Re: FLASH: 3-D in Flash (is: curve optimization)

[John Dowdell]

At 9:06 AM 6/7/0, J. Lutes (pixelTwiddler) wrote:

> The lack of optimization possible with the converters/tracers

> (coupled with inaccuracy in some cases) isn't worth it to me

> (and I've seen them all).


Great post, thanks. fwiw, those folks who are using some external tools

which happen to create many straight line segments instead of curves can

often profit from using the "Smooth" button or menu options in Macromedia

Flash itself. (I know you're probably aware of this, but if others haven't

explored this path before, then it can often be quite useful.)


Background: Curve-fitting can be difficult to automate... it usually

requires a human's judgment about how closely a curve should approximate a

set of datapoints. A little tweaking of automatically-produced curves can

often work wonders in reducing total filesize.


It would be great to quickly get 3D effects in a popular player... lots of

people really want to do this. Right now, pre-rendering to optimized 2D

curves and using sprite animation techniques in the Flash Player is the

soundest way to go... it still takes some work and judgment to get the best

results, although lots of good progress is certainly being made in this

area.


jd






John Dowdell, Macromedia Tech Support, San Francisco CA US

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