FLASH: REVISED POST: Using Flash v. Director for CD projects...

[Bryan Ax]

Guess I should have done some research before opening my big mouth and

posting to this list.  Did some searches on this list, and actually opened

Flash 5 for the first time since my post earlier this morning (late night

for most of you).  I found many Director v. Flash arguments, and don't want

to start another.  So I will revise my question set...


To refresh:


1.  In Director, the project would be a fairly standard CD-ROM

(cross-platform) with stub projector that calls other movies, allowing kids

to play with different activities (15 to 20 activities, including

significant narration and animation "content pieces"), then go back to the

stub projector, passing in various high scores from the other movies.  There

is some tailoring which occurs - kids will be asked some questions in the

initial movie, then receive specific tailored feedback about the answers

they chose in other movies...i.e, "because you're this type of person, we

think you should pay careful attention to this, this, and that".  The CD

will be developed to eventually run on both Mac and PC.


JD wrote this on the list:


> ...are there technical reasons Flash is not appropriate for

> CD distribution?


Flash does not have the range of media-loading controls that Director has...

its presentations are designed mainly to fit into RAM. Director is far more

adept at swapping from disk, loading media on the fly, etc.


Although I've seen people make very large Flash Projectors, such things are

'way out of the normal testing range... the Macromedia Flash authoring

application and Player engines are designed and tested for websized loads,

so

very large disk presentations are out in terra incognita.


Summary: It's theoretically possible to use a Flash Projector for a 30M

presentation, but this is very rare in the real world. A Director Projector

handles this task with aplomb.




</snip>


To what extent has the Flash 5 engine improved so that it COULD handle

switching between 15 or 20 5-10 minute animation/activity groups,

maintaining variables across all of the movies, with CD quality audio, lots

of interaction, etc?  From what JD writes, it sounds like earlier versions

(3,4) are not designed for this type of program - but F5 has improved

significantly in terms of ActionScript - has it also improved in terms of

becoming functional at the level I describe?


Also - while right now the project doesn't appear to use any video - from

what I explored in F5, it doesn't look like it handles video at all yet

(except exporting to QT, etc).  So, from a "looking down the road"

perspective, if I do go a full Flash route, I'm in trouble if the client

does want to incorporate video at some future point...



I wrote:

2.  Many of the graphics will be vector-based, including several animated

vector characters...I've never found a way that I'm 100% happy with for

bringing animated characters in to Director.  I've come across problems with

importing Flash audio in, had trouble synching Flash movies to audio native

in Director.  While I think overall Director does a great job of handling

Flash elements, I still have worries when I know those Flash movies are

going to need to be synched with sound.


>From what I read in the digests, there are still some problems with this.

Anyone have a solid cross-platform solution for Flash elements brought in to

Director, either with sound already embedded in Flash, or synching Flash

animations to audio imported in to Director 8?


The other questions I pretty much answered by getting off my lazy ass.

Sorry for the long post yesterday.  I promise not to post for several months

now because of my silly questions...


Bryan Ax



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

flasher is generously supported by...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   flashforward2000 and the Flash(tm) Film Festival

 November 27-29, 2000, LONDON, National Film Theatre


   Produced by United Digital Artists and lynda.com

-Sponsored by Macromedia, Adobe Systems and Apple Computer

-http://www.flashforward2000.com  or UK tel. +44 (0870) 751 1526

       Register before November 10 and save £200

            http:// www.flashforward2000.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  To unsubscribe or change your list settings go to

http://www.chinwag.com/flasher or email

helpchinwag [dot] com