Flash Video!

[Adrian Douglas]

Macromedia have announced the release of Flash MX (Version 6) and Flash 6 Player. In the new release is support for video using the Sorenson Spark codec.

"Macromedia Flash MX can import any standard video file supported by QuickTime or Windows Media Player, including MPEG, DV (Digital Video), MOV (QuickTime), and AVI. Users can then manipulate, scale, rotate, skew, mask, and animate any video objects as well as make them interactive using scripting. The video is automatically compressed by the Sorenson Spark codec in Macromedia Flash MX. Customers using high-motion, high-impact videos in their Macromedia Flash content will benefit from Sorenson Squeeze for Macromedia Flash MX (including the Sorenson Spark Pro codec), which offers additional compression capabilities and will be sold separately by Sorenson Media." www.Sorenson.com

This basically means that we now have a much waited for way of creating high quality/low bandwidth web video and interactive presentations using Flash. It also allows control of the video using Flash's Action Script and use searchable keywords to cue the video to the required point.

For more info check out

http://www.sorenson.com/content.php?pageID=35&id=14&nav=7

and

http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia/proom/pr/2002/flash_mx.html

Since no one is replying to this I will.

I have bought Flash MX software last week, so I could make online video presentations, however it is not that good to publish your online movies with... UNLESS... read on:

I think it is great that you can have video in your flash presentations. BUT....

A lot of people I have talked to want to do this with their films:

(MOVIE NAME) Limited Edition Video Series
Play Movie -> Watch the movie.
The Making Of -> Watch the making of movie.
On Set -> Show pictures of your movie on the set.
Directors Notes -> Notes (writtin or a mp3 file) about the movie.

And cram all of that into a online streaming movie.

There is a realllllllly big problem with this, and the main one is for every frame of your film, there is a frame added in the flash timeline. so if you have a movie with like 9000 frames (which is a short film) Then you will most likley will run into problems.

This is really not a good solution to presenting your movies online, Unless they are not more that 5 mins in length then you should be ok. Also memory runs a HUGE factor in this, as Flash MX relies on your memory while it is generating the final flash movie so on 10 or 15 min films you will run out of memory unless you have over 1.5 gigs of ram. But for small 30 second clips or looping videos you will be fine and will run into no problems.

However you can have a downloadable DVD LIKE presentation of your film with the right software.

There are quite a few other ways to present your movie and still make it an online DVD if you want to call it that, with pictures, behind the scenes, Directors notes and more. (I am talking about NON DVD authoring software)

All round Flash MX is a welcomed edition to my multimedia library. But it is not reccomended for online flash / streaming films.

[Adam Lawrence]

Ive been workign with MX now for bout 6 months...Hey i love it!!!!


Good for adding video clips to you web site!


As far as a Film? maybe not.. Flash intergrates the movie into the .swf

therefore the movie is apart of the file thus increases file size...

As opposed to a Director project for example which uses the movie as

a sub directory, which in turn doesnt merge the movie into the project

thus saving file size... Calling out a movie rather than using Flash integration

will always we a better alternative...(well atleast for now)...

Try using cleaner for movie compression, for streaming or progressive

playback, also compress your movies manually, by going into premiere

or any editing software and use traditional compression methods..

Usually makes a great streaming or progressive video!

[Adrian Douglas]

For sure, I wouldn't think about using Flash for a movie, for exactly the reason you mentioned, but for adding quick loading short looping clips to a web site this will prove to be an invaluable tool.

For distributable media, I still prefer Director, it is just much more powerful, especially using Lingo. For us as video/multimedia creators, flash will allow us to make our own and our clients website a little more exciting

[Rob Lohman]

I don't know exactly how movie integration within Flash works,
but reading the posts on this thread it looks to me like flash
just *stores* the movie in its *original* form in the flash. Why
would this be better? I have never understood streaming movies
(not saying that flash is streaming here!!) at this point in time.
A lot of people do not have the bandwidth, you cannot increase
the zoom with some of the players etc. Why I'm mentioning this
in regard to Flash? I am sometimes looking a bit amazed at
why certaing things happen now (or at all). Streaming is another,
and movies in flash is a second one. I would see no benefit
for it at all. Ofcourse flash is a wonderful product if it adds to
the site (I am really getting sick of this flash websites because
they can do flash and it does not add at all. It only retracts.).

I have seen some brilliant sites who used flash or director
or whatever technology to make a great great site. If I was
going to make a movie site I would make my interactive menus
just with plain HTML (perhaps with some dynamic HTML added).
Or perhaps some flash here. The movies would be in some
format at different sizes. If people click on them they will start
playing or the can download them.... why would I do this?

- I want people to be able to download instead of
online view my movies (if they so wish). I think it is
the best thing that can happen if someone wants to
save your movie (or trailer or whatever). Why everyone
is so obsessed with not allowing anyone to save (especially
with those movie trailers) is beyond me.
- There are formats that play on allmost any system now
a days (QuickTime, mpeg).
- I give the viewer lost of choices. Different resolutions, sizes,
format (if you offer these), view online or download.

I'll shut up for now

[Adrian Douglas]

Rob,

I totally agree with you on the Flash for Flash's sake point. The reason I like the new version is it allows you to use video embeded into the actual page, small looping clips for mouse overs, searchable clips for instructional purposes. Up until now you had to use Director for that, which isn't a problem, but Flash is more suited to web delivery than Director, which is designed for CD ROM authoring.

[whiterabbit]

If you publish video in mx your of course limiting your audience considerably. I beleive last numbers I heard for player version 6 where in the single digits. Supposedly some of the problems withthe player have been fixed and maybe distribution will grow a little faster who knows. If you dont get the advantage of a large installed player base I dont see the reason for switching to mx video.

There is however another way called Simulated Video which consists of sequences of images on the flash timeline. Viewers only need flash4 to view your video and its the best swf video you will ever see. Out of 1000 viewers polled 82% voted As Good as DV.

The real power of Flash video is in the flexability for design.

You can create some really powerfull visuals by integrating vector text and graphics and other bitmaps directly with the video, and you have unmatched interactive capability. The benefits continue, green screen in Flash- you can play your green screen video as transperant over your other Flash content, video whatever. Best of all get this. imagine shooting a hummingbird against a green screen and removing the background. Your humming bird might be 320 x 240 in size and the canvas 800 x 600 or whatever. The only part of the image that increments file size is the actual visible hummingbird thus freedom from the bounding box without affecting file size. Your humming bird can fly all over the screen composted over a high quality single static picture which you can also animate to keep it from looking flat.

We stream all video for our clients in Flash just because we the number of positive comments far outweighs the negative ones. The newest DV codecs are better at streaming low bandwidth video. For short streaming commercials movie trailers tutorials or any kind of presentation that also requires graphics and text, Flash would be very hard to beat.

check this out http://www.mantaproductions.com

Broadband recomended. Specifically wait for the 6th pic in the slide show, you can check out the showcase, and view how we embed it directly within our flash shopping cart.

cheers

jp