Merge Flash and Quicktime
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by Don Herion
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One
of the improvements of Flash 5 is the ability to better incorporate Quicktime
technology into Flash. Apple has recently licensed the Macromedia Flash player
and built it into Quicktime, thus allowing Quicktime movies to include Flash graphics,
animations and interactivity. What this means is Flash designers can include navigational
controls, text effects, animations and audio into any Quicktime movie. This tutorial
will demonstrate one way to merge these two technologies.
Unfortunately,
designers can not export a Flash Shockwave file with Quicktime embedded within
it. But you can do the reverse, build a project with Flash and Quicktime elements
and output in Quicktime format (.mov). The downside of this is the number of browsers
with the Quicktime plug-in are fewer than those with the Flash plug-in. Quicktime
also results in larger file sizes. This is something to keep in mind.
Test
Project
This project will consist of several small Quicktime movies that
will be linked by Flash elements - mainly animated buttons and some titles. When
the project is completed, it will be exported in Quicktime format and tested in
a browser.
Step 1
In Flash, I established the parameters
of my movie to be 320 px by 240 px. I accepted the other defaults (white background
& 12 FPS) and clicked OK.
Step 2
My project
is called 'Islands for $99' and it will incorporate several very brief (3 seconds
max.) Bryce 3D Quicktime movies with Flash buttons, and titles and audio effects
(for the buttons). The project will begin with a title sequence, then several
buttons will appear. These buttons will play the two Quicktime movie elements.
I created two fairly basic Bryce 3D animations and exported
them in Quicktime format. For those unfamiliar with Bryce it is a program that
enables designers to create realistic looking natural environments that include,
land, water, skies and more, all of which can be animated.
 |
| 1 Frame from Bryce animation |
