FLASH: FLASH 4.5 Brainstorm!

[Scott Ewen]

Title: FLASH 4.5 Brainstorm!

> So, am I the only person left in this
>
> universe experiencing crashes?
>
> It's the second time that Flash 4 *completely* messed up a whole
>
> days

> work ("unexpected file
>
> format").

And  here I thought I was the only one.

I've been working on an Flash 4  MP3 player, jukebox  thinga-ma-jig and while working   with the rather large imported AIFF files, I have experienced numerous crashes and "Flash low on memory" messages. I am working on a Mac G3 with 98 mgs of RAM with VM set to an additonal 50 and FLASH memory partition set to 50.

I have also had the same problems with moderately long passsages of broken up text which is rather annoying given I would like to be able to pass quite a bit of textual info onto the viewer  through  my movie. Eye candy is nice but if it hinders what I really wan to say with  my site, then its doing more harm than good.

A  couple of possible ideas/fixes for FLASH 4.5(?)  in no particular order:

(1.) Allow importation of pre-existing MP3 files with the option of not embedding them in  the Flash movie but rather, leave them as a seperate entity that the movie can reference like an' include'. We can import images using an third party  comppression scheme.., why not sound?

> > > This  would be very usefull for this Jukebox thingy
> > >
> > > I mentioned above as the user would only have to download the songs
> > >
> > > they would like to hear when /ifthey want to hear them and not all
> > >
> > > the songs included in the players movie file. By itself is only 10K
> > >
> > > but with 2, 1 min.,  AIFF audio  files, using  MP3
> > >
> > > commpression, set at 16 KBPS at a quality of medium the file is 111K.
> > >
> > > When I attach the actual full length songs I imagine it will be
> > >
> > > around 3 - 400 K. at least.
> >
> > >

(2.) The ability to target multiple scenes from within a MC. (I really want to be able to do this.)

                                   Seems silly that the Expression "../scene2/frame1" wont  work for a GO TO?

(3.) Font rendering on Export that leaves your postscript fonts alone in the FLASH file but Breaks them apart in the exported SWF

> > > This would eliminate having to Break Apart your text on a
> > >
> > > button or whatever so you can edit it more easily later
> > >
> > > on.
> >
> > >

(4.) Cut and Paste  Instance Actions from one Symbol to another!!!!!!!!

> > > Mouseevents, Tell Targets, etc.
> >
> > > We can select them, why cant we copy them?!
> >
> > >

(5.) "Springy-Scaling" timeline editing capability that would allow  the user to proportionatly compress all the frames in a  time-line at once instead of only being able to move them in block chunks.

> > > This would be handy for speeding up the movies playback
> > >
> > > if at the end you decide that everything plays back to slowly and you
> > >
> > > would like to speed things up without changing the frame
> > >
> > > rate.

Some sort of optimization tool might be nice to. Something  that might  give you some  feedbackon  where your movie getting out of hand and  how to get your movie file sizes  smaller. Im thinking something beyond the export movie window.  Say you finish your movie and its file size is over what you originally intended. Using the Optimization Tool, you enter a Target File size that you would like to achieve.., if FLASH could  allow you to preview your movie trimmed down in different ways by the application itself without editing on your part (!)..., suggest more efficient fonts and switch those fonts so you can see what they look like, remove unnecessary Keyframes or MC's. I was thinking about the export preview in Fireworks that allows you to see how your Graphic will look with different compression schemes and in different  file formats..., something like that in FLASH on a global scale,  could be very usefull to some. Maybe there could be a way to tag certain symbols and Time-Lines as Crucial or Expendable.

These suggestions are  all based on my limited experience of course and theres probably  a dozen work-arounds that deal with these issues. (Ild love to hear about em! :} ). All in all I think FLASH 4 is an excellent program  and the new version is much easier to work with than  3.

 Kudos to MM for a job well done. I just hope they continue to  make it better in the future.

 Ild  love to hear what other people are thinking. Any other suggestions?

__________________________________

Scott  Ewen  -  I.P.A. -  Organic  -  EXT. 5545

http://www.dsp.com/solo/fusebox/

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