Flash to Video... tips?

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Flash to Video... tips?

Posted by Jimtopia - April 25th, 2009

Recently I've begun to unravel the mystery that is After Effects CS3. Mainly due to the fact that I have to learn it for my Motion Graphics II class, but honestly I'm probably going to be fiddling with it all summer, because it seems like it'd be a worthwhile program to understand.

Mainly what this news post is about though, is that I've been wanting to try combining some of the new things I'm doing in Flash with some of the cool things you can do in After Effects, sadly though After Effects doesn't like plain old SWF files, which surprised me honestly, but whatever.

The main point of this is I was just curious if anyone out there knows any good software, or any other way for that matter, to convert SWF to any video type (preferably MOV considering I use a Mac). I know there's no way to actually convert the file itself to a video, but hopefully you understand what I'm getting at.

Thanks in Advance,
Jimtopia

Flash to Video... tips?

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Sonucais 2009-04-25 15:31:06

swf2avi

Jimtopia 2009-04-25 15:31:06

thxIchkitout

FatKidWitAJetPak 2009-04-25 15:34:26

Hmmm... you know I am curious about wtf all of those signs mean.. but I dont want get involved in it. good luck with the movie your working on!

Jimtopia 2009-04-25 15:34:26

lol, thanks man.

Chakra-X 2009-04-25 15:51:46

If you have a spare PC, I highly recommend Moyea SWF to Video (or MPEG if the budget is smaller).

I too use a mac, and with all these video editing capabilities now and days, you'd think a swf to video program would be more convenient.

I suggested Moyea because many of the so-called "swf converters" either do not incorporate movie clips, interfere with action script (like if you have a menu or what not), or go terribly out of sync. Moyea lets you manually play the video and will record the sound/video. If it not in sync, or if you have a lot of frame skipping, you can have the movie play back a slower speed, to whatever speed you want, and it will be more accurate in capturing/syncing frames.

The problem is, the movie actually has to play out to be converted, so when I put my 16 minute flash in there for 7 times slower speed, I had to wait around 2 hours :X. But it all depends on how powerful the computer is, how much is going in in the flash, the flash dimensions, and duration.

I've been looking for a converter for Mac though that can do something like Moyea.

Jimtopia 2009-04-25 15:51:46

I've tried using Moyea before, but I never knew that you could run a flash at a lower speed then normal when recording. I'll have to give that a go.

Wonchop 2009-04-25 16:17:15

If it's CS3 you should be able to import some SWFs (provided theres no animation within movie clip symbols.)
If not (might be picky), if you have at least Flash CS3, you can export your flash as a Quicktime mov file, using the H.264 codec. This'll export your flash in a video with movie clip animation intact with some good quality and you can generate an alpha channel too. Just bear in mind that you'll want to take out preloaders or any code that pauses or stops the movie in order to export properly.

Jimtopia 2009-04-25 16:17:15

Yeah I animate within movie clips, which is why exporting Quicktime movies never really worked for me, though I don't think I've ever tried exporting with that codec before, thanks for the info.

Pixmintro 2009-04-25 18:51:22

Shit, you're gonna have some trouble since you use movie clips, actionscript ruins everything too. But for me, the best is to lay everything out on the timeline, doesn't matter if it lags or whatever. Don't have any event sounds either, all streaming. Next, export to AVI, use the Cinepac Codec at 95% since that holds gradients the best. Then drop that shit into After Effects. That's as far as I can go since I don't know AE AT ALL...

Jimtopia 2009-04-25 18:51:22

AE is a fun program, I'd recommend at least downloading the free trial and looking at some tutorials.

Luis 2009-04-25 19:17:03

Youre going to have to untrain yourself to work in movie clips if your ultimate goal is porting it to video. Part of using flash is knowing the limitations and hurdles of going to a new platform with it. Same type of issues exist when creating css for mobile devices. Cant have the bull without the horns.

Jimtopia 2009-04-25 19:17:03

What about animating in graphic symbols, is that allowed?

SkyBullet 2009-04-25 19:44:43

sothink swf to video.

Jimtopia 2009-04-25 19:44:43

Noted.

MindChamber 2009-04-25 20:05:04

dude you're almost 20, you still drawin like that?

Jimtopia 2009-04-25 20:05:04 (Updated 2009-04-25 20:22:56)

As surprising as it sounds, I can draw better than that.

Stevoisiak 2009-04-25 20:25:39

Eddsworld seems to be good at conversion. Why not ask them? Also, there are always screen recorders like CamStudio.

Jimtopia 2009-04-25 20:25:39

You've got a point, maybe I'll drop him a line (though I'm about 90% sure he uses a screen recorder).

CaptainReaper 2009-04-25 20:39:33

flash comes with a converter to change the file type to FLV why not try that

Jimtopia 2009-04-25 20:39:33

Well maybe I will... >_>

Shadowii2 2009-04-26 04:29:31

<a href="http://www.sothink.com/product/swftovideoconverter/">http://www.sothink.com/product/swftov ideoconverter/</a>

Best converter ever. Even Adobe states this as the best.

Jimtopia 2009-04-26 04:29:31

I'll have to check it out, thanks.

rtil 2009-04-26 05:19:33

don't use moyea, it works on screencapture so if it frameskips while capturing your video will frameskip too.

magic swf2avi is ok, but it doesn't compare to flash cs4's video export. it's probably the only good thing about cs4.. i've been using it to make mov's out of my fla's for months now and it hasn't failed me once. it takes into account movieclips, AS and everything.

i haven't tried image sequences with it, though. they're the best output option because they're the only true lossless export for video, and AE treats an image sequence as a video clip which is very nice.

Jimtopia 2009-04-26 05:19:33

I honestly didn't know CS4 had video exporting capabilities, I'll have to look into that, and maybe I'll try doing an image sequence export, see if that works too.

RWA 2009-04-26 09:47:09

I don't know, I have after effects and I can import SWF's but without sound, only the animation

Jimtopia 2009-04-26 09:47:09 (Updated 2009-04-26 16:05:05)

My main problem is that from time to time I'll animate in movie clips, and AE doesn't like that.

FatKidWitAJetPak 2009-05-04 17:29:08

SO HOWS THAT MOVIE COMING? If your working on it I will add you to my front page post. ;)

FatKidWitAJetPak 2009-05-06 18:07:42

Hey, do you have a preview of what you have so far? Or are you too busy to show me lol. :P

Flash to Video... tips?

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