Week 5: Project 1 Presentations

TOPICS:

• Project 1 Presentations
• Optimizing Your Flash Files

HOMEWORK

Based on todays critique, revise your greeting card and turn in the final version next week!

OPTIMIZING YOUR FLASH FILES

If we have time ….

Since most Flash projects are meant to be seen on the Web, you have to be mindful of how large the file size is. The larger the file size, the longer it will take to load, and the more annoyed the viewer will get! Here’s some tips for keeping the file size down:

Strategies for keeping file size low:

• Lower the frame rate. The lower it is, the smaller the file. Warning, if you do this after you start animating, it’s going to slow everything down, and you will have to adjust your animation to compensate.
• Flatten effects in Photoshop. Flash will import layer effects like strokes, drop shadows and glows as separate layers, which really adds up to increase file size. If you forget to do this, you can also select multiple Flash layers and use “Convert to Bitmap” in the Modify menu to merge them into a single bitmap.
• Recreate layer effects in Flash, especially if you are planning to scale the objects they are applied to
• Recreate text in Flash, especially if you are planning to scale it
• Adjust publish settings for image compression
• Adjust individual bitmap settings for image compression
• Don’t import bitmap art at a larger size than you need it! This will make your file HUGE.