[Flashcoders] exporting dynamic swf art to other apps
Hey all, I'm generating art in actionscript that I need to export from my swf and bring into Illustrator or Photoshop for final tweaks before sending it out to a large format printer. I know you can export from the IDE but since everything I'm using is dynamic I can't use those functions. My current best method is to print the swf to a pdf from the player and open that pdf in Illustrator. Unfortunatly I lose all my alpha and filter data in this process, and since I might have 1000 or more instances in my export those values are nearly impossible to recreate. I've tried adjusting the pdf settings but I haven't found the right combo yet. Does anybody here know of a method to export still frames (I'm not trying to export video or motion here) from the swf in a vector format? This issue has been nagging me for quite a while now, and I haven't found any tutorials or tips online on how to do it. I'd really appreciate any feedback from this forum. Thanks a lot. -=Mason ___ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com To change your subscription options or search the archive: http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders Brought to you by Fig Leaf Software Premier Authorized Adobe Consulting and Training http://www.figleaf.com http://training.figleaf.com
Re: [Flashcoders] exporting dynamic swf art to other apps
Thanks a lot. I haven't explored decompilers. I'll check some out and see what my options are. Has anyone else tried this method? Any recommendations for a good decompiler or technique? On 6/30/06, Lee McColl-Sylvester <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I think the issue you'll find here is that, the work area of the Flash IDE is not the Flash player. Any content created in the IDE can be made use of however Adobe see fit as it's an IDE, but the player is cut down for file size and speed purposes. Your best bet is to either look up exporting frames from an SWF in the IDE itself, or lookup other IDE's / decompilers and see if they support it. Lee -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mason Wendell Sent: 30 June 2006 15:36 To: Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com Subject: [Flashcoders] exporting dynamic swf art to other apps Hey all, I'm generating art in actionscript that I need to export from my swf and bring into Illustrator or Photoshop for final tweaks before sending it out to a large format printer. I know you can export from the IDE but since everything I'm using is dynamic I can't use those functions. My current best method is to print the swf to a pdf from the player and open that pdf in Illustrator. Unfortunatly I lose all my alpha and filter data in this process, and since I might have 1000 or more instances in my export those values are nearly impossible to recreate. I've tried adjusting the pdf settings but I haven't found the right combo yet. Does anybody here know of a method to export still frames (I'm not trying to export video or motion here) from the swf in a vector format? This issue has been nagging me for quite a while now, and I haven't found any tutorials or tips online on how to do it. I'd really appreciate any feedback from this forum. Thanks a lot. -=Mason ___ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com To change your subscription options or search the archive: http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders Brought to you by Fig Leaf Software Premier Authorized Adobe Consulting and Training http://www.figleaf.com http://training.figleaf.com ___ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com To change your subscription options or search the archive: http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders Brought to you by Fig Leaf Software Premier Authorized Adobe Consulting and Training http://www.figleaf.com http://training.figleaf.com ___ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com To change your subscription options or search the archive: http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders Brought to you by Fig Leaf Software Premier Authorized Adobe Consulting and Training http://www.figleaf.com http://training.figleaf.com
Re: Re: [Flashcoders] exporting dynamic swf art to other apps
John: I just played around with this. Unfortunately it flattens all the
layers to screen resolution and I need to blow it up for print. It also
flattens it to the background, and Ideally I'm looking for a more flexible
solution.
Joylon: That's a good point about the pdf writer only having the ability to
pull the library assets, and not the runtime alterations. I hadn't put that
together. It explains why I had no luck with different pdf settings.
I'm downloading some decompiler trials, and hopefully I'll have more luck
with one of those.
On 6/30/06, John Mark Hawley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
How about trying to print the _root as a pdf using {printAsBitmap: true}?
That's supposed to play well with transparency, innit?
>
> From: "Jolyon Russ" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Date: 2006/06/30 Fri AM 10:39:24 CDT
> To: "Flashcoders mailing list"
> Subject: Re: [Flashcoders] exporting dynamic swf art to other apps
>
> This is a method used a lot by Joshua Davis, I took his FITC boot camp
> course and no, you can't retain the alpha values and presumably filter
(not
> tried w/filters).
>
> I think you'll find that because the alpha and filter properties are
applied
> at run-time the pdf you output will only embed the standard library
symbols
> without any of this information.
>
> Also, you might find you get better result printing as .ps files,
> Illustrator will like them more than pdf but it still won't solve your
> problem, sadly.
>
> Jolyon
>
> PS. First reply so :-P
>
> On 6/30/06, Mason Wendell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> > Thanks a lot. I haven't explored decompilers. I'll check some out and
see
> > what my options are. Has anyone else tried this method? Any
> > recommendations
> > for a good decompiler or technique?
> >
> > On 6/30/06, Lee McColl-Sylvester <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > >
> > > I think the issue you'll find here is that, the work area of the
Flash
> > > IDE is not the Flash player. Any content created in the IDE can be
made
> > > use of however Adobe see fit as it's an IDE, but the player is cut
down
> > > for file size and speed purposes.
> > >
> > > Your best bet is to either look up exporting frames from an SWF in
the
> > > IDE itself, or lookup other IDE's / decompilers and see if they
support
> > > it.
> > >
> > > Lee
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > -Original Message-
> > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of
Mason
> > > Wendell
> > > Sent: 30 June 2006 15:36
> > > To: Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com
> > > Subject: [Flashcoders] exporting dynamic swf art to other apps
> > >
> > > Hey all,
> > >
> > > I'm generating art in actionscript that I need to export from my swf
and
> > > bring into Illustrator or Photoshop for final tweaks before sending
it
> > > out
> > > to a large format printer. I know you can export from the IDE but
since
> > > everything I'm using is dynamic I can't use those functions.
> > >
> > > My current best method is to print the swf to a pdf from the player
and
> > > open
> > > that pdf in Illustrator. Unfortunatly I lose all my alpha and filter
> > > data in
> > > this process, and since I might have 1000 or more instances in my
export
> > > those values are nearly impossible to recreate. I've tried adjusting
the
> > > pdf
> > > settings but I haven't found the right combo yet.
> > >
> > > Does anybody here know of a method to export still frames (I'm not
> > > trying to
> > > export video or motion here) from the swf in a vector format?
> > >
> > > This issue has been nagging me for quite a while now, and I haven't
> > > found
> > > any tutorials or tips online on how to do it. I'd really appreciate
any
> > > feedback from this forum. Thanks a lot.
> > >
> > > -=Mason
> > > ___
> > > Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com
> > > To change your subscription options or search the archive:
> > > http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
> > >
> > > Brought to you by Fig Leaf Software
> > > Premier Authorized Adobe Consulting and Training
> > > http://www.figleaf.com
> > > http://training.figleaf.com
> > > ___
> > >
Re: Re: [Flashcoders] exporting dynamic swf art to other apps
I actually ended up solving this problem from the other direction. It seems
that there's no magic bullet solution from within Flash or the player so I
tried a different tack and found that I can script Illustrator using
JavaScript. I'm sure many people know about this but it was news to me. In
about an hour I was able to transcribe my AS to JS and recreate my Flash
composition in Illustrator. It executes much slower than Flash, but now I
can take my composition to other mediums.
If any body's interested, here's an introduction to Illustrator scripting.
http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/illustrator/sdk/IllustratorScriptingGuide.pdf
Thanks everybody for your help.
-=Mason
On 6/30/06, John Mark Hawley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Going the PrintJob route is going to flatten everything no matter what,
unless your layers are in separate movieclips that you can print to PDF
separately, but you can always scale your clip up to the required
resolution, print, then scale back down again...
>
> From: "Mason Wendell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Date: 2006/06/30 Fri PM 01:50:07 CDT
> To: "Flashcoders mailing list"
> Subject: Re: Re: [Flashcoders] exporting dynamic swf art to other apps
>
> John: I just played around with this. Unfortunately it flattens all the
> layers to screen resolution and I need to blow it up for print. It also
> flattens it to the background, and Ideally I'm looking for a more
flexible
> solution.
>
> Joylon: That's a good point about the pdf writer only having the ability
to
> pull the library assets, and not the runtime alterations. I hadn't put
that
> together. It explains why I had no luck with different pdf settings.
>
> I'm downloading some decompiler trials, and hopefully I'll have more
luck
> with one of those.
>
>
> On 6/30/06, John Mark Hawley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> > How about trying to print the _root as a pdf using {printAsBitmap:
true}?
> > That's supposed to play well with transparency, innit?
> >
> > >
> > > From: "Jolyon Russ" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > > Date: 2006/06/30 Fri AM 10:39:24 CDT
> > > To: "Flashcoders mailing list"
> > > Subject: Re: [Flashcoders] exporting dynamic swf art to other apps
> > >
> > > This is a method used a lot by Joshua Davis, I took his FITC boot
camp
> > > course and no, you can't retain the alpha values and presumably
filter
> > (not
> > > tried w/filters).
> > >
> > > I think you'll find that because the alpha and filter properties are
> > applied
> > > at run-time the pdf you output will only embed the standard library
> > symbols
> > > without any of this information.
> > >
> > > Also, you might find you get better result printing as .ps files,
> > > Illustrator will like them more than pdf but it still won't solve
your
> > > problem, sadly.
> > >
> > > Jolyon
> > >
> > > PS. First reply so :-P
> > >
> > > On 6/30/06, Mason Wendell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Thanks a lot. I haven't explored decompilers. I'll check some out
and
> > see
> > > > what my options are. Has anyone else tried this method? Any
> > > > recommendations
> > > > for a good decompiler or technique?
> > > >
> > > > On 6/30/06, Lee McColl-Sylvester <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > I think the issue you'll find here is that, the work area of the
> > Flash
> > > > > IDE is not the Flash player. Any content created in the IDE can
be
> > made
> > > > > use of however Adobe see fit as it's an IDE, but the player is
cut
> > down
> > > > > for file size and speed purposes.
> > > > >
> > > > > Your best bet is to either look up exporting frames from an SWF
in
> > the
> > > > > IDE itself, or lookup other IDE's / decompilers and see if they
> > support
> > > > > it.
> > > > >
> > > > > Lee
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > -Original Message-
> > > > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > > > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of
> > Mason
> > > > > Wendell
> > > > > Sent: 30 June 2006 15:36
> > > > > To: Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com
> > > > > Subject: [Flashcoders] exporting dynamic swf art to othe
