Adding Adobe Flash

[Dave Johnson]

Please consider my answer only one perspective from someone who seems to have a similar workflow, rather than definitive …

Although it can be used to create some video content if one chooses, I think most agree that Flash is primarily useful for designing and/or generating web pages. I create all content in AE and FCP since it also has to be usable for non-web mediums, then use Flix Exporter and Flix Pro to convert that content to FLVs for websites.

Flix Exporter allows exporting FLVs directly from AE with all the same functionality of Flix Pro, but it adds the option to skip the step of first rendering a MOV from AE before converting it to an FLV.

In my opinion, On2 products are by far the best software for encoding good-quality FLVs with adequate control over all aspects of encoding. In fact, I believe the FLV codec was built on the On2 codec in the first place before Adobe acquired Flash (I’m sure someone will correct me if that’s wrong). So, it doesn’t seem that you need Flash, although whether you need it or what other software might be useful for you to work in conjunction with AE depends on specifics of what else you want to do.

I hope you find my opinions helpful.

[Dave Simpson]

Hi Dave, Thanks for taking the time to respond. I actually downloaded a trial version of Flash CS4 and will tinker a bit with it as time permits.So far I think you’re right as far as it being limited as to how much video you could create that I couldn’t already do with AE [Not to mention the learning curve to get good at it!]

We also have been very happy with ON2, the video looks pretty darn good considering the very reasonable file sizes.

Thanks Again

Dave Simpson