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Using the File Export to AVI function in Swish produces the appropriate .avi file. Do any criteria have to be used in Swish to enable me to then burn this to a CD in VCD format using the appropriate burning software (Nero or Instant Video).....Thanks in advance guys.....
I turned this into a small guide; Hope this helps, Good luck, and do not hesitate to ask again!
The Quick And Dirty Guide To Making VCD Content Using Flash
By mastermute
Flash is a great tool to produce twodimensional animations. It is primarily targeted at the web, but its features also makes it perfect to produce animations for video.
This is in no way the ultimate guide on this topic, but hopefully it will get you started. My primary focus in this guide is to produce a VCD format video, but this procedure could easily be adapted for producing DVD-content (MPEG2) or any other video format, where you can use .avi as a source.
The basics:
VCD is a format that has been in use for some years now. It doesn’t provide the best quality, by todays standards, but it is a nice format, since it is easily played on a variety of formats. Most set-top DVD-players plays VCD out of the box, on a PC Windows Media Player plays the MPEG1 format that VCD uses. VCD uses an encoding called MPEG1, this is not the same as the AVI format that many DivX movies uses. The main difference is that DivX doesn’t play natively on the platforms mentioned above. (Some people might want to flame me for this, but please don’t; I know there are more differences, but for our simple example, please, Live with it! If you wish to read more on this subject visit http://www.vcdhelp.com)
Preparation:
To get a good quality I make my Flash movie at twice the framesize of the VCD format:
Original formats:
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PAL:352 x 288 pixels
NTSC:352 x 240 pixels
My Movie sizes:
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PAL: 704 x 576 pixels
NTSC: 704 x 480 pixels
”Why do you double the framesize?” you might ask… Well, as I started experimenting with creating VCD-content with Flash, I found that if I made the Flash-movie at the same size as the VCD-format it lost a lot of quality when encoded to MPEG1. This is ofcourse an effect from the VCD-format itself, it is not as sharp and crisp as DVD-encoding (MPEG2), but when I increased the framesize, I could keep some of the crispness I wanted. Another effect I found was that movement in my VCD:s got a bit smoother.
I keep the framerates:
PAL: 25 fps
NTSC: 30 fps (Actually 29,97 fps, but Flash doesn't accept fractions, so I use 30 fps)
It is also important to know this if you use any external components in your Flash movie. If you use Swish or Swift 3D material in your animation, you should take the framerate into account.
Now you have set up Flash, so go on and make your killer animation.
Ready to make the video:
Export the animation as an uncompressed AVI. This produces a quite large file but I do this to minimize moiré-effects when encoding as VCD later. I have had some success using some AVI codecs, but some of them produces artifacts (distortions in the picture), especially in gradients. These artifacts will be even more visible after having been encoded to MPEG1.
The next step is to encode the MPEG1 file. For this I use TMPGEnc (http://www.tmpgenc.net/e_main.html). Basicly you can just load the .avi, choose the appropriate template (PAL-VCD or NTSC-VCD) and hit Start.
How TMPGEnc works is a chapter of its own but I can recommend a visit to http://www.vcdhelp.com . Here you will find most worth knowing about creating a VCD.
Oh, right, buring it to VCD… Nero works fine! Just create a VCD project, drop your file in your VCD project and burn. Again I recommend a visit to http://www.vcdhelp.com for procedures on burning VCD:s
Useful links:
General VCD knowledege: http://www.vcdhelp.com
Encoding to MPEG1: http://www.vcdhelp.com/tmpgenc.htm
Burning VCD:s http://www.vcdhelp.com/nero.htm
TMPGEnc: http://www.tmpgenc.net/e_main.html
[Edited by mastermute on 09-29-2002 at 04:13 PM]
Gentlemen
As after export this really doesn't have anything to do with swish.
I'm going to move it to our video forum where it may serve others exploring the world of vcd.