exporting to swf looks really bad
by daniel s.
on
Jan 13, 2006 at 11:34:04 am
Hi, I am currently compositing a small movie for viewing on the web. i am an AE animator, I dont work with flash. most files i have as vector art, others are optimized b-maps from image ready. As i animate on AE (version 5.5)pro, I test by exporting and it comes out slow and really bad ;looking. My settings are 12fps, 500/400 px. res. im currrently in Spain so i have it on PAL dont know if it makes a difference though. Please, any information would be rewarding, tx
Re: exporting to swf looks really bad by Steve Roberts on Jan 13, 2006 at 2:31:05 pm
Basically, the vast majority of AE's features give you big and slow Flash files.
AE's SWF output isn't always vectorized. If you check the help, you'll see that not all features allow you to create vectorized output. Those "unsupported features" result in a rasterized movie that is more videoclip than flash clip, since it contains all JPEG-compressed frames.
Your other options may be to make a high-quality movie then use another app to compress it, maybe Flash or Squeeze, or create the movie in Flash or redesign your movie in AE so it only uses masks and the supported effects.
Re: exporting to swf looks really bad by daniel s. on Jan 13, 2006 at 4:50:52 pm
Thank you Steve, that answered a big part of my concern. my final question is this: At the moment my file size once exported to swf is around 2.3 megs. What, in your opinion would a (max file size) for easy web viewing be? Thanks again,
Dan
Re: exporting to swf looks really bad by Steve Roberts on Jan 13, 2006 at 5:12:47 pm
[daniel s.]"What, in your opinion would a (max file size) for easy web viewing be?"
Ouch! I think that statistic changes daily, with broadband and podcasts and so on. To be honest, I don't know. You should probably hit a Flash forum for that info, armed with some kind of idea of your user base: are you aiming at everybody (including dial-up), early adopter tech-heads, or high-powered corporations?
It's all about waiting time. 2.3 MB is fine as long as the thing starts playing pretty soon after initial click. Then it can download as the viewer watches it.
Test early, test often, ask your friends to test too.
