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Rendering and exporting for Flash Professional and Flash Player

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You can render and export movies from After Effects as movies that can play in Adobe Flash Player. SWF files play natively in Flash Player, whereas an FLV or F4V file must be contained in a SWF file to play in Flash Player. You can also export unrendered compositions as project files. Incorporating these movies or project files into web pages and adding interactivity is typically accomplished using the Flash Professional authoring application.

To see a video tutorial on rendering and exporting to formats that can play in Flash Player, visit the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/vid0261.

XFL

XFL files are XML representations of compositions that can be opened in Flash Professional CS4. XFL files are essentially the XML equivalent of FLA project files.

When you export a composition as an XFL file, After Effects exports as much of the composition’s model information as it can without rendering. Each layer is exported, as well as keyframe data for its Transform properties (Position, Opacity, Scale, Anchor Point, Rotation). This output preserves the greatest amount of information for direct use in Flash Professional. If After Effects can’t export an element of a composition as unrendered data in an XFL file, the element is either ignored or rendered into a PNG or FLV item, depending on whether you choose to ignore unsupported features.

To see a video tutorial on exporting to XFL format, visit the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4105_xp.

SWF

SWF files are small files that are often used to deliver animated vector graphics (such as cartoons), audio, and other data types over the Internet. SWF files also allow viewer interaction, such as clicking to follow a web link or control animation.

FLV and F4V

FLV and F4V files contain only pixel-based (rasterized) video, not vector graphics, and they aren’t interactive.

The FLV and F4V formats are container formats, each of which is associated with a set of video and audio formats. FLV files generally contain video data that is encoded using the On2 VP6 or Sorenson Spark codec and audio data encoded using an mp3 audio codec. F4V files generally contain video data that is encoded using an H.264 video codec and the AAC audio codec.

You can play a movie in an FLV or F4V container file in many different ways, including the following:

  • Import the file into the Flash authoring application and publish the video in a SWF file.

  • Play the movie in the Adobe Media Player (AMP).

  • Preview the movie using Adobe Bridge.

After Effects markers can be included as cue points in an output FLV or F4V file. To transfer keyframes or global property values into the Flash Professional authoring application from After Effects, run the Convert Selected Properties To Markers.jsx script before rendering and exporting an FLV or F4V file.

You render and export a movie to the FLV or F4V container format using the render queue, just as you do with other formats. (See Render and export a movie using the render queue.)

Important: Some applications install a QuickTime export component that appears as an entry in the File > Export menu for Flash Video (FLV). Adobe recommends that you not use this command, but instead render and export FLV and F4V files using the Render Queue panel. Some features, such as export of cue points from After Effects, only work for render and export through the Render Queue panel.

To include the alpha channel in the FLV output, use the On2 VP6 codec and select Encode Alpha Channel in the Video tab of the export settings dialog box.