-
After Effects or Flash for this project? and Why?
Hello all
I appreciate you helping me with this. I have been contacted by a colleague about a project, but i’m having difficulty deciding which program would be better..After Effects or Flash.
Here is a link to a very similar flash project. It’s pretty hi-end and about 2-3 min long:
On the web page below, Click on the “See Demo Now” link (in light gray text):
https://www.cynergydata.com/corporatesite/agent_vimaspro.aspnice, right?
Project Details:
The company wants a demo with the same energy/drive as example above but with obviously their own branded colors, copy, etc. Originally my colleague thought this could be designed in After Effects b/c they were only interested in delivering it via cd-rom/dvd and having it loop on a plasma screen. I was ready & excited to tackle it. But after further discussion I learned that the client wanted to deliver this demo both via the web and via the cd-rom/dvd and have it look exactly the same.The cd-rom or dvd needs to have some simple interactivity, where, at any time, the user can click on a menu button to link directly to a webpage for further details on that particular aspect of the presentation. At one time I would have said that this was a job for Macromedia Director, but I’m no longer familiar with it’s features.
OK, so considering the demo example, the delivery methods and the general functionality I attempted to describe above, along with the fact that both cost and time are their primary considerations (surprise), do you think this is a job best for Flash, Director or can I get away with After Effects? and Why?
I have also heard that the exported FLV files from After Effects will never be as small/compact as a Flash FLV file, is that correct?
The merging technologies are leaving me preplexed. I’ll be working on a Mac G5 with Macromedia Studio 8 and AE 7 Pro.
Sorry for the long post. Thanks so much in advance!!!
-Al
Al Covelli
co******@*****il.com -
10 Replies
-
Personally I’m more comfortable in AE building flashy (no pun intended) graphics, so I’d create something cool there first. Then embed the clip into Flash, which is where the interactivity is built. The whole thing goes out on the web as a SWF file. For the DVD loop used at conventions or whatever, just use the AE clip. Obviously there’s some amazing Flash artists out there, but I’m working on a piece for my company to use on screens at conventions that is all AE because I prefer it over the look of pure vector graphics. Everyone’s different so I’m sure there’s other opinions on how to go about it.
Steven
-
Looking at that clip, it looks like the text is a bog standard animate in preset from AE and a bit of Zaxwerks/other 3D app for the 3D text. You have many more options for blurs, motion blur, plugins etc in AE and from what I gather if it’s vector art within AE it exports as scalable vector art in the exported SWF file? I could be wrong..I don’t really do any Flash work.
*Production Studio Premium CS2 / *Combustion 3 / Mocha v1
————————————-
Win XP Pro SP2 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5 monitors / Sony BVM-20G1E / DVS SDI Clipstation / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 110GB boot/80GB media/600GB RAID-0 -
This seems like a flash animation to me. Grab a copy of SwishMax, it takes all the guess-work and programming out of Flash and makes it easier to use. That would be my take on it.
-
It’s Flash.
An FLV (whether AE>FLV or AE>QT>FLV) wouldn’t create a file that is as small or as sharp as this.Swift 3D might have been used for the 3D text.
-
AE does output to SWF aswell as FLV though doesn’t it?
*Production Studio Premium CS2 / *Combustion 3 / Mocha v1
————————————-
Win XP Pro SP2 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5 monitors / Sony BVM-20G1E / DVS SDI Clipstation / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 110GB boot/80GB media/600GB RAID-0 -
Yes, but unless you adhere to all the RasterRules (supported features) you basically have a bunch of JPEG frames, which makes for a huge file, Flash-wise. Maybe, if you stick to all the Rules, you can make a small file, but I’ve found the Rules too restrictive.
AE’s creating SWFs is a kludge (kloodge) in my opinion, basically creating video masquerading as Flash files. If you want small, vector SWFs, use Flash. In my opinion.
-
This tut by Lee Brimlow, creates text in AE, then he imports it into Flash. That probably what you need to do, especially for the interactive part.
https://www.creativecow.net/articles/brimelow_lee/ae4flash1/ae4flash1.html
He uses the text preset, wobble”, then shortens the comp duration and comp size, to create an all vector swf. He then imports that into Flash as a movie clip, does a little action script on it, animates the movie clip inside Flash, scaling it up (all vector), motion tweens it, rotates it, stops it with action script.
The final text is very lightweight, only 5k, yes 5k!
So I think you need both, AE to create the text, Flash to finish it off and add interactivity.
Also, I don’t know if it’s still so, but back here in AE6.5, if you imported an all vector AE swf into Flash and the Publish it out of Flash it will be optimized to a smaller swf, sometimes dramatically smaller.
Getting all vector stuff is limiting in AE, but Audio waveform and Audio Spectrum produce vectors, with audio (jumps to music) or without audio (looks like stroke) on text if you put them onto a mask I like it a lot.
This was suppose to be the first in a series of taking AE stuff to Flash, but I see he now working at Lydia.com as a demonstrator, so I think she snatched him up before he finished, too bad.
Lee’s other Flash tuts are here:
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/brimelow_lee/ -
Thanks everyone for their responses. Really good advice to ponder. I like the idea of importing the finished AE into Flash for a reasonably-sized SWF export.
I just wanted to clarify that i do realize that the demo i provided a link to was created in flash. I was just inquiring as whether i could create something similar, both in effect and in file size, without using flash. it sounds like it will be a challenge, but there are ways to pull it off by following the “rules”.
considering the demo i provided, can anyone possibly guess as to how large an SWF file this would be if it had been developed and exported from AE? i’m sure this would be a question from my client as well, especially if i’m going to push for AE.
thanks
Al
Brooklyn, NY -
DavidD
thanks for the tip. i never even thought of Swishmax. unfortunately i’m working on a mac and as far as i know they don’t make a mac installer for Swishmax. bummer.
Al
Brooklyn, NY -
yikesmikes
thanks for that tutorial link. very cool. it gives me some options. i really like the idea of developing this solely in AE and then importing it into Flash for more optimized SWF exports.
Al
Brooklyn, NY
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up