file size

[Guest_imported]

sorry, i'm bothering you with basic questions, but i'm a student and i'm creating my first flash movie now for a architectural presentation.

i wanted it to be about 5-10 minutes long, and there should be animations etc fitting to a soundtrack ( i learned a bit from the toutorials)

the file size now is about 30mb for 58 seconds of movie, and i guess it's far too much. when i tried to remove the bitmaps, the file size afterwards was even bigger, is that normal? do i have to create different scenes to keep the size small, or what else can i do??
thanks a lot for anwering

 

[oldnewbie]

Talking about a 30MB *.swf or a 30MB .fla?

ldnewbie
Hope that this
was helpful!

 

[defrex]

well, for one when you deleted the pictures, did you delete them from just the stage, or the library? because if you didn't delete them from the library you would not be doing must for file size.

two, what is the format of the sound file? wav? i would sudjest somthing smaller like mp3. wav files can be huge.

thats all i can think of right now, but i'm sure others will have more. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him won't die but have everlasting life - Jesus - John 3:16 -

 

[oldnewbie]

From the Help files:

Optimizing movies

The larger your movie file, the longer the download time and the slower the movie will be. You can take a number of steps to prepare your movie for optimal playback. As part of the publishing process, Flash automatically performs some optimizing on movies, including detecting duplicate shapes on export and placing them in the file only once, and converting nested groups into single groups.

Before exporting a movie, you can optimize it further using various strategies to reduce the movie size. As you make changes, test your movie on a variety of different computers, operating systems, and Internet connections.

To optimize movies in general:

Use symbols, animated or otherwise, for every element that appears more than once.
Whenever possible, use tweened animations, which take up less file space than a series of keyframes.
For animation sequences, use movie clips instead of graphic symbols.
Limit the area of change in each keyframe; make the action take place in as small an area as possible.
Avoid animating bitmap elements; use bitmap images as background or static elements.
For sound, use MP3, the smallest sound format, whenever possible.


To optimize elements and lines:

Group elements as much as possible.
Use layers to separate elements that change over the course of the animation from those that do not.
Use Modify > Curves > Optimize to minimize the number of separate lines that are used to describe shapes.
Limit the number of special line types such as dashed, dotted, ragged, and so on. Solid lines require less memory. Lines created with the Pencil tool require less memory than brush strokes.


To optimize text and fonts:

Limit the number of fonts and font styles. Use embedded fonts sparingly, because they increase file size.
For Embed Fonts options, select only the characters needed instead of including the entire font.


To optimize colors:

Use the Effect panel (Window > Panels > Effect) to create many different-colored instances of a single symbol.
Use the Mixer panel (Window > Panels > Mixer) to match the color palette of the movie to a browser-specific palette.
Use gradients sparingly. Filling an area with gradient color requires about 50 bytes more than filling it with solid color.
Use alpha transparency sparingly; it can slow playback.

ldnewbie
Hope that this
was helpful!

 

[Guest_imported]

thanks for answering so quickly...

the format i saved the movie is fla but the file size is normal 30MB and i deleted the bitmaps from the library, afterwards the size was bigger...the soundfiles are all mp3s. are there any actions ore kinds of files apart from bitmaps that need much space to save? i have some motion tweens and color tweens...
do graphic symbols made from bitmaps take the same capacity than bitmaps even when i delete the bitmap afterwards?
does the file size have something to do with the amount of layers?

 

[deecee]

when u publish into an swf..which is how u will view the movie then it will be around 1-2 megs...trust me i had teh same problem

DEEEEECEEEEEE
X-)

 

[defrex]

no, the amount of layers has absolutly no consiquence For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him won't die but have everlasting life - Jesus - John 3:16 -