Flash MX within Toaster??? Motion graphics

[kgwilso]

I use Macromedia's Flash MX to generate some animations, and would love to use them within Video Toaster. I can successfully export the Flash file to an *.AVI format and play it in ToasterEdit, but I want to export the Flash file with transparency.

Ex. I have a text animation that fades out. When I export from Flash and play it in Toaster, the text is no longer transparent. I tried keying out the background color, but wasn't successful at creating transparent text.

Do I need to export with some sort of alpha transparency? Or do I need to import the clip into Toaster with transparency?

Does anyone out there use Flash MX in combination with Toaster for titling?

Thanks in advance for any pointers.

Ken

[Jim Capillo]

If I'm not mistaken (and I may be ;) ), you need to bring it into Aura then export it as an .rtv.

[SBowie]

But, unless your exported AVI retains the alpha info, it won't do what you're asking. Yyou might try loading the .swf file directly into Aura, but I think you're still going to have the background color.

[darenu]

After Effects will also render out Flash SWF's, and does it very well.

[SBowie]

Are you saying that AE can directly load .swf's with their alpha channel intact, ready to be overlayed on other layers? That's interesting, if so. I really don't know if Aura can do this, because I don't have an app that can save a .swf with an embedded alpha channel so I can test the file.

[kgwilso]

In Flash MX, you can render the file as an AVI as "32 bit color w/ alpha." Wouldn't that export the alpha transparency within the video file? My complication is that there is no "transparent" background like you would have in, say Fireworks or Photoshop.

I'm very new to Aura. I can import the rendered AVI into Aura, but I'm not sure what to do with it once it's in there. Any suggestions?

Thirdly, I tried to render a title with white text that fades out, and a black background. I can take the clip into ToasterEdit (as an AVI) and key out the black, but the transparency doesn't show unless I crank up the smoothing very high.

Thank you, and thanks already for the pointers that sending me in the right direction.

Ken

[SBowie]

Originally posted by kgwilso
In Flash MX, you can render the file as an AVI as "32 bit color w/ alpha." Wouldn't that export the alpha transparency within the video file?Ken I would expect it to, yes. Then you should be able to composite that file in any suitable software, incuding either AE or Aura. I'm not sure whether the .swf (Flash) file itself can be exported with an embedded alpha, however. But the AVI should work for you.

Originally posted by kgwilso

My complication is that there is no "transparent" background like you would have in, say Fireworks or Photoshop. If you load a 32bit AVI into Aura, the transparency is preserved. What you see in transparent parts of the display will depend on a) the content of lower layers, and b) the status of Aura's project background display mode (None/Color/Check).


Originally posted by kgwilso

I'm very new to Aura. I can import the rendered AVI into Aura, but I'm not sure what to do with it once it's in there. Any suggestions? Pretty much anything you like, really - if you have access to older NewtekPro articles, you might check out the tutorial I did on title effects using Aura. But for the purposes of this thread, it might be worth noting that once loaded into Aura with the embedded alpha channel, the file can then be exported as an RTV with alpha, which will allow you to preserve your transparency right into VT-Edit (which is, I think, what you initially asked about?) VT-Edit does not directly support 32bit AVI's, so this gives you a workaround.

[darenu]

hmmmm....

I must be wrong. I could swear I've done this with Alpha in After Effects (5.5), but I just tried it and couldn't get the alpha.

Sorry if I misled anyone. :(

[bbeanan]

you can also export from Flash as a PNG seq. and bring that in which will hve the Alph intact (that is what I do in TED at least)

[kgwilso]

Hi all,

I went to Macromedia's forums, and found this article concerning Flash transparency exports. It allows you to export the SWF in HTML format with a transparent background. This isn't quite what I'm after, but it's a bit closer. I'm going to play with it for a while, and I'll post back with any details I come up with.


http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/wmode.htm

Ken

[kgwilso]

I think I found a solution. The guys over at www.ultrashock.com have a tutorial that covers the use of SWF's in AfterEffects.


---------------------- attached article -------------------------------------

Working with Video and SWF in After Effects 5


The SWF export features in Adobe After Effects 5 make it easy to add video content to your SWFs. The following five tips will help you get the best results with the lowest file size.


Frame Rates and Posterize Time

Reducing the frame rate of video in a SWF is essential to minimizing file size. To reduce 30fps video to a minimal Web frame rate (say, 9fps), drop the video into an After Effects composition and set the comp frame rate to 9fps. Unfortunately, because Flash is frame-based and not time-based, if you import that 9fps SWF into an 18fps Flash movie, it will run twice as fast as you intended (each imported frame will be adjacent to the next one), meaning you'll have to redistribute each frame in Flash by hand.

To get around this issue, you can try After Effects' Posterize Time filter. Posterize Time reduces the frame rate of the footage to which it's been applied, effectively giving the footage a different frame rate than the composition that contains it (something not normally possible in SWFs). So in our example, you would set the composition to 18fps and apply a Posterize Time setting of 9fps to the imported video. Unfortunately After Effects will export each frame twice, but it will have the effect of giving the correct timing in Flash. To optimize the file you can remove every other keyframe by hand (a little tedious, but faster and more reliable than redistributing frames by hand). One note of caution: Posterize Time will rasterize any content to which it's applied, so don't use it on vectors or text animation.


Alpha Channels in Video

Video processed with After Effects and sent to SWF will have an 8-bit alpha channel if necessary. That means that you can rotate video on a 3D plane, for example, and the individual frames will have enough transparency information to blend smoothly with other elements when you import the SWF into Flash. Be aware that when using 3D, After Effects rasterizes the frame, not just the area where the video exists on that frame. It therefore makes sense to apply any 3D effects in a comp that's sized down to just what the animation demands.


Seperating Vector and Bitmap Content

You may want to combine video and animated objects in After Effects but keep them separate for further work in Flash. Luckily, After Effects will export only what's visible. To export separate SWF, enable the solo key for the layers you want in each SWF, export each combination as SWF, and import the SWFs together in Flash. For example, it may make sense to keep Illustrator layers together and prevent them from being rasterized with video underneath them. By soloing the Illustrator layers and exporting them together as one SWF, then soloing the video and exporting it separately, you can keep each in its most efficient form for SWF.

Nested Compositions

Remember that nested compositions are rasterized when exported to SWF, regardless of contents.

Frame Rates

Finally, don't be afraid of dropping video frame rates well below what you'd otherwise consider the minimum possible, and consider scaling or stretching video inside Flash. Juxtaposing short bursts of low-res video with smooth type animation, for example, can provide some interesting results. See the work of Hillman Curtis for some creative examples of using limited image sequences efficiently.

[Dan Hong]

I've used Swish to create some pretty pimp text effects. I just dumped the swf into flash and export a tga or png sequence and recompile them as rtv w/alpha in Aura. I use Aura to drop a groovy drop shadow in the mix and viola, super cool CG.

[kgwilso]

Almost there! I exported out of Flash as a PNG sequence. The transparency came with it. I imported INTO Aura.


Now what? How do I export OUT of Aura as RTV. (I'm an Aura newbie).


Thanks for the help so far.

Ken

[mrjaialai]

On the Toolbar hit File-Mode. click on RTV. It should then bring up a box with keep alpha clicked. That should be good.

The File-Export-Sequence and you're good.

[kgwilso]

What a beauty! That's it... thank you!

Ken

[bbeanan]

I normally bring the the PNG seq. into a DDR and render it out there myself.