Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Unit E: Optimizing and Publishing a Movie

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Objectives Optimize a movie Understand publish settings Publish a movie for the Web Create and export a publish profile Export a QuickTime movie Create a projector file Export image files

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Optimizing and Publishing a Movie Goal: reduce loading time while preserving quality   Publish entire movie in different formats   Export a single frame from a movie and save it in an image file format

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Optimizing a Movie Modify file attributes to eliminate bottlenecks in a given frame during downloading Goal: ensure movie plays well regardless of Internet connection speed

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Optimizing a Movie Optimize Curves dialog box

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Optimizing a Movie Viewing shape optimization results

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Understanding Publish Settings To publish a movie, instruct Flash to create files necessary to display it Use Publish Settings dialog box to choose desired file format

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Using Publish Setting Dialog Box Choose output movie formats   Select file formats to publish   Specify filename and location   Default: Flash (.swf) and HTML (.html) Publish Settings dialog box

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Using Publish Setting Dialog Box Choose still image file formats   GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) For drawings and line art Limited quality, but supports transparency Static or animated (e.g., emoticons)   JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) Versatile; for photographs and gradients Maintains image quality even when highly compressed   PNG (Portable Network Graphics) Supports higher resolution images and transparency Native file format in Adobe Fireworks Does not include background color

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Using Publish Setting Dialog Box Choose stand-alone file formats   Projector file Stand-alone application that plays movie without using browser software or Flash Player Significantly larger than SWF files (contain all data needed to run the movie) Can be played from desktop, CD, or DVD

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Publishing a Movie for the Web Open Publish Settings dialog box Adjust the settings Publish the movie Default settings make the process seamless

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Adjusting the Settings Options on Flash tab adjust settings in SWF file JPG quality setting affects image quality and size; values of create higher- quality images Viewing publish settings on the Flash tab

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Adjusting the Settings Options on HTML tab specify how movie appears in the browser Set movie’s dimensions   Match Stage size   Fixed pixel width in the monitor   Based on percentage of monitor’s size Select Loop check box to play continuously

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Adjusting the Settings Viewing publish settings on the HTML tab

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Publishing a Movie for the Web Viewing published files (Win)

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Understanding Flash Player Options If previous version of Flash Player is selected, features from later versions will not work properly or at all when users play the movie Other player options   Adobe AIR, for desktop applications   Flash Lite, for mobile devices

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Creating and Exporting a Publish Profile File in XML format that Flash creates, then uses when it exports data Makes publish settings available for use in other documents Can be applied to other movies by importing it; eliminates need to re-create publish settings Streamlines process for creating multiple movie files with same settings

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Creating and Exporting a Publish Profile Creating a publish profile

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Creating and Exporting a Publish Profile Exporting a profile

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Understanding Publish Profiles Process of importing/exporting Flash profiles differs from importing/exporting files in other programs   When Flash exports a profile Transfers data contained in the profile, but not the profile name that appeared in Current profile list   When Flash imports a profile Prompts to replace current profile with data in the import profile, but name of the profile does not update to the import profile filename

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Exporting a QuickTime Movie QuickTime movies   Play animation well   Play on both Macintosh and PC computers QuickTime software   Standard with Apple operating system   Downloadable for Windows users

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Exporting a QuickTime Movie Export Movie dialog box

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Exporting a QuickTime Movie Viewing results of QuickTime export

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Exporting a QuickTime Movie Playing a QuickTime movie

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Creating a Projector File Projector files   Stand-alone, self-running applications   Play a Flash movie on a computer that does not have browser software or Flash Player installed   Differ by platform; cannot run a Windows projector on a Mac, or vice versa

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Export Formats Export formats

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Creating a Projector File Both projector files can be published from a PC or a Mac; only the one associated with computer’s platform can be opened Selecting projector formats

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Creating a Projector File FIGURE E-15: Playing a projector file

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Exporting Image Files For creating static image from a movie   Export a scene from a single frame   Export an object to insert in a Web page Three possible image file formats   GIF   JPEG   PNG

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated GIF Options Focus on color Possible to export animated GIF file Transparency options FIGURE E-16: Viewing options on the GIF tab

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated JPEG Options Size and quality Progressive   Loads JPEG image incrementally Viewing options on the JPEG tab

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Optimizing a Flash Movie Key is to balance file size and download time against image quality No set rules to follow

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Simple Optimization Steps Reduce frame rate Use symbols Optimize and resize bitmap images before importing them Replace gradient fills with solid colors Use alpha transparency sparingly Use tween animation (instead of frame-by-frame animation)

Adobe Flash CS4 – Illustrated Simple Optimization Steps (cont’d) Compress sound files Use solid lines created with Pencil Tool (instead of dashed or dotted lines), or lines created with Brush Tool