Re: FLASH: Vecta 3D Generated SWF (Optimizing)

[John Dowdell]

>> I've used 3DS MAX to create some simple text rotation

>> animation and render it to SWF with Vecta 3D. It seems

>> that the size is rather big than that of Vecta 3D's intro.

>> I've imported the SWF and re-export it, however the size

>> still can't be satisfied. Anyone who has idea about

>> optimizing it?



I haven't had the chance to stress-test this yet myself, but I did get the

chance to confirm some details with some of the 3D folks at the

FlashForward Conference this morning. Here are some quick highlights:


--  Reduce the number of Flash symbols. 2D sprite-animation techniques are

cheap, but 3D animation means you need to send more artwork down the wire.

Try to do the bulk of the work with 2D animation of 3D artwork.

    (Some stuff is best as pure-3D animation, of course, but XY rotation is

more expensive than Z rotation.)


--  Reduce the number of points in an outline. The 3D vertex count could

play a role here, depending on the shape. Definitely try to get the

smallest number of points to outline the 2D shape... it might be worthwhile

to open up the shapes and simplify them further in Flash.


--  Reduce the number of shading tasks. Some 3D tools offer per-facet

gradients, but if you can have multiple curves share a single gradient then

that can be a smaller filesize.

    A 3D outline filled with a single flat color or gradient is cheaper

than a 3D shape with an explicit shadow curve, and both are cheaper than

shapes with shadow and highlight curves. Simpler shading can be cheaper.



These seem to be the big 3 principles so far... nothing earthshaking here,

but I hope the concise set of tips might help in some projects.


Anyone else have similar quick rules-of-thumb for minimizing 3D SWF size...?


tx,

jd









John Dowdell, Macromedia Tech Support, San Francisco CA US

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