Render to SWF?

[cwaters72]

Are there any 3rd party plugz that allow you to render an A:M animation to a vector file for use in Flash? Or do newer versions of the A:M offer that render option?

 

I thought I had seen this topic discussed before, but I'm afraid time isn't on my side to allow for a lengthy search of the boards. I also apologize if this isn't the right place for this question.

 

Thanks to all for their time and effort on my behalf.

 

C.

[luckbat]

Marcel Bricman had a plugin that worked with A:M version 10.0, but I don't think it's been updated to work with current versions of Hash A:M.

http://www.kci-group.com/z/am2swf.htm

 

If you just want to render to a Quicktime movie file and then convert the movie to a Flash FLV file, you can use Riva:

http://rivavx.de/index.php?id=483&L=3

 

However, if you're hoping to create a cartoon-style vector Flash movie, there's no plugin that can do that--at least not directly. Flash does have the ability to import a series of bitmap files and lay them on sequential frames, so if you install a macro utility that autotraces each frame, you'll end up with an SWF vector animation.

 

You might consider visiting a Macromedia forum and asking if anyone can recommend a good Flash autotrace automator utility.

[cwaters72]

Thanks for the quick response.

 

After talking to a few other people about their experiences with other vector output from other progs - it seems like file size would be an issue...we have a 30K limit for the flash ads we create.

 

For what the client was asking for there is no way that it would come in under that.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

C.

[C-grid]

Are there any 3rd party plugz that allow you to render an A:M animation to a vector file for use in Flash? Or do newer versions of the A:M offer that render option?

 

I thought I had seen this topic discussed before, but I'm afraid time isn't on my side to allow for a lengthy search of the boards. I also apologize if this isn't the right place for this question.

 

Thanks to all for their time and effort on my behalf.

 

C.

 

Hello C,

 

Maybe you could try something with Moho5 at www.lostmarble.com, it's a 2D animation package with some 3D feature's and has a flash export. Using text in this program and then export to .swf is not a good idea for small file's, but maybe you could combine 2 .swf files, maybe you could use 'sfwtools' (there is something really named like this, search) to do this.

 

 

 

Niels.

 

 

 

ps.

Do all a favour, please don't lie in the ads you make.

 

ps2.

It's been a while since the last use of the mentioned programs, this to explain all the "maybe's".

[filipmun]

Does anyone know if am2swf can export splines to vector line? Thanks.

[staigerman]

 

 

For what the client was asking for there is no way that it would come in under that.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

C.

 

 

How complex an animation you're talking about?

 

There are a few tools out there that can use 3D scenes and render out to flash in vector form, including Carrara with its VectorStyle plugin.

 

But sometimes it's not even needed to go to vector format. It might be better packed into a Jpeg image sequence. I've seen stuff play in small loops that I packed into a .swf stream from megabytes to a few tens of kilobytes and still was acceptable in animation, similar to what mpeg4 would have done, sometimes even better. (in terms of compression). It's very subjective all this is. I'm kinda going blind so stuff that looks blurry to others looks really good to me :-)

 

I have used Boomer 4, it's now version 5, and at Segon

www.segon.com

 

I also have used some tools from SoThink,

http://thebest3d.com/sothink/index.html

 

worked ok for small image dimensions.

 

 

There are other tools that come closer to the Top Pro levels of Adobemedia Flash, such as Xtivity from Tivity software, see http://www.thebest3d.com/tivity/

[Fuchur]

A:M2SWF will convert your Splines & Patches to swf-vectors...

You can check the details of the plugin here.

If you can wait for A:M v14: The SWF-Plugin will be included in A:M in that version.

 

*Fuchur*

[urthmaan]

ok, im new here but am i reading this right? will i be able to soon export my AM models to vector format? whats the story behind this and how deep will this program be? has there been an official announcement, or is one coming soon? i have friends who are using Flash to animate and make games, will this be something that i can inform them on, or is it too soon for that? i think those in the Flash community might be interested in this plugin. thanks in advance for your replies.

[luckbat]

It's too soon. A:M v14 won't be announced until the end of the year, and it won't be available in beta until probably around Spring 2007. So even if the Flash compatibility (which is likely, but not official until it's announced) is awesome, it's a bit early to start with the publicizing.

[robcat2075]

here's an old test I did by rendering "lines only" in A:M and auto-tracing the frames in Flash.

 

walktest

 

walktest3

 

 

it seems like file size would be an issue...we have a 30K limit for the flash ads we create.

 

If you have a 30 K limit you pretty much need to originate everything in Flash and re-use your assets wisely.

 

3D-to-vector solutions work by making a new vector drawing for each frame; with no reuse of assets they tend not to be small.