Compositing Movie in AS - Please Help!!!

donnie · Post by **donnie** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 12:05 am

Does anyone know the best way of compositing a load of seperate AM movie files (Scenes) into one file to export as a Flash movie?

I have made different shots in different AM files that need to be composited together to be output as one single SWF. Tried to composite in AM using whole scenes as Actions in timeline-but SWF exported always crashed or corrupted.

Is there a good way of compiling SWF's made in AM in Flash?

I have tried taking SWF's outputted from AM into Flash MX but they always seem to be corrupt somehow (no animation- shapes not correct etc.) I have followed all the guide lines in the AM guide about what can't be exported to Flash.

Please Help!!! Deadline Looming! Thank you.

jahnocli · Post by **jahnocli** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 1:06 am

The best advice I can give is to use After Effects. But unfortunately the swf files tend to be on the big side...

donnie · Post by **donnie** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 11:01 am

Thanks for reply.

But surely After effects is not a vector based program?

How can it import SWF's and export as a Flash movie? If it can please tell me.

Rhoel · Post by **Rhoel** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 12:40 pm

One alternative is to keep the whole project a video file, use Avid Free DV to do the edit, then use Riva FLV Encoder 2 (also free) to convert the video file to flash video - file sizes as bigger but with broadband, managable.

The final output is a FLV not a swf - both are Flash MX compatable, or streamable on webpages using flowplayer or similar. (the Romeo and Juliet - sSealed with a Kiss movie on the Share work catagory is done with FLV files).

Ultimately, it depend on how you want to show the thing, any bandwidth limitations on the web server, etc. All affect your choices.

My output is TV, with mobile content and web a secondary consideration. For that reason, using Riva to make the content is the best option. Frame sizes can be large without paying any real filesize penalties. I use 480 * 270 for 16:9 projects and that is way big enough for any web-page.

Riva can handle 1G Quicktime HD files and reduce then to a few kilobytes. Its a really fun tool.

Hope this helps.

Rhoel

donnie · Post by **donnie** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 8:34 pm

Thanks,

but the client wants the whole project as a Flash movie.
Is there an easy way to composite lots of seperate files in AM that im missing? (I had to make actions of each shot any make each one visible/invisible at the appropriate time)

If i could import the swfs into Flash MX properly that would help too, but they always end up corrupt somehow!

I dont want to resort to having to redo the whole project in Flash!!

DarthFurby · Post by **DarthFurby** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 1:29 am

I've had this problem. If you can, export only a couple of layers at a time, especially if you have a lot shapes, or complicated shapes(i.e. objects with holes or combined edges) in a swf. Flash likes to digest things in small chunks. Also when a shape becomes too big or extends out of the scene past a certain limit, which often happens when the camera zooms along a 3d vector landscape, Flash will crash. You can work around this, but it takes careful planning.

Rhoel · Post by **Rhoel** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 11:38 am

donnie wrote:the client wants the whole project as a Flash movie.

FLV is a flash movie. It's a FLV file not a SWF. It embbeds into Flash MX just the same, or can be presented using a separate flash player.

I understand the limitations and problems you are refering to, and the only other way is to import the scenes into one big AS file. There are a heap of problems associated with this, but if the number of layers are small, then it is possible.

Basically, AS can import another AS project as a layer (file/import/ Anme Studio Object). You can use the group visibilty to turn the scenes on and off. But yoou then have to off-set all the keys on every timeline to the start of the "new Scene". That is time consuming and there is no fast way I know of where you can offset all the keys in a group.

To my knowledge there is no equivalent of Falsh MX's Scenes.

And I have not heard of a program which can edit SWF files video edit style. It would be neat if there were.

Rhoel.

J. Baker · Post by **J. Baker** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 6:17 pm

KoolMoves can import swf files as an editable or an object. You could import multiple swf's through-out the timeline and save it as a single swf file easily.

I would just import them into KoolMoves as objects and you shouldn't have any problems. Importing as an editable would work but would take longer and it has a few limitations.

donnie · Post by **donnie** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 11:52 pm

Hi again,

Thanks Rhoel, The way I composited the scenes was the same way you describe but I found a way to 'offset the keyframes' as you put it, by creating a new action out of each imported scene, inserting it at the appropriate frame then toggling visibility on and off as you suggested.
The problem comes when AS tries to export the resulting SWF- it goes nuts!

sorry- when I said Flash Movie I meant SWF- im providing the animation for another company who are adament that a FLV would give an inferior quality output (I dont know enough about Flash to argue!)

How do people normally manage large SWF orientated projects in AS, would you animate seperate scenes in seperate AS files as I did or try to animate the whole thing in one monster file?- surely thats asking for touble?
I've only been working on AS for about a month so am no expert!

I am employing a workaround at the moment which is the same as that suggested by DarthFurby (thanks!) that is taking individually layers or chunks of animation exported from AS and assembling them in Flash MX using the scenes function- seems to be working so far (fingers crossed)

-J.Baker thanks for the suggestion, will definately try out Koolmoves to see if helps workflow.

phew, bit long winded but hopefully I'll sort it out somehow!

Thanks for all the suggestions people!-please keep em coming!-cant learn too much about this stuff!

D

Bones3D · Post by **Bones3D** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:22 am

Just a thought, but has anyone ever tried creating scene separations using layer groups? Granted, it would involve some fairly unusual concepts, such as setting the starting point of every scene in frame zero and changing the group visibility, but I can't see why it couldn't be done.

jahnocli · Post by **jahnocli** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 9:01 am

I seem to remember a similar suggestion a while back using switch layers; separate scenes would just need to be switched on at appropriate points...

Rasheed · Post by **Rasheed** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 9:54 am

Another way would be to use instant camera tracking to switch to another set in the same AS project file. You can reuse characters by using layer translation into the next set. Of course, it is also possible to reuse sets. Yet another possibility would be to keep the camera steady and move the collection of sets.

Mikdog · Post by **Mikdog** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:32 pm

Hmm. I'd like to know what solution works, as this is also something I've been wondering about.

donnie · Post by **donnie** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 11:15 pm

Rasheed what do you mean when you talk about 'sets'?

Are you talking about sets in the theatrical sense ie. BackGrounds?

Do you mean setting up shots in a massive layout and moving the camera at the right frame- as this sounds like it would be horrendously complicated- wouldnt you have to also offset all the keys for that giving shot?

Sorry if i've missed some terminoligy for something obvious

but your post confused me a little! could you eloborate please as your suggestion sounds interesting.

Rasheed · Post by **Rasheed** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 1:26 am

With 'sets' I mean locations, as in a television studio. If your background is not too complicated, you can get away with this technique. The background could in fact be a very wide drawing. The interactive props and characters would be on their own respective layers. A different background simply means a change of surroundings, e.g. in a house, on the street, at the grocery, back in the house, etc.

Of course, if you have very detailed background, this wouldn't work, because AS would grind to a halt, especially for large image sizes on a relatively slow computer.

The idea is to animate using one part of the background image, translate the background to match the next scene and continue animating. Characters and objects you need, you put on screen, other characters and objects, you leave off screen. It's a bit like a performance with puppets (Punch and Judy).

This could be done with switch layers, but the continues background layer has the advantage that you can show the change of scene, which enhances the Punch and Judy feel and look.