Getting your Flash on TV? Isn't Flash for the Web? Yeah, that's
right. Macromedia's Flash can be used to create videos for television.
Why would you want to do this if it's gonna cost you time and money?
Whether it's a personal reel for friends and family or a professional
reel for work, it's fun to see your work on TV. Even though we love the
web, television is still king. You won't be tied up by your PC. Just
get your Flash animation on videos to share with your friends, family,
and clients, etc.
Flash's ability to flow from the Web to television is aiding a
confluence between mainstream and Internet media. So, how to have your
favorite Flash animated TV show?
First, You must convert the Flash animations to videos and
then to DVD. If your video does not conform to a 3:2 (1.33:1) aspect
ratio you have to also make it match that ratio. This can be done by
either letterboxing it within a 1.33:1 frame or panning and scanning it
across a 1.33:1 frame. Otherwise the output will be streched out and
everythings gonna look all funky.
You will also need to think in terms of acceptable colors TT.
For example, allow you to mix color that are safe for TV. But often
this is also a fairly simple to correct during post, the explanation is
more complicated than the solution.
The least amount of dynamic elements you use in your film, the
easier it will be to properly covert it to video. Movie clips symbols
and actionscript based animation can only be converted to video
propperly through the use of third party video conversion tools. Also
many NLE's are now supporting SWF import but its also limited, it may
help to export the swf in version 5 or 6 format to increase chances of
compatibility.
You can also create flash based interactive menu templates of
your on DVD. You can not only select menu templates from the preset
ones for your swf slideshows, but also edit or even create your own
menu templates with your own photos and pictures.
Finally, burn your Flash files to DVD/VCD/SVCD. DVDs and CDs
are not that different, what can be different is the way they are going
to be used. For example, DVDs can be thought of and used as if they
were just really large capacity storage CDs or DVDs can be much more.
Now the first thing you might need to clarify is your target audience
for your DVD. If you are targeting PC users only that's one set of
circumstances or if you are targeting TV with DVD player users that's a
different audience and design issue.
Many programs will enable you to create and burn such a Flash
videos DVD disc and show TV. If you want a practical tool, I recommend
Wondershare FlashOnTV.