[Kevin Miller]

Great info. Basically, I have 27 slides set up. Each slide may have between 3-4 layers of still images with different effects. There may also be 2-3 layers of text effects. There are some slides with animation clips as well as a continuous soundtrack. I created all of this in a program called Proshow Producer and it worked pretty well. I exported an mpeg file at 640×480 and it was 162 megs. Playback was choppy and I wanted some interactive action buttons. This led me to exploring flash. With flash, it seemed I could created the same presentation with added interactivity. I could use it to stream on the web as well as run it from my laptop for a presentation on a video projector. Trying to find the optimal workflow is what has led me here and my ignorance has definitely caught up to me.

[Kevin Miller]

Thanks for the response. I was referring to video streaming across the internet. My issue is that a friend of mine took a presentation file (175 megs) to be shown on the web, squeezed it down with something called sorrenson squeeze or something, and mentioned that animated still images will create much larger files than true video. I could not understand why. He was saying that writing script in Director or Flash is much more efficient file size than key frame animation. I am trying to figure out what is the best output size to be able to both present on a laptop with a projector as well as across the web. If I create a flash file at 240×320, will it loose clarity as a flash file if played full screen? I’m just rying to find the right combinetion of settings.

[Kevin Miller]

Jason,

I included a link to a company that specializes in this work.

https://www.propointgraphics.com/products-flash-presentations.html

It appears that flash is indeed what they mostly use. I guess AE would serve the purpose of creating the videos, animations, and such (comps). Since I do not know anything about flash, I would have to assume that everything is composed in flash and the interactivity added to it as well. Can you recommend what would be a good flash application to learn?

Thanks,

[Kevin Miller]

Thanks for the response. I guess you’re saying that AE is a straight up motion graphics app that is not really suited to creating interactive presentations. I have used Proshow Producer and a friend tried to turn me onto Sony Vegas but then I got more interested in AE because of my experience in Photoshop. I am an architect so I am most interested in creating presentations that do not look anything like the conventional powerpoint presentation. I know you can do AE type stuff as well as assigning interactive controls in Macromedia Director but that is a heavy script based program which relies on writing code. I’m already in way overhead without getting inot code yet!