must.... animate... faster....!

[drkknght]

i know, its been asked a million times. so, lets get right to it! how in the sam hell do i make my animation run faster (smoothely)?

here's a link:
http://robkamphausen.com/v6/

my main concern, at this point, is the lower frame -- the left, right, and top frames are just templates as of now. the middle frame has a old batman animation from my old site (which means its very un-optimized, but i placed it in there as a "worst case scenario" to test the rest of the beta).

(and, yes, i know frames are inherently evil, but its necessary so i can include forums, and as of now, frames are the "best" way).

the lower section is my main navigation area, and thats where im focusing now. its just vector lines, text, gradient fills, shape and motion tweens, etc. and lots of'em. SET to run at 30 fps. (no bitmap graphics, and i've yet to add sound)

the animation is fairly simple, relatively speaking, and the swf output file is maybe 7 kb. but, obviously, it struggles, in terms of running smoothely and/or bandwith/processor muckups.

is it easier on a processor to run 2 simultaneous shape tweens? or motion tweens? or one of each? or no tweens, just key frames to simulate the tween?

am i screwing myself by allowing the 4 outside frames (top, bottom, left, and right) to "exact fit" instead of just setting on a pixel width?

is tinting a symbol more cpu intensive than, say, brightening?

does the "soften fill edges" option eat up processors? (because of all the added and varied alpha layers?)

does having an object animate beneath a mask drain much more than that same animation without the mask?

i know im a pain in the butt for askin, but... well... thats it. im a pain in the butt for askin

any and/or all help, suggestions, answers, and tips are GREATLY appreciated.

[drkknght]

another one:

are transparent animations (like fading in and out) more intense than, say, size animations (scaling an object).

[some_loser]

I don't have answers to all your questions since I'm pretty new, but I'll tell you what I do know.

>is it easier on a processor to run 2 simultaneous shape >tweens? or motion tweens? or one of each? or no tweens, >just key frames to simulate the tween?

To my knowledge, tweens are preferable over frame-by-frame as far smoothness, loading time, and file size. I think the difference between shape and motion tweens is negligible.

>is tinting a symbol more cpu intensive than, say, >brightening?

No, but tweening the alpha transparency is more intensive.

>are transparent animations (like fading in and out) more >intense than, say, size animations (scaling an object).

I believe so, but it also depends on the details of the image being scaled. Having a small, detailed picture tween to be huge is a different story than making a simple shape 50% bigger. Transparencies will usually be more "intense," as you put it, than scaling an object, but not always.

I hope this tides you over until a professional can answer you. =)

[drkknght]

definitely a helpful first response, loser () -- thanks for it!

[drkknght]

anyone else gottan opinion or answer or feedback of various sorts?

[drkknght]

hopeful bump

[trikenit]

crank up your frame rate i was told that makes things run faster (obviously) and smoother

[next2heaven]

I think everyone is missing the problem....it seems that no matter how fast your CPU is it will go slow. Don't go above 30 fps on a Flash animation or it'll be going really slow on some computers. Just make the animation tweening shorter. If something is getting bigger from frame 1 to frame 20....make it get bigger instead from frame 1 to frame 10. Use less frames....at 30 fps know one will care because 30fps is pretty smooth.