Topic: How to smooth those rough edges during animations...

http://x-tremefx.net.cnchost.com/VHS/finished.html

^----- That's the URL to the site that I am working with right now. I am going to be doing it partially in flash, and I can't seem to get a smooth animation. If it's viewed at a high resolution, then it's very laggy, but if you view it at a low resolution, then it's fast, but extremely boxy. What should I do?

how did you create those moving pieces? in vector or raster? if you used raster (which is what it looks like), then there is your problem. i can see the jaggies as it spins, and the uneven width of each of the outlines. try redoing each of the circular pieces within flash (or other vector prog like illustrator).

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Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned

Hmm, what do you mean by raster? I imported the images ( Circles ) from a jpg that I created in PhotoShop. I then broke the images apart and croped off all of the ends to make it transparent. The result was jaggedness. Kinda sloppy. ;/ So I should import the image from Illustrator? How do you create circles like that in flash? I was actually originally trying to do that, but flash is very unlike PhotoShop. I can't seem to find out where any of the regular tools are. I created the circles in PhotoShop using very basic tools such as circle Marquee, and modify. I can't find those anywhere in flash. ;(

- VHS -

photoshop (or any painting prog like ms paint, photo impact, or paint shop pro) is raster. i just copy paths if i use illustrator. but for what youre doing, i would just use the elipse tool and then erase or mask portions of it. this will also make your swf size much smaller (vector graphics are always smaller than raster).

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Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned

http://x-tremefx.net.cnchost.com/VHS/flash/finished.html

Alright, check it out. I did what you said. I think that there is a HUGE improvement now. The only thing is that it's 700 k still. How can I reduce the size?

- VHS -

700k?.... it loaded pretty damn quick for 700k..... are you sure?
I thought I was looking at the loading page.... and then I noticed, this must be what you were referring to.

maybe the fla is 700k.... I doubt the swf is.

if your swf is for some reason 700k... post back here again and we can give you some tips.
To refer to your previous question of smoothness....
why don't you increase the fps and slow down the movement.

Hmm, Well you are right about the FLA. The SWF is actually 167k. It's a lot better, but it's still large. How long did it take you to load?

BTW the Frame rate seemed to improve about %500 after I re-created the circles.

- VHS -

Yep.... the frame rate in the >modify>movie is preset to 12 fps I think....
I've upped mine as far as 20 or so.... anything beyond that is rather useless. It can really change the feel of something.

I don't know how long exactly it took to load.... you had said it was 700k so I clicked the link and then went back to working in photoshop... so I'm not sure.... but it was less than 30 seconds I'd say.

If you want to reduce file size.... check your library.... you may have objects in there that are simply taking up space. See... everytime you create something in Flash.... it goes into your library... automatically.... For instance... Say you originally had squares rotating.... then you changed your mind to circles...... well... the squares are still in the library... and that takes up space when you create the swf.
I can't vouch for this little annoyance in Flash 5.... I'm not sure if it still does it.... but I know that's the way it is in 4.
Furthermore..... make the most of your objects.
If you have 6 objects that are essentially the same.... why don't you just use the same exact object and scale it down?..... then Flash will only be reading one object instead of 6.... see what I'm saying?... it can really make a difference in file size at the end.
Try cleaning things up as you go.... otherwise at the end it can be a real hassle. You'll be thinking.... hmmm.... did I use that object in here.... or was it that other object..... and you won't be sure. Deleting objects from your library is un-doable...at least in Flash 4 it is.

Post back if you have any questions....
sasha will be rolling back in here sometime soon with answers pertaining to Flash 5 if you need them I'm sure.

flash 5 is better about the library. unless it is on the stage, it wont count towards the swf size (i just tested this with a 212k jpg in the library, there was no change in swf size).
http://www.bittersweet2.com/test.html (about 1.64k)

any sort of raster graphic is going to add a lot to the file size.

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Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned

... and there ya have it. ... I knew sasha would come in to save the day....
hehe...

Looks better now than before, but I notice that now I can see where the animation loops and starts over, I couldn't before. It starts over at a place where all the openings of the circles are in the lower left hand of the flash box. You should change that so they never all coincide.

Oh yeah, hehe. Actually I was just in the middle of fixing that when the bell rang. I was soo close to actually finally getting the loop flawless. Oh and BTW I think that You might have hit the nail on the head with that library file idea. I never got rid of the last images that I used ( rastered ) from the last loop. I used the same file to create the new one. heh. * FWAP *

I am thinking about doing the entire intro page in flash now. What do you think I should do? I was originally going to do a mixture of Flash and HTML, but the HTML version didn't come out looking as good as I hoped for.

- VHS -

Hmm... well, first of all.... it's your site... not ours.

If you had asked me 2 months ago whether or not to dot the whole thing in Flash or partially with html.... I would have said Flash... all the way.
I think my eyes are beginning to open though....
right now... I'd say stick to working on the part html, part Flash version.

but hey.... like I said.... it's yours... not ours.

well if there is anything that i have learned about tracing images, its that you do it with ALIASED pictures ONLY. Why? Because flash reads every color in your picture and tries to impliment it into the vector-based image to make you hapy.. when in all reality, it messes you up. SO after you ppl make your images in PS, make sure you change the pic to indee color, force black&white, and set the colors to '2' and viola! All you have to do after that is fix all the teeny-weenie stray pixels.. (though i'm not sure.. i just fix em anway..) Then when you import to flash, and trace, it reads the black, and the white, then creates a line to conform to the color areas =) perfect!
Bla, i must be bored.. hehe


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