File Menu (Continued) Making SWF Movies

Make Flash SWF Movie A flash movie is created from the currently active Show even if the Show file has not been saved.

Clicking on the Save Flash SWF File option under the File menu initiates the creation and saving of a Flash SWF Movie.  The figure shows the dialog box presented when this option is selected.

The Create Movie dialog box provides selection of the image background color, the frame rate and the Quality factor.  Providing the values for Red Green and Blue carries out color selection.  The color ranges are 0 – 255 for each contributing color.  The most common choices are black or white.  Black is no color or Red = 0, Green = 0 and Blue = 0.    White is simply Red = 255, Green = 255 and Blue = 255.  Any of 16 millions colors can be created. Clicking on the BackGround Color selection box in the Make Flash File Options Dialog brings up the Choose Color dialog box. The colors may be selected by manipulating the sliders or picking a color from the gray scale or color scale display bars.

RGB or HLS color models are selected with the indicated radio buttons.  Texture is currently not supported.

The Frame rate is the number of frames per minute to be output.  For smooth motion of a flash file this should always be left at 30 frames per second.

Quality Factor

The Quality Factor is a key parameter in determining the appearance quality and corresponding file size of the created SWF movie.  The Quality Factor is selected with a slider control and may be varied from 1 to 100.  A value of 100 represents the highest quality and 1 the lowest.  The value is selected by holding down the left mouse button over the slider and moving it in the desired direction.  The value is continuously displayed as the slider control is moved.

The Quality Factor (for those interested) is the JPEG compression factor used to create the image files supported within the SWF format.  The Flash player renders the SWF Movie in real-time.  The Flash player scales the movie from the imbedded JPEG images.  The JPEG artifacts (boxyness) and color blocking) are exacerbated by the Flash rendering process.

For more information and examples of the Effect of Quality Factor visit the Examples area on the Website.  Optimizing quality Factor is a key to getting the best imagery at the lowest bandwidth and storage.  Visiting the Examples pages is a good investment of time

Images containing sharp edges (buildings especially) require higher Quality Factors than soft images.  Pictures of people usually give good results at lower quality factors and hence smaller file sizes. 

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