swf export weirdness

BA · Post by BA » Tue Mar 08, 2005 7:55 pm

something odd happens any time I export an .swf.....

The animation plays fine, then when it hits the last frame and loops back to the beginning, the last frame sticks on the screen, on top of the animation which continues to loop.

Has anyone else had this problem?

Post by **Lost Marble** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 3:47 am

This can happen with more complex animations being exported to Flash. Often, the cause is using variable-width lines and exporting them to Flash. A workaround is to go to the File->Project Settings dialog and turn on the "Extra SWF frame" checkbox. This tells Moho to export an extra blank frame at the end of the animation - for some reason this makes the Flash player feel better and stops leaving the last frame sticking around when it loops.

BA · Post by BA » Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:00 pm

well -

turning on 'add extra frame' did solve that particular problem - but now flash player crashes halfway through the second loop.

it's not a particularly complicated scene - just a basic character taking a few steps. He does have variable line widths.

Post by **Lost Marble** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 2:18 am

It may not seem complicated, but variable-width lines can add a lot of extra data to an SWF file. In some cases, a very short animation with variable-width lines can export a file that is just too complex for Flash to handle. How does it work if you leave the variable-width option turned off when exporting?

BA · Post by BA » Thu Mar 10, 2005 7:09 pm

eliminated variable lines and it stopped crashing.

but does this mean we can't export .swf's with variable lines? that would be a big drawback as i tend to use tapered lines most of the time...

is there any way to fix this?

Post by **Lost Marble** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 8:06 pm

Macromedia talks about some of the limits of Flash here:

http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/knowl ... d=tn_14437

Unfortunately, the limits seem to be dependent of one another, and are not exactly set in stone. Variable-width lines really can easily push the limits of what Flash can handle.

The best way to use variable-width lines if your target format is Flash is to only use them in optimized layers (layers with the red dot next to them in the Layers window). This means no point animation or bone wapring, though. Take a look at the Moho manual, Reference section, "Flash Tips" for more information.

If you want to post a link to your Moho file, I could take a look to see how hard Flash is being pushed.