One
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A c r o s s
Across
market segments Across geographic borders
Across
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1. 2.
3. 4.
geographic borders
5. 6.
market segments
product lines
One
Company
One
Company
One
Company One Company
One
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geographi
product lines
Across
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Ten Second Video & Flash Animation Storyboard
Exi t
The animation storyboarded above would be rendered for
video & Flash. For the Flash version, the final frame (6.),
will serve as the home page & main navigation for a mini
web site.
Animating for video & the web simultaneously using Adobe AMX file exchange
Producing content once, and repurposing it for multiple
distribution channels is always a challenge. Formats,
frame rates and file sizes are different for each medium
and constantly evolving. As media converge, motion
graphic designers are demanding software tools that
integrate with one another. Adobe offers a promising
solution for bridging the gap between the online and
offline worlds with its new Live Motion (AMX) export
feature in After Effects 5.5. I tested it recently for a
corporate project I was undertaking in hopes of
developing an efficient pipeline for producing a video
animation that could be repurposed and expanded for use
as a Flash mini site, as well as a laptop presentation.
Step 1. Storyboard:
The storyboard at the right was
created using Adobe Illustrator and signed off on by the
client. Care was taken to use a clean graphic style that
would export well to the Web. On approval, each
storyboard frame was enlarged to 720 x 480. Care was
taken to put each element on a separate layer.
Step 2. Animation:
The
Illustrator files were then
imported into After Effects
as a composition, thus
retaining each layer and
the animation was
created.
Step 3. Export in .amx Format:
At this point, the video
version of the animation was complete. I then exported
the animation in the Adobe .amx format to add
interactivity. If I had simply wanted to use this as an
animation without adding interactivity, I would have
simply exported it from After Effects in Flash (.swf)
format.
Step 4. Add Interactivity:
In
Adobe Live Motion 2, I opened
the .amx file. All of the layers
and timeline information was
retained. Since the two
timeliness are similar, but not
exactly the same, there were a
few surprises. There was
nothing that couldn't be
tweaked, however. I then
shortened the animation and
added interactive rollovers and
linked them to new pages of
information.
Step 5. Export as Flash (.swf):
Upon completion, I
then exported the final composition as a .swf for
integration into Web site. I also created a separate
version for the laptop presentation with less
compression because file size was no longer an issue.
Conclusion:
For this project, this pipeline worked
well. While Macromedia's Flash MX is a very
popular authoring tool, Adobe has come up with a
compelling reason to choose Live Motion 2 instead
for projects that originate in its ever popular After
Effects 5.5.
By Phil Price
Phil Price Digital Media
phil@pricedigital.com
market segme