Working with Flash and After Effects
If you use Adobe® Flash® to create video or animation, you can use After Effects® to edit and refine the video. For example, you can export Flash animations and applications as QuickTime movies or Flash® Video (FLV) files. You can then use After Effects to edit and refine the video.
If you use After Effects to edit and composite video, you can then use Flash to publish that video. You can also export an After Effects video as Flash content for further editing in Flash.
Exporting QuickTime video from Flash
If you create animations or applications with Flash, you can export them as QuickTime movies using the File > Export Movie command in Flash. For a Flash animation, you can optimize the video output for animation. For a Flash application, Flash renders video of the application as it runs, allowing the user to manipulate it. This lets you capture the branches or states of your application that you want to include in the video file.
Exporting Flash video (FLV) from After Effects
When you render finished video from After Effects, select FLV as the output format in the render queue to export directly to the Flash Video (FLV) format. This launches the Flash Video Encoder application, which provides size, compression, and other output options. Any After Effects markers are added to the FLV file as cue points.
You can then import the FLV file into Flash and publish it in a SWF file, which can be played by Flash Player.
Importing and publishing video in Flash
When you import a FLV file into Flash, you can use various techniques, such as scripting or Flash components, to control the visual interface that surrounds your video. For example, you might include playback controls or other graphics. You can also add graphic layers on top of the FLV file for composite effects.
Composite graphics, animation, and video
Flash and After Effects each include many capabilities that allow you to perform complex compositing of video and graphics. Which application you choose to use will depend on your personal preferences and the type of final output you want to create.
Flash is the more Web oriented of the two applications, with its small final file size. Flash also allows for runtime control of animation. After Effects is oriented towards video and film production, provides a wide range of visual effects, and is generally used to create video files as final output.
Both applications can be used to create original graphics and animation. Both use a timeline and offer scripting capabilities for controlling animation programmatically. After Effects includes a larger set of effects, while Flash’s ActionScript™ language is the more robust of the two scripting environments.
Both applications allow you to place graphics and effects on separate layers for compositing. These layers can be turned on and off as needed.
In Flash, composites do not affect the video content directly; they affect only the appearance of the video during playback in Flash Player. In contrast, when you composite with imported video in After Effects, the video file you export actually incorporates the composited graphics and effects.
Because all drawing and painting in After Effects is done on layers separate from any imported video, it is always non-destructive. Flash has both destructive and non-destructive drawing modes.
Exporting After Effects content for use in Flash
You can export After Effects content for use in Flash. You can export a SWF file that can be played immediately in Flash Player or used as part of another Flash project. When you export content from After Effects in SWF format, the content is flattened and rasterized in the SWF file.
Importing Flash SWF files into After Effects
Flash has a unique set of vector art tools that make it useful for a variety of drawing not possible in After Effects or Adobe® Illustrator®. You can import SWF files into After Effects to composite them with other video or render them as video with additional creative effects. When After Effects imports a SWF file, its internal keyframes are preserved so that you can continue to use them for timing other effects.
The Continuously Rasterized SWF Import feature in After Effects allows you to bring SWF file content into After Effects as flattened art, with support for alpha channels. Because the rasterization is continuous, vector art in the SWF file that is scaled scales smoothly in After Effects. This import method allows you to use the root layer or object of your SWF files as a smoothly rendered element in After Effects, allowing the best capabilities of each tool to work together.
