Flash to video??

A place to discuss non-Moho software for use in animation. Video editors, audio editors, 3D modelers, etc.

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cribble
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Flash to video??

Post by cribble »

Hi, I'm having a hard time find a decent peice of software that can help me convert SWF files into a video file. I've tried flash's .mov output, but it doesn't work because of missing codec (?!), might be a version thing (running ver 7ish).

Any advice or software would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
--Scott
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Transmitter
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Post by Transmitter »

If you have the swf or if you need to record a website try a screen capture tool like Camtasia ( http://techsmith.com/ ).

If you want to export your swf as an video, try the export function, on windows it offers all types of video with many settings and it works fine.
Can´t you try another codec?
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jahnocli
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Post by jahnocli »

Do you know about SWF2VIDEO

Apparently can translate all Flash effects (including movieclips and Actionscript). It's got a trial download, so you could try before you buy...

HTH

J
You can't have everything. Where would you put it?
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cribble
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Post by cribble »

swf2video is cack. I tried it and it wouldn't translate movie clips or movie clips/symbols within a movie clip. So i gave up with it.

I'll give the screen capturing software a try. Thanks.
--Scott
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rylleman
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Post by rylleman »

It was a while since I used Flash for video output so I'm not sure if it work as it should (with nested video clips and stuff) but have you tried to export your movie as a image sequence and convert that one in some editing software?
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jahnocli
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Post by jahnocli »

swf2video is cack
Really? Well, take a look at this interview with Adam Phillips at
coldhardflash
He gives it a glowing reference, and he's a very talented guy who works on Flash action sequences for a living...

J
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cribble
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Post by cribble »

I'll give it a try again. The last time i tried it, it didn't convert my movie clips with in a movie clips porperly and exported my sound as white noise, but after reading that, i think i'll give it a whirl again. Thanks.
--Scott
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Visions of Domino
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Post by Visions of Domino »

Bit late, but here is a great converter for swfs:
http://www.pizzinini.net/projects/swf2avi/

You have FLASH, and it wont output QT? What version?
Image
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cribble
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Post by cribble »

Flash MX 2004 Pro.

I've realised you can only export at flash 5 to make the .mov file work. But i've found that i can export an .avi file from Flash now, which means i can export my animation at lossless quality (including the audio) direct from the software.

I tried out swf2avi, it was alright, didn't do a good job on my audio (exported white-noise instead) and the resize was rubbish.
--Scott
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heyvern
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Post by heyvern »

This is going to sound really silly... but...

A long time ago I was desperate trying to get flash out to video in the right format for exporting to tape. Nothing was working quite right... and I was running out of time...

so I... hooked my PC to a TV (fortunately it had the output on the card)... and recorded it directly to video... with sound... through the TV... and a bunch of cables... and... after sacrificing a goat in my basement while chanting...

Not the perfect solution obviously...
I really liked that goat.

;)

-Vern
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jahnocli
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Post by jahnocli »

Not the perfect solution obviously...
I really liked that goat.
Ha ha! But did it work?
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gilbertconcepcion
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Post by gilbertconcepcion »

cribble wrote:swf2video is cack. I tried it and it wouldn't translate movie clips or movie clips/symbols within a movie clip. So i gave up with it.

I'll give the screen capturing software a try. Thanks.
i am a flash animator, and i suggest, if you are making an animation intended for tv animation in flash it is better that you do convert your symbol as graphic....the main purpose of graphic is that you do not have to convert your movies to avi anymore since you can directly export it to avi or mov, and the nested animation can be viewed, since the nested animation is not a movie clip but graphic.....got it?
anime studio for games....
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heyvern
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Post by heyvern »

jahnocli wrote:
Not the perfect solution obviously...
I really liked that goat.
Ha ha! But did it work?
Yes it worked. The quality wasn't as nice as what I was able to get later.

Eventually I was able to export flash to an uncompressed video format. I used that in AE and was able to get DV out directly to DV tape...

...I believe it involved the fact that QT pro can open SWF format files. This was a long time ago. Those brain cells are long dead.

The tricky part was the 60 frames per second. It was for television and it was the traditional "flying logo" nonsense.

I remember having to retime the Flash to go... twice as slow at 30 FPS... then it was the right speed at 60 FPS for TV.

Does this sound right?

-vern
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slowtiger
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Post by slowtiger »

It sounds strange to me. Do people really work in 60fps (US)/ 50fps (EU)? Of course every live action interlaced video format works like that, but in general it's not necessary to produce discreet artwork for each field/halfframe. At least I wouldn't bother to hand-animate in 60 fps, something computer generated where all the tweens are just calculated might be no bigger amount of work.
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jahnocli
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Post by jahnocli »

I remember having to retime the Flash to go... twice as slow at 30 FPS... then it was the right speed at 60 FPS for TV.

Does this sound right?
It does if you think about how a TV picture is made. In America the mains current runs at 60 cycles per second. TV broadasting equipment is locked to this frequency. Each frame for TV is scanned twice, or "interlaced" -- once for odd lines, then again for even. So that's how you get something that works at 60 Hz showing at 30 frames per second.

(Incidentally, that's why TV is 25 fps over here in the UK -- our mains electricity runs at 50 Hz.)

Does this help?

J
You can't have everything. Where would you put it?
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