Prepare flash file (.fla) for tv broadcasting

[karib]

I have constructed some flash animations in flash 8.
It is like a computer generated advertisement so I want to make them suitable to be displayed correctly in tv.
How can I do it?
I have no experience about what format the tv station can accept, so any help would be valuable.

Should I convert them to another format? What format? How can I do the conversion easily and without problems?
What about dimensions?
What else should I pay attention?

[karib]

Any suggestions?

[Ai Haibara]

To be honest, you should probably contact the station and ask them these questions. They might want only a specific type of commercial or content, and may well want to review your commercial and what you're advertising as well. (For example, they could only want media filmed with professional studio cameras, etc. Really, it depends on the station, so you're better off asking them what they would like to see, and let them help you.)

[BJ_M]

digital beta or beta sp most likely - with bars and tone


converting the flash to video -- it better be high quality .... maybe you will be lucky and the station will take your file as is and convert it themselves- but this is highly unlikely

[Cornucopia]

(Assuming NTSC SD and not HD)
When you compose the file here are some tips:

1. Use 60fps. Flash defaults to ~12fps. 60 will give it what it'll need for both fields of an interlaced 29.97 (aka 59.94fps), plus a little more--you always want that little more to start with.

2. Set you canvas size to 640x480 (if Flash ONLY supports square pixels), or 720x480 (if flash ALSO support NON-square pixels).

***You could also oversample with a larger canvas, and then downrez it at conversion time for a "smoother" look.

3. Keep your colors within NTSC video-safe gamut, and make sure your contrasts aren't too strong.

4. Keep you font sizes >14point, and sans serif.

5. Use guides to help keep all your important graphics within the [ActionSafe] area, and ALL text within the [TitleSafe] area.

Save the composition. Export the flash. Also export to AVI. Use HuffYUV or Lagarith to keep quality up w/o TOO large a size.

Now, check with your destination stations to see what they'll accept. (Like BJ_M said, DigiBeta & BetaSP most likely, but also DV/DVCam/DVCPro, and occasionally they'll take DVD's if they're well prepared, or QT/AVI/MPEG files if they have a NonLinear Playout server.)

Convert using the best, most appropriate tools (<---See Tools)

Good luck,

Scott

[hech54]

I've been using Riva FLV Encoder recently...can't vouch for the quality compared to others but it is very easy to use.

[pijetro]

I thought flash had a limit of 15000 frames per file anyhow...
Perhaps a streaming format instead??

Edit: Oops, i lost my bearings with a similair post.......

[Cornucopia]

IIRC, the "swf" format has that limitation, the "flv" format doesn't.

Scott

[BJ_M]

using the on2 encoder for flv (by far the best) , there is no file size limits