenson sells a product called Squeeze that you can use to create Flash video files (FLV) that Flash MX natively supports.

The compression and quality of the movies exported from Squeeze is tangibly clearer than Flash MX's basic encoder. Sorenson makes it easy to create files with Squeeze. (You need to have a video file in MPEG, AVI, MOV, or ASF format to complete these steps.)

The following steps illustrate how easy it is to use Squeeze.

Navigate Squeeze Pro to your file; you need to use Squeeze Pro for this exercise. Squeeze Pro is an upgrade to Squeeze that ships with Flash MX. Import the file into Squeeze Pro (Squeeze Pro gives you a preview window).
Choose the output format you want. You can choose from dial-up modem connection (the slowest) to CD-ROM (the fastest).
Select the convert button labeled Squeeze It.

NOTE

It may take a couple of minutes for the video to convert because Squeeze Pro is converting the original video into a format you can use for Flash MX.

When the conversion process is complete, you have a Flash video file (FLV). You can directly import this file into Flash.

Open a new Flash movie and pull that file in. Preview your new movie. Immediately, you see how dramatic the effect of using the Pro version of Squeeze is over the standard.

Swift 3D Version 3: the Flash Importer

Swift 3D has long reigned as the king of Flash 3D programs. The only flaw of 3D in Flash is that it's not real: Flash doesn't have a native 3D rendering engine; it has to fake the 3D animation. Each frame in Flash draws a new image. When all the images are played together, you get the effect of 3D. You're not, however, moving through 3D worlds.

To create the effect of a 3D object, you need to export the 3D file as an SWF file from Swift 3D. This file can then be imported into Flash. The end result is a large file for even small 3D movies. Electric Rain, the maker of Swift 3D, has been working on this.

Version 3 of Swift 3D introduces a new component: the Swift 3D Importer for Flash MX.

Now you can create files in Swift 3D version 3.0 that can be imported directly into Flash MX using the Flash Importer. The extension allows all SWF files to be imported.

The file imports as a Movie Clip into the Library. If you view the Movie Clip, you see that the imported file now separates objects used in animations across their own layers. You can now easily select which shape you want to edit from the Timeline. Select the Timeline, and the shape is highlighted. You can also see that the shapes that do not move are not redrawn for each and every frame in a layer. When a shape is redrawn in every frame, it increases the overall file size of the movie. The new approach does reduce the overall size of the Flash movie.

The end result is a smaller file. It's still not true 3D in the sense of games such as Quake or Halo, but the files are getting much smaller!

Optimize Flash with Optimaze!

Another product being distributed through Electric Rain (makers of Swift 3D) is a new tool called Optimaze!, which reduces the number of vector angles in your final SWF Movie Clips. Each shape and graphic created in Flash has a vector angle unless the shape is a bitmap or a video. Through tweaking the vector coordinates of every shape, you can make the file smaller and make the final Flash movie download more quickly.

The effect of Optimaze! is nothing short of amazing. With this simple program, you can take any Flash movie and optimize it for the Internet. The process is simple. Optimaze! imports your final Flash SWF file. After the file is in the program, you can begin correcting the SWF movie. After a few tweaks, you can then export the movie. Typically, you can experience a reduction of 15 percent file size with no loss of image quality. Files that are exported from 3D programs, such as Discreet's Plasma or Swift 3D version 2, can experience a file size reduction of close to 45 percent. This reduction really counts when you're trying to deliver a large number of files over the Internet.

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