Thanks, this is all useful information.

- I am baking the expression to help ensure the swf works, not because of any issue with After Effects CS6.  The expression I am using is a simple .sampleImage that sets the opacity of each layer to the greyscale value of a separate image sequence.  I don’t know if the swf format can handle this, so it’s easiest to bake the opacity keyframes and reduce the project down so it’s nothing but solids.  I am doing as much as possible in CC 2017 because the interface can handle all the layers, while earlier versions of AE struggled with several hundred layers.  The application will render them, but the UI bugs out.

- Thanks Lloyd, but I was able cobble something together pretty quick.  The problem is that it’s easy to select all layers, but for the “convert expressions to keyframes” option to work you have to select the individual properties - in my case the Opacity of each layer.  I haven’t looked for a keyboard shortcut but I actually don’t know how to "select all" for an individual property of a layer - is that possible?  Would love to know how.  I normally do it by dragging with the mouse, but once again the UI struggles with more than a couple hundred layers.

- I don’t know about the specific hardware that is playing this back.  They have sent us an example .swf and they have specifically told us they can’t play mp4s, but beyond that I don’t know.  The example swf is 16 minutes long and only 1.5meg, so that’s another reason I wanted to try and get a vector output and not embed video.

- but I will look at what options there are for embedding flv or other video - thanks for the suggestion.  I haven’t worked with swf before…

-Chris

On 7 Nov 2017, at 5:55 am, Py Fave <AE-List@media-motion.tv> wrote:

what is the software/hardware involved in playback?

you could put a sequence of png in a swf container, too.

or encode as .flv sorenson vp2 if i remember correctly.

2017-11-06 13:47 GMT+01:00 Roei Tzoref <AE-List@media-motion.tv>:

question: why would you need to bake to expression if you are going all the way back to CS6? what js code is available in CC2017 are not in CS6?

On Mon, Nov 6, 2017 at 8:00 AM, Chris Zwar <AE-List@media-motion.tv> wrote:

Thanks, I’ll look into that.

So far I have discovered that CS 6 can export an swf.  I can reduce my project so there is nothing in it but some solids so I think the export should work.  It’s a pain back-saving from 2017 to CS 6 but at least it’s possible.

The problem I have is that I have an expression driving the opacity of each layer, and I am assuming I will need to convert the expressions to keyframes before I export.  With 10 minutes of animation and 800+ layers this is going to take some time.  You can’t feasibly select 800 layers in CC 2014 and earlier, a small reminder of some of the improvements over the years, so I’m doing as much as I can in 2017 before back-saving a heavily reduced project to CS 6.  Fun & games!

I might have to script it and leave it over a weekend…

> On 6 Nov 2017, at 4:30 pm, Robert Davidson <AE-List@media-motion.tv> wrote:
>
> It’s been a long while since I did this in AE.
> Might be easier to render an mp4 and convert to swf with a converter like ‘Wondershare Video converter Pro”
>
> Cheers, Rob
>
>> On 6 Nov 2017, at 3:20 pm, Chris Zwar <AE-List@media-motion.tv> wrote:
>>
>> So here’s a first for me, after working on an animation for several days I’ve just been told the only format they can play back is swf.  I’m actually creating patterns for a lighting show, and the file is going to some type of lighting desk console.  I have no idea what, but it isn’t like it’s going to be played on a desktop PC.
>>
>> So considering that I’ve been working in CC 2017, what options do I have?  The good news (if any) is that the animation is just white solids on a black background, and I know that at some stage in the past AE could export a swf for vector images, which my animation is.  However I’m not sure if I can back-save far enough to the last version of AE that still did this - I can’t remember when the SWF feature was removed from AE.
>>
>> Any suggestions?
>>
>> -Chris
>>
>>
>>
>>
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