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Creating a Flash file or GIF for the internet
Hi,
I have an animation that was created to be screened on plasma screen TVs, and now the client would like to use a shortened version of the animation as a splash/index page for their website while it is being built.I was hoping someone here might be able to offer me suggestions for the best way to do this as I am unfamiliar with work for the web. My first idea was to export the animation as a .swf file, but when I tried this the file was 7.5Mb which I though would be too large for an 8 second animation.
I hope someone can help me! 🙂 I was thinking of using a gif too but the file size again is massive. I look forward to hearing your suggestios 🙂
Thanks!
Martin -
2 Replies
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I’m assuming it was created using AE. I would export it as a .flv (flash video file) then bring it into Flash…
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For a splash screen, your best bet is .swf, BUT you may need to seriously modify your comp in order to get a reasonably-sized file. Check out the swf-compatibility list in the AE manual; many layer types, and most effects, are not supported. What “not supported” means is that you can get them into the .swf alright but they get RASTERIZED, means that instead of a slim vector format that is being manipulated in real time by the Flash player, you just get a sequence of .jpg images. That’s why you’re seeing those huge files sizes.
Depending on the content and style of the composition, reducing the number of rasterized frames may or may not be feasible. You may have to make many compromises in order to comply with the non-rasterization requirements. Note that, after the export, you get a .html file along with the .swf which indicates which components in the comp have caused rasterization.
You may also control the .jpg image quality when things do get rasterized, which may help reduce the .swf file size (at the expense of quality, of course).
Anyway I would strongly recommend not to go with animated GIFs, they have a very limited color space (8 bits) and in general look terrible. I don’t think anyone uses GIFs for a splash screen.
Finally, you can wait X months until Adobe seriously merges AE with Macromedia Flash 🙂
– A. A.
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