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| Bringing
Flash Video and Other .SWF Files into Adobe LiveMotion
2 |
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| Contents |
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| Introduction |
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This
tutorial explains how to bring Flix Flash
video into Adobe Live Motion 2. While this
tutorial focuses on .SWF video files created
with Flix, it can be applied to any .SWF file.
In bringing our new BackSlaps motion backgrounds
to market, we wanted to give the end-user not
just a great product, but also an easy way to
preview the backgrounds. To help accomplish this,
we turned to another great product - Wildform's
Flix.
To create previews for our website at www.backslaps.com,
we used Flix to encode more than 40 videos and
animations into Flash .swf files. We simply used
HTML to program the Flix video to play in our
website.
But we also wanted to use Flix when building
the index interface for our newly published DVD-ROM,
which contains 20 motion backgrounds. By using
LiveMotion2 and Flix, we created an interface,
shown below, which allows the user to easily
preview the animations before import to their
video editing software. |
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| Using
the "Place" function in LiveMotion
2 |
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| LiveMotion2
uses the term "Place" instead of the
more commonly used "Import". Using "Place",
you can import multiple image and audio formats,
with the glaring exception being the .swf format. |
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| To
bring a .swf file into your project, you will
need to use the scripting features of LM2. For
the uninitiated, scripting may be a bit frustrating
at first, but once you get into it, you'll realize
the potential of LM2. |
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| Creating
simple Play and Stop buttons to control a .swf
file |
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| Let's
do a quick tutorial. We'll create simple Play
and Stop buttons to control a .swf file. |
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| Step
One |
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First
create a folder and name it Test.
Flix
- Encode a sample video file using Flix and
name it filename.swf.
- 2. Save filename.swf to the Test folder.
LiveMotion 2
- In LiveMotion2, start a New Composition.
The default settings are fine for this tutorial.
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| Step
Two |
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| Now,
let's create control buttons to play and stop
the video. Select the Box tool and create
two boxes, a green box for Play and a red box
for Stop. Use the Text tool to label them
if you want. |
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| Step
Three |
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| Select
each button by clicking on the button object
in the work area or on its name in the timeline.
Make each one into a Movie Clip using
the Object pulldown menu. |
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| Step
Four |
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| Add
a new State to each button. Use the pulldown
menu to assign a down State to each. |
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| Step
Five |
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| Open
the Script Editor from the Scripts pulldown
menu or just type Ctrl+J (on a PC). Make sure
the Play button is highlighted in the Movie
Clip Navigator on the left and the States
Script button (that's the little hand icon)
indicates the down position. |
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| Step
Six |
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To
Play your .swf file, type in the loadMovie script:
loadMovie("filename.swf", "_level1);
Filename refers to your .swf file.
The level indicates the stacking order.
If you are new to scripting, you may find it
easiest to keep your .swf file in the same
folder as the LM2 file allowing you to use
level1.
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| Step
Seven |
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To
Stop playback, type in the unloadMovie script:
unloadMovie("_level1"); |
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Note: If
you want to Preview at this point, you must
export the project to your Test folder. An
internal preview will not allow display of
external .swf files.
That's it for the basics of Playing a .swf file! |
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| This
tutorial was written by Dave
Streb of Reel
One Media, a video/special effects production
and interactive design company, which is currently
designing and selling DVD-ROMs of motion animated
backgrounds. |
