Flash Tutorial

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By Scot Hacker, Jane Stevens, Tim Gnatek

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…In Four Easy Steps

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to integrate a video clip into the linear timeline of a Flash movie.

Create and save a video clip

  1. Keep the clip size small - no larger than 400 x 300. Smaller sizes won't pixelate so much.

  2. Keep it short - no more than 20 to 30 seconds, more if REALLY compelling.

  3. Flash supports QuickTime, MPEG, AVI and DV formats.

  4. Create a new layer, and name it Vshark. Insert a keyframe where you want the video to start, and make sure it's selected before you import your video.

Import the video

  1. From the File menu, choose Import Video. The Import Video dialogue box appears.

  2. Click CHOOSE to help you locate the clip.

  3. Click on the file once you've found it.

  4. Click CONTINUE once you have found it

  5. At Deployment screen

  6. Choose EMBED VIDEO IN SWF AND PLAY IN TIMELINE

  7. Click Continue

  8. At Embedding screen

  9. Choose EMBEDDED VIDEO

  10. Audio track INTEGRATED

  11. Click PLACE INSTANCE ON STAGE

  12. Click EXPAND TIMELINE IF NECESSARY

  13. Click EMBED THE ENTIRE VIDEO

  14. Click CONTINUE

  15. At Encoding Screen

  16. Choose FLASH 7 HIGH QUALITY

  17. Choose SHOW ADVANCED SETTINGS

  18. Choose Sorenson Spark

  19. At Frame Rate, double-click on SAME AS FLA

  20. At Data Rate, choose 48 kbs

  21. At Finish Video Import screen, choose FINISH

  22. Click on the video and choose FUNCTION > F8 to convert it to a symbol.

  23. When it asks you to name it, it's best to put a V before the name so you know it is video.

  24. A dialog bopx will open asking whether it's okay to add sufficient frames for the video. Make a note of the number of frames. Click Yes.

Test the video

  1. If your video has audio, you won't hear it in the .fla file. If you want to hear it, do a text export -- choose Control > Test Movie (or Apple > Return). If you have a human voice in the audio, it may sound tinny. When you export or publish the Flash movie, you can choose audio settings to accommodate human speech.

Comments

1) suzanne cook, April 14, 2008 at 12:59 p.m. [Link]

Hi,
How do you prevent the video from looping? I have tried applying your tutorial to a Flash photo slideshow, and after inserting the .mpeg I get into trouble. One main vexation is that the video I've just inserted keeps playing and replaying. The slideshow cannot advance at this point. What went wrong?

Thanks for your input

Suzanne

2) Robert Sala, April 21, 2008 at 12:42 p.m. [Link]

Same here. Mi embedded video never stops at the end. It loops over and over again. I've tried entering loop=false, stop() at the end of the timeline and even checking off the loop feature in the player. Also my visitors wont be able to stop, pause and replay. I'm using Macromedia Flash 8. Would appreciate some help... If there is a step by step instruction or video that would be great!

Robert

PS
My site is www.smartprofitablesolutions.com

3) Jeremy Rue, May 13, 2008 at 7:51 p.m. [Link]

To stop the video from looping, you have to create a keyframe at the point in your movie you want it to stop. Then highlight the keyframe and go to the top menu bar and click on Window --> Actions. This will open up your actions panel. With the keyframe on your timeline still highlighted (this is important) type in stop(); in the actions box. That is a lowercase stop with parenthesis and a semicolon. The word stop should turn blue.

Next, test your movie and it should stop on the stop action. If you want to make a video play, then you will need to create buttons. I recommend checking out our tutorial on building flash templates: http://localhost:8000/tutorials/webdesign/building-flash-templates/

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