zondag, november 26, 2006
Battle of the flash
Next week I'll be in Berlin for the yearly Online Educa conference. My company (IBM) is gold sponsor, and I wanted to have a series of selected flash movies play continuously at the demo point we are setting up. Shouldn't be too difficult, I thought. I was wrong...
Problem 1 : how can I play a bunch of movies in a playlist continuously?
Two solutions: either use a flash player with a playlist, or use a flash packager that packages a series of movies together in one executable file.
I tried a lot of shareware or freeware flash players : Captivate Player, FlowPlayer, Super Flash Player, Arty Flash Player but the best one is the free Flash Movie Player by Eolsoft. It still didn't solve my problem because the Flash Movie Players all seem either to have problems playing some of my files, or they stop/hang on a movie with an open ending and wait for you to push 'next movie'. So that didn't help.
As for flash packaging tool, I found Flash2X Exe Packager and Flash Packager by GozTun software. The first tool is a shareware that lets you make packages that run for 3 days unless you register. It also has problems with larger movies and larger lists. The one I finally selected was the free Flash Packager. It displays a popup at the start, and you can pay to get rid of the popup but otherwise it is free. (see screenshot) When a movie has finished it jumps automatically to the next one, and also loops back to the beginning. Just what I needed. Only problem is that some movies only show the first part and then jump to the next movie. I couldn't figure out how to solve this.
Problem 2 : how to make .swf files out of .exe flash movies?
I asked people at work and they told me it couldn't be done. So I googled and found some exe to swf convertors. I recommend the shareware Dream Flashsee by DreamSoft to to this, it has nice and easy wizards under the tools section. It runs a couple of times for free and requires registration afterwards.
Problem 3 : how to remove the interaction from movies?
Must admit I didn't quite get it to work for all movies I wanted to, but I did manage after a lot of experimentation to delete some 'stop()' functions in the .swf files and have them skip the introsection. I bought a shareware to accomplish this: Flash Digger Plus. This tools allows you to open an .swf file and change text, extract sound and images and delete some sections such as ActionScript. Another tool I used is the shareware SWF Quicker by SoThink. It is a light and extremely cheap version of Flash to open and edit flash movies. It's complicated for someone like me who doesn't know flash, but does allow you to see the scripts etc inside the file.
Problem 4 : how can you clip flash movies?
I don't think you can. If only it was as simple as video files where you can select the part you want with tools such as Windows Movie Maker and make a new movie... So I'm using the full movies, not parts of them.
So, in the end I have a list of 10+ movies packaged in an .exe file that will run continuously at our demopoint in Berlin. Phew.
- The situation:
- I have a lot of flash movies, some in .exe format, and others in .swf format. Some of those run autonomously but go in a waiting loop at the end, and others are based on interaction where the user has to click a play or next button.
- The complication:
- I need to have a number of movies run one after another and then repeat the whole serie, without any interaction.
- The question:
- How can I do that?
Problem 1 : how can I play a bunch of movies in a playlist continuously?
Two solutions: either use a flash player with a playlist, or use a flash packager that packages a series of movies together in one executable file.
I tried a lot of shareware or freeware flash players : Captivate Player, FlowPlayer, Super Flash Player, Arty Flash Player but the best one is the free Flash Movie Player by Eolsoft. It still didn't solve my problem because the Flash Movie Players all seem either to have problems playing some of my files, or they stop/hang on a movie with an open ending and wait for you to push 'next movie'. So that didn't help.As for flash packaging tool, I found Flash2X Exe Packager and Flash Packager by GozTun software. The first tool is a shareware that lets you make packages that run for 3 days unless you register. It also has problems with larger movies and larger lists. The one I finally selected was the free Flash Packager. It displays a popup at the start, and you can pay to get rid of the popup but otherwise it is free. (see screenshot) When a movie has finished it jumps automatically to the next one, and also loops back to the beginning. Just what I needed. Only problem is that some movies only show the first part and then jump to the next movie. I couldn't figure out how to solve this.
Problem 2 : how to make .swf files out of .exe flash movies?
I asked people at work and they told me it couldn't be done. So I googled and found some exe to swf convertors. I recommend the shareware Dream Flashsee by DreamSoft to to this, it has nice and easy wizards under the tools section. It runs a couple of times for free and requires registration afterwards.
Problem 3 : how to remove the interaction from movies?
Must admit I didn't quite get it to work for all movies I wanted to, but I did manage after a lot of experimentation to delete some 'stop()' functions in the .swf files and have them skip the introsection. I bought a shareware to accomplish this: Flash Digger Plus. This tools allows you to open an .swf file and change text, extract sound and images and delete some sections such as ActionScript. Another tool I used is the shareware SWF Quicker by SoThink. It is a light and extremely cheap version of Flash to open and edit flash movies. It's complicated for someone like me who doesn't know flash, but does allow you to see the scripts etc inside the file.
Problem 4 : how can you clip flash movies?
I don't think you can. If only it was as simple as video files where you can select the part you want with tools such as Windows Movie Maker and make a new movie... So I'm using the full movies, not parts of them.
So, in the end I have a list of 10+ movies packaged in an .exe file that will run continuously at our demopoint in Berlin. Phew.
Labels: dream flashsee, flash, flash digger, flash movie player, flash packager, online educa, swf quicker
