Re: FLASH: tweening loads

[Marc Hoffman]

At 08:51 AM 5/11/99 -0400, you wrote:

>

>Can you explan to me the difference in processor requirements for symbol 

>tweens 


When a symbol is tweened in a movie, the Flash player performs calculations

on-the-fly to construct the tween. Compare this to frame-by-frame

animation, where the display information for each frame is present in that

frame and need not be interpolated.



>I put in about a week's effort at creating the ship and the sails in 

>Freehand, with blends to create a good illusion of sail folds, etc. I 

>drew in the ropes, e.g. that couldn't be seen... And when exported to 

>Flash, it created a world of symbols, but also a composite which I used 

>as my basic symbol. I realize now that all the detail is a drawback... 

>but what can you do?  Does grouping the elements of a design simplify it 

>or not? 


That's one of the painful parts of the learning process -- having to scrap

great work because there's a better, leaner way to achieve what you want.

And in Flash, "lean" is the goal that must always be kept in mind, however

complex and lovely your graphics are. Slow connections and slow user

machines are non-negotiable, so you need to experiment to see what works

and make trade-offs consciously and with the site's purpose in mind (artsy,

leisure sites being more forgiving than commerce- or information-driven sites).


I don't have a lot of scientific findings about byte costs of various

techniques, but John Croteau has been working on that (John do you have a

URL on this?).



>

>Should I just dispense with the billowing sails movie clips in the larger 

>symbol? 


As I mentioned, I don't think they add to the effect, in fact I did not

notice them.  Reminds me of the time I put rotating treads on the tires of

a car -- when it's moving forward, you never even notice them.






Marc Hoffman

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

marcdartfrogmedia [dot] com (mailto:marcdartfrogmedia [dot] com)

Play a virtual marimba at: <www.dartfrogmedia.com/dartfrog> (featured 

in the book Flash 3 Web Animation by Ken Milburn).

Flash3 samples: <http://www.jps.net/dartfrog/sampler>.


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