Beginner's Guide to Adobe Flash/Video/Importing

Compressing Video

Whenever you begin to create FLV files, you should always select the highest quality source video to avoid double compression. Choose video that has the highest playback rate so that the Flash Encoder has the highest quality video to compress.

Getting Started

To import video in Flash, you should begin by selecting the Import Video option from the File > Import menu in Flash 8. Upon doing this, you will see the Select Video screen, which allows you to browse to a video clip. Once you've picked the clip you'd like to convert, you can proceed to the next step, Deployment. Deployment is simply choosing the manner that you will include the video into your flash movie.

• Embed Video is the selection that is chosen when you first come onto the Deployment screen. This will place your movie directly into the Library of your Flash document. It is important to remember that this will significantly increase the size of your SWF file.

Link Quicktime Video allow you to import a video clip for a video track in a Quicktime Flash movie. After this, the Quicktime video is placed on the timeline and the import session is finished.

• • Upon choosing Embed Video, you are given several choices as to how you would like your video content to be stored in Flash, and also gives you options of how to process the audio portion of your imported video.
• The Editing the Video portion allows you to specify clips that you will edit by dragging markers to the video timeline. Upon doing so you can rename the clips, whereupon they show up on the left side in a field that allows you to select different ones and will eventually show up as individual symbols in your Library.
• Encoding is the next step of importing video. The profiles are split into two sections, Flash 7 and Flash 8. The Flash 7 option features different presets that are encoded with the Sorensen Spark Codec, the Flash 8 presets are encoded with the VP6 codec. It also features several advanced options that will be detailed here:
  • Frame Rate: Frame rate is the speed at which your movie displays. The faster the frame rate, the smoother the transition of movement between frames. It is important to remember that in order to create the best synchronization between the imported video and your existing flash movie, the framerates between your imported video and host FLA file should be the same. The next two options give you a choice: the Same as FLA option encodes the Flash video at the rate of the host FLA file, while the Same As Source reverses this and encodes at the frame rate of the imported video. There are also additional specific frame rates you can choose if you so desire. Remember, a higher framerate is better for animation, but larger in file size.
  • Keyframes are used in video to determine the difference between one clip and another. There are two options here, Automatic, in which Flash decides how often a keyframe is created, and Custom, where you can choose your own options. If you don't know what this means, keep the setting to Automatic.
  • The Quality option allows you to set the data rate of your Flash movie. The higher the bps (bits per second) setting, the higher quality the video will be, but also the larger the file size will be. Deciding on how your audience will see your movie clip is important in determining your Quality - if they are downloading the movie over a modem, a lower Quality may be in order. If they are watching it via CD-ROM or broadband internet connection, a higher setting would be prudent.
  • Resize Video allows you to change the dimensions of your Flash Video. It is important to remember to keep the ratio of your video the same to avoid unwanted distortion. There are also several presets to help you here if you don't quite know what you are doing.
• Encode Audio - here is where you decide the data rate of the audio portion of your imported video will be. Like video, the higher the setting the better the quality of the audio, and larger proportionate file size.
• Crop and Trim allows you to change the borders of your video clip.
• At this point, you've determined pretty much everything you would need to know to import your video. Move on to the Finish Video screen and hit the Finish Button at the bottom to begin importing your video.