MAC VERSION

[slowtiger]

What vern said.

Optimising content for Flash is a science in itself. One needs to have a deep understanding of Flash's brand of memory management and file structure. Programming skills are useful, too. And then there's still the task to design something which will result in small files in Flash yet animate in an appealing way.

It would be nice to be able to just import AS work into Flash and be done. Unfortunately this makes for big file sizes. Careful planning is needed, a strict sequence of actions, and multiple passes of exporting/importing stuff.

Since I don't know your project, I can just give some general advice:

1. Storyboard.
A 15 min story will have several different scenes. Sort them by background and occuring characters. Make a plan. Does one character be present from start to end (I bet it will)? Then this character, respectively its body parts, will need to be stored in the main flash file (resp. in its library).

Is one character only there for some seconds and then never again? This is a candidate for a subclip, loaded into the main file when needed.

The same goes for backgrounds and props. If needed often, main file library. If needed once, seperate swf, loaded just in time.

2. Understanding symbols.
This really is the magic of Flash file size. If you build something within Flash, you try to create every element just once. You multiply only instances of that object once it is made into a symbol. This works on several levels and even in nested hierarchies.

Example: You create one foot, make it a symbol, create two instances of that foot symbol, flip one: now you have left and right foot. You create a walk cycle, put left and right foot instances into it, make it walk, put that walk cycle away as a movie clip (which is a symbol of another class). You build a scene, put an instance of that walk cycle movie clip ito it, scale it as needed, flip it as needed. No matter how long your animation gets or how often you multiply instances: Flash will still have just one original foot in the file. Of course this principle saves a lot of memory.

AS is different. Learn about the meaning of the red dot in the layer icon: as long as it's there, Flash will treat this layer as one symbol during the whole animation. There's tricks to maintain this state, covered elsewhere.

While importing an AS generated swf to Flash, something awful happens: the whole animation turns into a bunch of symbols and keyframes, clogging up timeline and library. You need to clean that mess up. Create a folder in the library everytime you import animation from AS and put all symbols into that.

Clean up the timeline as well. Flash creates a key for each frame of AS animation, even if there's just a hold. You can safely erase those keys.

Here comes the biggest trap. Imagine you create two scenes in AS (copied from the same character rig source) with the same character doing some stuff. You import one swf into Flash, then the other. What happens is that Flash creates new symbols for the second scene, although it is "the same" content! Imagine you do this for 20 scenes - you'll end up with 20 copies of the same character, and tehre's no way to tell Flash to get rid of duplicates.

Solution: you have to do all animation of one character which will end in the same Flash file in one AS file. "One character" means one set of layers for one view of the body. Import this one AS swf into Flash. Now all 20 scenes will refer to the same set of symbols, saving a lot of memory.

3. Workflow.
I strongly recommend to export and import animation character by character, otherwise you will never be able to tell which symbol belongs to which character in Flash. The same goes for every background or prop.

Of course you took care to use the same low framerate in AS and Flash (something like 12 or 15 fps).

Camera movements are best re-created in Flash, because you'll have less keys than one for every frame.

Planning is everything in a project like this! You'll need a big X-sheet for the whole movie to keep track of which frame number in AS corresponds to a scene and frame number in Flash, where to have holds and repeats which can be erased in Flash, and so on.

4. Memory management.
This is programmer's stuff. He'll be able to advise you how to break up stuff in nice little chunks, which stuff to put into the main file and which stuff just load in time. He will write code to pre-load stuff as well as clear it from memory.

Summary: It is possible to have good and smooth animation in Flash and a small file size too, but it takes an immense amount of work.

[mooncaine]

Omigosh, that's a lot I hadn't counted on. You're right, Vern. You could tell that I was frustrated. I basically didn't sleep the past 2 days as I worried about the predicament I've gotten myself into.

Thanks so much, Vern and slowtiger, for your patient explanation. slowtiger, your tips show me that I should have been asking these questions 6 mos. ago. Like Vern, I rashly assumed my short test would extrapolate to a larger, say, 3 minute scene. Now I know!

When I look at the awesome list of tasks before me if I go the Flash route, and the fact that I have, maybe, 3 months at best, and that's pushing it, I think I'm going to try to get the final requirement changed to QuickTime movies. Since the final product is meant for in-house training, I might just be able to pull that off... but no matter what happens, I'm going to come out looking like a fool, which I deserve, in some ways. Ouch.

I knew about Flash symbols, but didn't realize ASP was so memory heavy. I believed that basically I was looking at a different interface for Flash, one that made shape-tweening sensible, for example. I appreciate your detailed response, which I'm going to print, stick on my office wall, and venerate for a while, as I think about how I'm going to paint myself out of this corner.

Whew! Thanks!

[mooncaine]

I need to calm down. slowtiger's list isn't THAT daunting. I'll take a day to think about what I can use.

Since most of my scenes involve 2 characters talking, I think I can still make use of ASP. I'm growing calmer just thinking about it.

[heyvern]

mooncaine, I feel your pain!!!!

I was in the EXACT same spot using Flash. I was just a freelancer. The client wanted Flash and showed me some SIMPLE EASY samples they had seen... short little fluff pieces from CDs and the web. 5-15 second vector animations in a small window with maybe one spinning product photo and a bit of text. Maybe one or two additional screens from clicking a button.

I based my estimate on that. So they promptly threw it all out the window and gave me a story board that had zooming/panning cameras on moving images and people... all image based... no vectors... that ran about 10 minutes. TONS OF DIALOG. Continuous non stop dialog with music. AND NO INTERACTIVITY.

I tried to "call it off" but the deadline was looming and the client had approved the story board.

I tried to pull it off and... I lost my shirt... I lost the client... I even lost some friends that I worked with on it... I definately lost my sanity. They fed me to the wolves when it went over budget and I never did get all the money I was due (I don't bother suing... not worth the effort). I worked a miracle on that thing maintaining the story board concept they designed (I was just production their "fancy designers" did the story board.)

When it was all done... it turned out to look like a basic non interactive video intro for a training CD. The users would only see it once. If I had done it in After Effects or treated it as a standard "raster" video instead of Flash it would have been great. If I had done it in a smaller window instead of FULL SCREEN it would have been better (Try going from a small window to full screen in Flash with tons of layers and animated full screen photo sequences).

BUT... the client INSISTED ON FLASH so I had no choice (Flash didn't have robust video at that time. Streaming video in Flash was brand new and not as good as it is now).

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My conclusion or lessons learned...

I learned a TON of stuff about Flash. I also learned that I will only use Flash for small stuff from now on. Banner ads... short interstitials... video streaming... that kind of thing.

My advice would be to do what is best and most efficient for the final product. Don't force yourself to do something a certain way if that isn't the best way to get it done.

If there is a tight budget, all that work with action script and timing might not be the best way.

If doing it using QT is going to get the job done on time without going over budget and it still looks professional then that should be your success not your failure.

Macromedia/Adobe makes all kinds of claims about how easy it is to use Flash but they leave out a lot of... little details.

-vern

[mooncaine]

Thanks for the pep, talk, buddy! I'll meditate on this before I go in Monday, hopefully with a plan in mind. I'll be calmer. I appreciate it.

I should confess that all the storyboarding, planning, and emphasis on Flash was MY doing. I dug the hole by confidently assuring my boss and the client that, sure, I can do it in Flash, it'll be so great they'll be talking about us, watch, you'll see. I was confident, indeed.

I hope I don't have to eat my hat. I don't have edible hats.

[heyvern]

I should confess that all the storyboarding, planning, and emphasis on Flash was MY doing. I dug the hole by confidently assuring my boss and the client that, sure, I can do it in Flash, it'll be so great they'll be talking about us, watch, you'll see. I was confident, indeed.

It can still be Flash... just a bit... different. Try to play it positive.

There are tons and tons of Flash web sites out there with lots of free scripts, tutorials and info about all kinds of things. Keep positive.

You may still be able to pull this off. I learned how to do some memory management in Flash in about a week... of course I already had some actionscript experience... and I was hallucinating from lack of sleep towards the end...

... seriously... auditory hallucinations are a symptom of sleep deprivation... I was hearing voices and strange sounds...

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Sometimes though you are only as good as your last mistake no matter how many miracles you perform.

I have a project right now. A simple 4 page brochure. My client (another agency) wrote the copy. When I loaded it in it filled... 4 pages. I didn't even think about it and did a beautiful layout... then... at the last minute I realized...

The copy... filled ALL 4 PAGES! The front and back cover were already designed so we had a 2 full pages of too much copy.

I admitted I made a mistake but, the client did approve the copy before I received it and the agency wrote the copy and should know by now how much fits comfortably into a two page spread with photos, design elements and headlines.

Of course... it was still MY "mistake" for not catching... their "mistake" sooner.

And to make it even worse...

"By the way Vern, forgot to mention the size isn't 8.5 x 11... it's 7.25 x 10.5. We just found out... really truly sorry about that."

Had to redesign the cover AND the inside.

9pt body copy... teeny tiny photos... ouch... best I could do.

The people in charge never make mistakes... scratch that... they never ADMIT making mistakes.

-vern

[slowtiger]

Don't dismiss the "video-into-Flash" option too soon. The recent Flash version works miracles on video file sizes. This, together with the increased installation of broadband access, could be good enough for your project. It depends on the client's expectations as to who should be able to see his film and how fast does it need to load. Here in Germany it is quite common now to create "Flash" movies which are nothing but a video file in disguise.

Did you ever make a test for Flash video to check what it does to your artwork in terms of line quality and colour integrity? Some styles translate nicely to that video quality, others look unbearingly ugly.

In any case, you need to do your math before presenting this solution to a client. You need to convert at least a minute of animated material (with real movement, an animatic is not representative!) into Flash video with different quality settings. Then you are able to calculate file sizes and download times.

[slowtiger]

Vern: Some years ago one of the large mail order houses in Germany changed the format of their printed catalogue, from a generous A4 to a much more tiny A5. They just shrunk everything, the pictures as well as the font size. Now a big part of their customers consisted of elderly people ... so they provided a small magnifying glass for every catalogue. It worked.

[cribble]

Slow-tiger. Awesome advice up there, i've only just figured out the whole symbols thing myself recently.

Though one thing:

AS sometimes exports "groups" as appose to symbols... i mean what the hell do you do then?

See, i've had to do it the long way by importing, breaking apart each group for each frame and re-exporting it - then re-importing it. And then sometimes flash does all the leg work and converts stuff to symbols then.

gives me the sweats....

[slowtiger]

Can't help you there since I never used groups in AS (not group folders, which I use a lot).

[mooncaine]

I'm happy to report that my boss OK'd the move to using Flash video instead of trying to export Flash vector animation.

I'll talk about the workflow in a future post; right now I'm trying to figure out the most efficient way, and probably will use Final Cut Pro to help me cut at 24fps [though I'll try exporting to 12fps when I compress with Flash Video Encoder]. I only want 24fps in case I use Papagayo.