animation and Flash

[cristoforo]

Cannot seem to find a good tutorial that explains displaying animations with Flash. What is the best way to do this? I've tried embedding the animations, but in the end they run slowly and a bit choppy. How can I have the animation open directly in anther window? Is that possible only in quicktime format....which for me created a much larger file format. Any help out there? Thanks!

[kimgar]

embedding is not a good idea for longer animations.
better to convert your anim to flv, and use the netstream connection with a video object to play it.

can give you a script that does this if you like...

[cristoforo]

This is only the second website that I am doing....so what you just said to me is completely foreign!!! Is that all something that is done directly in Flash? Easy to do?

[ene.xis]

i d be interested kimgar, if ur willing to share!

by the way how can we always centre the page on the browser?
sory to hijack the thread cristoforo

[kimgar]

sure, you can pick up a set of files here:

www.indok.no/filetransfer/temp/videoTemplate.zip

this is the stripped down version that might be a good start if this is all foreign to you, let me know when you are ready for the heavy version with playbars and fps checker and stuff

[kimgar]

oh, i forgot - if you want to center your flash in html, there's many ways, but the easiest is to go to publish and under the html tab you need to check :
1.dimension = percent
2.scale = no scale

...there's a .as file in that zip - that is the script. you can use flash/notepad or whatever to view it, but i'd recommend sepy:
http://www.sephiroth.it/python/sepy.php

[ene.xis]

i owe u one!
thanks man!
or....errrmm ...tusen tak!

[tom182]

definately use flash,
recently I had a max animation that I rendered out as a image sequence, imported those images into flash, hit publish - presto, the real nice thing is that you can use scripts to control the animation, in my case I had a 0-140 frames, and from 60 -140 was a loopable section, so I was able to add a script that played frames 0-140 and then looped the range from 60 -140. Dont think i could have done it any other way other than using Flash . see it here http://www.transeal.com/howitworks.htm

hope that helps,

Tom

[cristoforo]

Tom, I used the same technique for my index page....works great. Though, for the animations that I want to show....they are project animations.....like around 3500 frames....already with compositing work (fading,etc.). So, I do not think that method would work quite well.

[ene.xis]

kimgar i couldn t make it work as expected...when i manage to center the damn thing it "eats" some navigation buttons...?

[kimgar]

bare hyggelig ene.xis! hah, a norwegian/swede in portugal? that's funny, i almost ended up there myself a couple of years ago - sent some CV's and was just about to put my ass on the plane when i got this job, and got stuck here...

not sure what's causing the eating of buttons though, if you could send me a sample i can have a look at it in the morning...

tom's way is great for smaller stuff, but for 3500 frames it is better to convert to an flv

[tom182]

sorry I misunderstood you, I thought you were new to flash, didnt realise your site is in flash already. Only used FLV once- for DV footage (5 mins approx) and it worked well, have you tried the adobe flash forum?

Tom

[kimgar]

it is fairly easy cristoforo, the amount of scripting needed is minimal :

var connection_nc:NetConnection = new NetConnection();
connection_nc.connect(null);
var myStream:NetStream = new NetStream(connection_nc);
videoMC.videoObj.attachVideo(myStream);

myStream.play("video/myVideo.flv");//CHANGE THIS!!

...just paste that in frame 1, and that's it

[cristoforo]

OK...I'll take a look at it tomorrow and give it a try......I'll surely have problems!!!

[kimgar]

good luck to you!

i'd be glad to help you out if i can, PM me if you need any!