Topic: Flash vs. Photoshop

I am pretty new to both Flash and Photoshop so please bare with me. I have seen some pretty awsome web sites out there using flash animation with some cool graphics. I am assuming the graphics are created with photoshop and imported into flash. But when I atempt to do that the flash animation becomes pretty big and loads slow. Is there some tricks to combining images created in Photoshop with Flash. Is there any site dedicated to describing using flash with photoshop as a 'team'? Just wondering. I have read some pretty cool tutorials on each individually so that's where the question stems from. And sorry no web site yet....

Thanks
-Jubal

Well, this all depends on how you decide to 'compress' the images you use in a flash movie. Images in a flash movie are compressed the same way as in a normal web page but most people force all of those images to load before the flash movie will start. That's usualy the bit that takes the longest time to load. However, I've been trying out some different things here and there that combine standard HTML, DHTML and Flash. I only use flash for the areas that 'should' save bandwidth. Ie, animations that would be 'huge' in a .gif format but when done with flash are quite small indeed.

One of the larges parts of flash is usualy the audio. Quite simply, I recomend you just don't use Audio in your flash movies as it just takes up so much space.
www.phong.com is a good example of how flash can be used with normal HTML.

I've also been working on http://flux.clanman.com and the load time for this isn't that huge.

But, one thing you might come accross when using flash with bitmap images is that downright annoying offset/tear 'bug'!!

I'm sure others out there will know what I'm talking about, It's hard to explain... Basicaly, when you use bitmaps in flash it has a tendancy to 'render' things well.. wrong and things just won't line up correctly. The only work around I've come accross so far (and it doesn't always work) is to put large transparent boxes around most of your animated elements. Even then it's still mostly trial and error....

Anyone else out there figured out possible solutions to this problem??

everybody needs a swamp bear

I just wanted to quote this....

quote:

---

One of the larges parts of flash is usualy the audio. Quite simply, I recomend you just don't use Audio in your flash movies as it just takes up so much space.

---

Then I wanted to say this....

The reason NOT to use audio ISN'T because it takes up space.
The reason NOT to use audio IS because it is fucking annoying.

most people browse the net while listening to the net..... having other music come on, or having some other sort of audio is irritating to say the least.
Am I saying I haven't done the same?.. no...
My first flash site has background music with a shut off button for it...... but I do find it quite annoying none-the-less.

...was going to say something else.... but I've forgotten now...
bah.... oh well..

Well yes, your right it is annoying. More so if you use a small looped sound file! And most people are smart enough to figure out how annoying that is but what really shits me are the people who put 3 to 6 meg MP3 songs in their flash movies and force you to download it before you see *any* of the atcual content! All because they have a high band-width connection and it only takes a couple of seconds for them!!! grrrr.. anyhow..

But, I personaly don't mine the odd sound effect here and their, as long as it doesn't distract too much.. but I'm assuming most people would hate that too??




everybody needs a swamp bear

Definitely a no-no on the sound bite thing. I usually have my speakers pumped up for music, and having unexpected sounds blaring isn't good on my patience or the ol' heart.

Personally, I disable flash, scripting support, and java(unless I really want to see a page). On flash movies, I just click the skip button (a MUST have). If the flash is part of the site and is actually useful, then I'll make do.

I think part of the problem with sound on sites is that its always so uncreative. If you can get really bizarre sounds that take anvantage of this wonderful thing called "STEREO" i'll take a listen. Now then, if you want me to turn my music off to listen to the music on your site, it better be well-programmed so that it changes every-so-often like at snarg.net. I can stay on that site for a number of hours just to listen to their cool music. Also, even if you think you have the best music in the world, make sure like Dracusis said that it loads after the content or independently. There are a lot of great ways to do such a thing. (check out flashkit for more info) Lastly, make sure music is OPTIONAL. wait a sec.. why am i ranting about music?? o_O um .. .... ...... .... ..

okay, if you make a picture and import it as a gif, it will be blurry! if you import it as a jpeg it will be pixelated! remember that! no matter what anybody tells you, flash will drive you insane if you try to make it do otherwise.. also, if you're using a big pic that you want to blend into the movie, look into masking. masking is your friend. Thats about all i can say for images other than optimize before you import, and if all else fails, double click on your imported image file, and check the compression properties. clcik "test" to see how long it would take to download on a.. whatever.. connection. oh yeah! (will i ever shut up?) I second your motion taxon! I love my 56K! why can't others???


» THOAN.net (..soon to come..I hope)

threep intrudes upon the multimedia forum to make an extra 'anti-sound' comment:
"sound on flash sites REALLY piss me off, because for one, i don't have a sound card, and for another, if i did, i would have the sound off, being in an office, and as such, it wastes valuable bandwidth loading sound that i don't even hear!
grrrrr...."

Ok, to completely contradict another post, DO NOT optimize an image before you import. Import it as a PNG ideally, then adjust your jpeg compression when you export your movie. Why? Becuase if you import a JPG or GIF then export it it's like making a copy of a copy, it gets more and more unclear. Flash will do a great job of compressing an image of reasonable size, and if it's too big then you probably need to rethink using it anyway.

Chris

KAIROSinteractive

I second Fig's observations.

Flash came into being to do something revolutionary: render and animate vector graphics on the web. Nothing I know of did it before, and few apps have done it well since. They owned that niche. Vector graphics are by nature small and scalable. Flash earned a reputation of being incredibly fast.

But of course there are graphic limitations to vector graphics. It's harder to draw with for one thing (and Flash has some pretty non-standard tools if you "grew up" with Illustrator). No special effects filters. People were accustomed to raster graphics in their conventional HTML pages. People spent years learning cool image techniques with Photoshop and Fireworks. People naturally went with the thng they knew. As soon as Flash supported it, they plopped raster graphics in their movies. And guess what? Those aren't small or scalable! Pretty, yes. Efficient, no. Plus, people had also spent years learning how to optimize graphics for the web. But, as Chris points out, Flash by default optimizes raster graphics (pretty well it seems), so to start with optimized files is a bad idea unless you know how to tell Flash to use the data as is and not optimize it any more. I've had good luck with png files from Photoshop (with the advantage of much nicer transparency masks than gif offers). Makes for very large fla files, but it's astonishing how small the compiled swf is. Pay no attention to the fla size -that's not what goes out over the web.

But pixels is pixels. Compressed or not, you lose the vector advantage. Sometimes there's no avoiding it (hey - I'm a photographer! If I want to show what I do, Flash or not, I have to use raster images at some point!), but if you want to use Flash to it's absolute best advantage, try to do as much as you can with what it does best. And that of course it vector graphics. Oh yeah - and code.

And as a final comment - Flash handles sound extremely well. But loads of sites I've visited are really inconsiderate with the sound capability Flash offers them. No designer shuold assume I want to hear their sound track. I learned that lesson myself with imbedded quicktime sounds on a site I did. When a woman suddenly became the focus of attention in a quiet reference library, I quickly heard some sounds myself!!! And I never forgot the lesson.

Shhhhh. Don't feel you can't use new multimedia capabilities. Just start with the assumption that I don't want to hear it, and give me the option to turn it on if for some perverse reason it turns out that I want to!

WTF! Flash supports PNG... Heh, I should have paid more attention to my demo version.. That would have mede things easied... arr well. I still don't use it enough to justify the price yet, one day... Mabey I'll just re-format my computer ~again~ then I can use the demo again. Heh, narr.. bugger that. I'll wait.

everybody needs a swamp bear