retrodrive

whatcha think? Looks like I might need a preloader although a file is like 20k

darden

pretty cool. i don't think a pre-loader is necessary for 20k. it will take a dial-up about 4 seconds maximum to load this. not too bad at all. won't even see the preloader. hehe.

you should also try exporting movie file as .gif and see how it turns out.

EGainer

alright, thats it.... im forcing myself to make a damn flash sig, i have mx studio 10 with flash mx and all that crap, and yet i dont use it.... basically because if i want anything i just have to do a frame by frame to get it how i want (i dont know all the tweens and stuff yet) so ill just make a frame by frame color changing sig for a test..

what would be an easy way to make my sig, go from red like it is, fade into blue, then fade back to red..... changing back and forth?

DaveGS4

iTrader: (2)

Guys remember that the max size is 50 K

Flash stuff is very cool, but as someone who frequently dials in from hotel rooms - it can suck if done innefficiently and you don't have high speed.

EDIT - oh, and since I'm on high speed right now, both of your sigs are VERY cool

EGainer

for those on 56k, does my new sig take too much time to load? how do you guys link to swf files?
http://www.student.uncwil.edu:8000/~...ars/CLFADE.SWF

darden

for me, my signature is a GIF file. i try to keep my signatures under 30K. yeah, i think for dial-up, they can probably handle up to 50K per signature. then again, for long threads with lots of signatures, it will take a bit to load them all.

Egainer, in flash, tweening helps to keep the file size small. the more key frames you have with graphics will generally make the final movie size bigger. however, flash, IMHO, is pretty efficient. my personal web site, dtwang.net is done in complete flash with lots of graphics and complicated animation. even so, i was able to keep each section under 300K.

i chose to use gif for my animation in case someone does not have a flash plug-in. then again, who does not have the flash plug-in these days.

as for linking to the swf file...well, i have actually not tried it using VB code. i was checking out the source code, for this thread, it seems it is linked using html coding in the signature. well, i am not sure though. retrodrive will be able to enlighten us all.

r00kie

darden...just want to say you have a very nice looking site!

darden

thanks man for checking it out.

EGainer

as far as the tweening goes, my first attempt at the sig was pathetic, my new one is all motion tweens. kept it as small as i could get. 72k, only because i have those 2 jpegs in there, actually i think i might have 3 because i didnt bring the first one back as the movie clip, i just brought in the jpeg again.... so that is why the size is like that

retrodrive? how did you link to your swf?

retrodrive

[/quote]
Thx to brendanlim for this one

EGainer

i tried.... nothing

EGainer

<PARAM NAME=movie VALUE="http://www.student.uncwil.edu:8000/~edg5657/cars/CLFADE.SWF"> <PARAM NAME=quality VALUE=high> <PARAM NAME=bgcolor VALUE=#000000> <EMBED src="http://www.student.uncwil.edu:8000/~edg5657/cars/CLFADE.SWF" quality=high bgcolor=#000000 WIDTH="450" HEIGHT="100" NAME="Untitled-1" ALIGN="" TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></EMBED>

darden

i guess you already noticed that it is working. just took a second to load.

anyway, if you have time to play with flash, i suggest checking out Flash Kit. A ton of tutorials, guides, and samples about everything on Flash.

i also bought a book on Flash from Barne's and Nobles and read the whole 500 pages. yeah, i thought i was able to figure out flash just by playing around, it is much more intense than photoshop. the possibilities are really endless. it is an amazing software.

as for reducing movie size while preserving quality...

this is what i do usually.

1. i save pictures/photos/images as PNG files using photoshop.

2. i import the PNG files to the flash library.

3. convert all those into Symbols (F8), you can also set the quality of the imported images.

actually, i think in your case, you could probably just use one symbol of your original signature and see if tweening it by changing its color will work. this way you will only have one symbol which means nothing.

anyway, if you already know all this, just ignore me. hehe.

i think that's a fine job being one of your first few attempts at flash. a much better job than my first ones.

EGainer

yea my files are saved as jpegs, but pngs are bigger so i left them as jpegs... they are all symbols as i did in the tutorial... i finally took the tutorial which is how i learned flash... hahahaha. so yea thats whats up, everytime i oopen this thread, retrodrives sig pops up before anything else.......................

im totally wasted right now and im truprised that im tyoing so well, so i wil talk to you later dude. have a ogod night

brendanlim

No problem my friend!