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[nqe]

What would be the best way to do animation with flex + flashdevelop? For example, say I make an explosion animation using blender and want to export it for use with flex with a transparency layer, how should I save the animation?

I've tried as a gif, but it doesn't seem like that is one of the supported embed types. I've also tried converting it to swf, but then I can't seem to figure out how to make the background transparent.

Any suggestions?

[davidp]

i'm sorry for not helping you, but i'm wondering what tool did you use for swf creation?

[raigan]

I think .png should work if you want transparency..

[nqe]

i'm sorry for not helping you, but i'm wondering what tool did you use for swf creation?

Trial version of "Easy GIF Animator". I am hoping to find a free solution for this, so if anyone has suggestions... I think there might be a Blender plug-in for exporting animations as swf, but I have yet to check that out.

I think .png should work if you want transparency..

As far as I know .png is very resource intensive, and not a standard way to do animation.

[nqe]

Yes! Got it!

This sweet sweet, shady looking product seems to do the job:
http://www.develotec.com/png2swf/

It takes a list of png files and produces an SWF with transparency. And it's freeware. Yay for the Internet!

[bateleur]

As far as I know .png is very resource intensive

Not that it will affect you now you've found a tool (hurrah!) but in fact this is not the case. PNG is a compressed format and is generally quite efficient.

[nqe]

Gah, another problem making me go . If there is a flash master reading this I would be very appreciative of any hints.

I load the swf anim by embedding it as:

Code:

[Embed(source = "../graphics/explosion1.swf")] public static var ExplosionSwf:Class;

Then I create a MovieClip object and init:

Code:

expl = new Assets.ExplosionSwf;	

And the animation works wonderfully except for the part where the expl.stop() function doesn't work and the animation just keeps looping...

Any suggestions  

[iopred]

Gah, another problem making me go . If there is a flash master reading this I would be very appreciative of any hints.

I load the swf anim by embedding it as:

Code:

[Embed(source = "../graphics/explosion1.swf")] public static var ExplosionSwf:Class;

Then I create a MovieClip object and init:

Code:

expl = new Assets.ExplosionSwf;	

And the animation works wonderfully except for the part where the expl.stop() function doesn't work and the animation just keeps looping...

Any suggestions  

The [Embed] tag strips code from swfs.

Two solutions: 1. Use a swc instead, and add it to the compiler libraries.

2. Use addFrameScript to put the stop() in:

{
expl = new Assets.ExplosionSwf;
expl.addFrameScript(expl.totalFrames, stopExpl);
}

function stopExpl():void {
expl.stop();
}

You may be able to get away with anonymous functions, except they are ugly and are likely to stop the MovieClip from being garbage collected:

expl.addFrameScript(expl.totalFrames,
    function():void {
        expl.stop();
        expl.addFrameScript(expl.totalFrames, null }
    );