[Tony Mines]

UPDATE.

Further experimentation has revealed the following, but still offered no viable solution.

It is not, as previously stated, that I can only open swf files saved to the desktop. It seems to be that I can only import files saved from one drive to another.

If a file is on one hard drive, and I export a swf to that same drive, the file fails to be read. If I export to another drive, any other drive, the file can be read. This seems to be the case in any combination, so not limited to any one drive being the cause. It is the ‘saved to same drive location’ that is the constant fail.

Also, I installed a trial version of CS4 to see if newly created CS4 swf files can be read. They can. The error is limited to Animate and CS6.

This doesn’t help me with work. It’s too precarious.

Clues?

[Tony Mines]

Putting aside Flash/Animate for the moment and concentrating on the error at hand; all other instances of this error I’ve found relate to this or that video format, so it’s not an error limited to or even necessarily tied to the use of Flash files. What is consistent across all other cases however (all of which are unresolved) is that there is some random exception which tells you the format is not really the problem.

I found one other thread where the guy couldn’t import a certain file type from an external HD. This is what inspired me to try saving to the desktop (which lo and behold works, but ONLY on the desktop, not even in folder on the desktop).

So, does anyone have recommendations for how to deal with an error, related to ANY file type, where the problem is an inconsistency across file locations (or maybe file names or other inconsistencies) – things which are supposed to be readable only being readable under arbitrary conditions?

[Tony Mines]

The disavowal of Flash is well known, but the fact is they continue to produce Animate as a newly developed product and swf as one of its main export options. So that isn’t too useful a point.

Besides, the nature of the problem is that they import fine from a particular file location but not others, meaning the problem is not actually one of deliberate or outdated incompatibility, but a glitch in an officially supported format between two manufacturers softwares.

To be frank, the way that animators use Flash (entire tv series have been made this way) has been disavowed by Adobe since the 90s – twenty years of using a platform on a massive scale for a thing it was never developed for, and yet we have soldiered on. So that isn’t exactly news and I still expect compatibility.

[Tony Mines]

I am having the same problem, but importing .swf files into AE.

The same error. Similar random inconsistency. I have also read extensively about the (86 :: 1) error message and all threads follow the same pattern:

A supportable file format is reported as unsupported, randomly. It might be an .avi or anything else.
In every case the thread remains unanswered.
In every case a solution is posited to do with the particular file format. It doesn’t seem to apply.
In every case there is a random exception to the error message. The exception is never consistent between cases.

The error message… may be in an unsupported format.. (86 :: 1) seems to be indicative of it’s own problem, and not confined to the stated incompatible file (since the format differs from case to case, but each case is consistently inconsistent) and is something Adobe needs to investigate.

In my own case I cannot import newly created swf files from any source unless (mandatory random aspect) they are located directly on the desktop, in which case they can be read.

[Tony Mines]

I’ve since installed Flash CS6 from the CC legacy install options and tried exporting files from both Flash CS6 and Animate CC. Neither can be opened and both read as an “unsupported file type”

The error reads (86 :: 1) whereas previous I’m sure it read (18 ::1) but still appears to be the same error message and error otherwise.

I have tried every method of exporting, the only consistent variable is that the files have been exported on my machine, and that anything can be imported if located on the desktop (not an option for how I’m working).

What kind of problem could it be, that changes depending on a files location, but that (for instance) Limited Access Repair tool finds no errors?

[Tony Mines]

I’m trying to export from AE CS5 to FCP7 on a mac and retain consistency. Ultimately I’m trying to get around the ol’ h264 shift when I upload to web – but I haven’t even got that far yet, I’m still just trying to get consistency between AE and FCP.

My AE project is using the HDTV Rec709 color profile. I exported an Animation file with 16bit color for use in fcp. I used 16bit in case I want to export to ProResHQ and accommodate it’s 10bit color without a shift, and I used Animation because I read here that it doesn’t gamma shift from AE:
https://vitrolite.wordpress.com/2010/12/31/quicktime_gamma_bug/

Treating my AE project as source, and the desired coloration, the result in fcp is a severe lightening or white-wash adjustment, such as I might expect from a bad h264 upload. And if I change the items gamma as you suggest as the easy fix, there is no displayed change.
My FCP timeline in this instance is conformed to the Animation clips settings, and will not allow me to access the sequences ‘video processing’ settings.

The linked article didn’t specify whether ProRes from AE was supposed to impose a gamma shift, so I exported a second, ProRes file from AE, still using HDTV Rec709 as the color profile. The result in FCP from the ProRes is a slight but still noticeable darkening.

The ProRes clip itself has no option to select or change the gamma, but in it’s own conformed timeline, it does allow for a change of sequence settings. My video processing settings here are currently set at 10bit YUV and Maximum White at white – which seemed correct if I’m trying to avoid adjustment?

But I’m getting adjustment already in both cases, and in two different directions. Help?

Specifically, what should I be exporting as from AE to retain consistency all the way to upload (be it to FCP or another re-encoder) and what color processing settings should I be using in FCP, if indeed that even matters?