AVI in Flash MX

Wont work for me?!?

[kingkelly]

Ive tried importing an 86mb avi into flash, and after about 30 minutes of waiting, it gets imported, but its just a white screen. I think its because im importing DiVX.

Basically im importing it to flash, so i can put some text and stuff overtop of the movie (make it look like CNN, with the stock ticker at the bottom).

Should i convert the DivX to soemthing else, then import it? What program do i use?

BTW, ill be converting it on to VHS afterwards for class presentation. Right now, its 640x480, 8 minutes, 86 mb.

[korkus2000]

If you are going out to video why are you using flash? I would use After Effects, but that is pricy. How are you going out to video and what programs do you have for compositing? How will you be editing the raw video footage?

Flash will be poor quality even MX. I have really not gotten into the AVI capabilities yet.

[kingkelly]

Well right now, i want to be able to put a little stock ticker at the bottom, thats why i was going to use flash. Is there another program that lets me put in flash animations overtop of an AVI? I have it in MPG and WMV.

Flash crashes when i import the latter 2.

Once all is done, i need to export it as VCD, then record it from my DVD player to my VCR....

[BlobFisk]

I think that Flash works best with QuickTime movies. You could convert your .avi to a .mov and try that. I think that the compression is greater for .mov's (therefore a lower filesize). Also, if memory serves me, there are some free/shareware utilities that will allow you to convert .avi to .mov.

[kingkelly]

Cool ill try that... Will the quality be crappier, because i need to show it on VHS in class.

[BlobFisk]

I don't think so, but don't quote me on that!

[kingkelly]

Hmmm, ive just noticed that when i import AVIs, or WMV, and then i export as an AVI, i get no sound. I inserted a soudn effect manually in the timeline, and that plays in the exported avi, but the actualy movie's sound doesnt!

So now i need to rip the whole audio track from my AVI (or WMV). Any suggestions on programs?

[trismegisto]

well kingkelly, maybe you could try it the other way… you could publish your .swf to a .mov in flash, then, you could use a video editing software like after effects to place one movie file in top of the other. if you can’t afford the video editing software, look for someone with a mac and use imovie, which is free, and there you could edit the final video, export it as .mov and then burn it into a vcd.

because, definitely, if your final product will be a video, you should convert the .swf to video, and not all the video to .swf.

i haven’t had any experience with video, but i think what i said is possible.

[kingkelly]

Hmmmmm... perhaps. Its just that i have some overlapping and transparent gradients that fade on top of my movie playing int he background....

its not just one big square picture on top of a movie :(

Right now, i have a WMV file in flash, but the 44mb file is making the .FLA file be 300 mb! My computer almost crashes everytime it loads it up!

I have to find a way to convert my DivX original file to a smaller AVI file, then import that into flash.

BTW, you know when you export something as AVI, it gives you big long list of codecs to use? Can they all still be turned into VCD? BEcause my friend said DiVX cant go on VCD.

[korkus2000]

What software are you using to convert?

[kingkelly]

Well, im using VideoMach 2.7 and tried FlaskMPEG

I want to convert my DivX into an AVI or MPEG, but know what the output size is first, before waiting an hour, and finding out its 700mb.

Me DivX is in good quality 640x480 right now, 8 minutes @ 80mb.

Ill be inporting the compressed video into flash after.

[SmallTime]

I have done a little of this, making TV commercials, web video, etc. I use Cinestream (formerly EditDv), After Effects, and some Flash video (going both ways, Flash to video, and video to Flash). After Effects is the most fun. Flash MX has better video support than previous versions.

Do a Google search for "uncompress Divx", you will find some articles that may be helpful. (and suggested programs for stripping out the sound track).

File size, usually you will want to work with uncompressed avi or mov, or dv. if you are going to import into flash, or play around in after effects, etc. 700 - 900mb sounds small for an 8 min uncompressed video, about right for dv stream. Big fast hard drives, a fast processor or two, and 500mb+ ram are helpful to work with video. A firewire card and a DV camcorder is also nice, but gather that you are on a budget :)

I would suggest doing a short (say 20 second) test all the way through the process, and when that works, look at the whole thing.

[kingkelly]

I shot it in miniDV, then firewired it onto the computer, captured it in uncompressed frames (1.7gb).

Thats when i saved as DivX, and it turned to an 80mb avi.

Now i gotta turn DivX into a regular AVI (or mpeg?)...