e-card / newsletter
by Roger BURTON
on
Dec 1, 2008 at 6:06:42 pm
Hi chaps I've been asked to make an animated e-card for someone to add to their christmas e-news letter. Can anyone point me in the right direction ie how should I deliver the finished job, as a flash file ? qtime movie ? and by the same token how do they create the mail-out (I can ask them this but would like not to appear too ignorant) - good of anyone to help me out here. Regards Roger
Re: e-card / newsletter by John Hammond on Dec 1, 2008 at 6:20:10 pm
The best solution might create it all in Flash -small file size and good quality.
However, I don't know flash so I might be tempted to create the video in After effects and export to .FLV, and then embed this into a Flash project. --Its hard to say without knowing what the client wants.
I think the best thing to do is ask the client's technical people exactly how they will be sending it out.. as a PDF, HTML email.. link to a flash file.. or what? There's a lot of variables and a lot to get wrong.
An example : I was asked to create a series of videos in AE with a lot of text. I made it to DV resolution as agreed. The client then wanted it to be embedded small on a webpage and also on a mobile phone. If I had known this I would of created it with this in mind so the text doesn't get real small when it's scaled down!
Re: e-card / newsletter by Roger BURTON on Dec 1, 2008 at 7:25:56 pm
Thanks John, yes I need to talk to them but your comments have helped ... I also don't use flash (and don't own it ... too expensive) but I'll find out a little more about their requirements. Regards Roger
Re: e-card / newsletter by Jeremy Allen on Dec 1, 2008 at 8:00:26 pm
I work for a marketing firm and we do email campaigns all the time. We used to put Flash directly in the emails until we figured out that most people weren't even able to see it. Most email programs disable Flash in emails by default. And most people won't even know to enable it in their settings.
The best bet would be to send out a simple html email that links to the animation online. The final output kinda depends on what the client wants. Flash does have the ability to play H264 files now. In some cases you can get a smaller file size with better compression than an FLV. You could just post a simple qt movie online and be done, but it's not quite as elegant or feature rich as Flash. Again, it just depends on what they want.
Re: e-card / newsletter by Roger BURTON on Dec 1, 2008 at 10:10:33 pm
That also helps a lot thanks Jeremy, It certainly makes life easier for me creating a H264 qtime movie in After Effects rather than Flash .... I'm guessing that when you say 'not quite so feature rich' you are referring to the clever tricks that can be achieved in Flash where the viewer can interact with the imagery by use of the mouse ?
Re: e-card / newsletter by Jeremy Allen on Dec 2, 2008 at 3:13:06 am
[Roger BURTON]"I'm guessing that when you say 'not quite so feature rich' you are referring to the clever tricks that can be achieved in Flash where the viewer can interact with the imagery by use of the mouse ?"
Yes, that is exactly what I meant. Also, when the ecard is done, it could say "Play Again" or give some other options, or start playing another vifeo, etc..
I did want to clarify though.. Flash can play H264 videos now, but the player would need to be coded for that, and the user would need at least Flash 9 to view it.
Re: e-card / newsletter by Roger BURTON on Dec 2, 2008 at 5:44:39 am
Thanks again Jeremy, Adobe claim pretty good "Version penetration" of Flash 9 so, if their figures are to be believed that should be OK then ... if you don't mind me pushing my question further, if I prepare this as an H264 file is there a way of testing it (as if I were an end-user) or do I need to find a machine without Qtime but with Flash 9 ? (I'm sorry, I'm getting a bit out of my depth here) ... thanks again Roger
Re: e-card / newsletter by Todd Morgan on Dec 2, 2008 at 9:08:52 pm
You could also consider an animated .gif file depending on how detailed the animation is. You could then embed the .gif right into the body of the email message and it would play on the receivers' end.
