How to add a video in Animate

Animate provides several methods by which you can incorporate video into your Animate document and play it back for users.

Before you start working with video in Animate, it is important to understand the following information:

• Animate can only play specific video formats.

  These include FLV, F4V, and MPEG video. For instructions on converting video in other formats, see Create video for use in Animate.

• Use the separate Adobe Media Encoder application (included with Animate) to convert other video formats to F4V. For instructions, see Create video for use in Animate.

• There are different ways of adding video to Animate, each with advantages in different situations. See below for a list of these methods.

• Animate includes a Video Import Wizard that opens when you choose File > Import > Import Video.

• Using the FLVPlayback component is the simplest way to quickly get video playing in a Animate file.

  For instructions, see Progressively download video using a web server.

Methods for using video in Animate

You can use video in Animate in different ways:

• Progressive download from a web server

  This method keeps the video file external to the Animate file and the resulting SWF file. This keeps the SWF file size small. This is the most common method of using video in Animate.

• Stream video using Adobe Media Server.

  This method also keeps the video file external to your Animate file. Adobe Media Streaming Server gives you secure protection of your video content in addition to a smooth streaming playback experience.

• Embed video data directly inside a Animate file

  This method results in very large Animate files, and is only recommended for short video clips. For instructions, see Embed video within an Animate file.

Progressively download video using a web server

Progressive downloading lets you use either the FLVPlayback component or ActionScript that you write to load and play back external FLV or F4V files in a SWF file at runtime.

Because the video file is kept external to the other Animate content, it’s relatively easy to update video content without republishing the SWF file.

Progressive downloading provides the following advantages over embedding video in the Timeline:

• During authoring, you can publish only your SWF file to preview or test part or all of your Animate content. This results in faster preview times and quicker turnaround on iterative experimentation.

• During playback, video begins playing as soon as the first segment of video is downloaded and cached to the local computer’s disk drive.

• At runtime, video files are loaded by Flash Player from the computer’s disk drive into the SWF file, with no limitation on video file size or duration. No audio synchronization issues or memory restrictions exist.

• The frame rate of the video file can be different from the frame rate of the SWF file, allowing for greater flexibility in authoring Animate content.

Import video for progressive download

You can import a video file that is stored locally on your computer, and then upload the video file to a server after importing it to your FLA file. In Animate, when you import video for progressive download, you are really adding only a reference to the video file. Animate uses the reference to find the video file on your local computer or on a web server.

You can also import a video file that is already uploaded to a standard web server, an Adobe Media Server (AMS), or Flash Video Streaming Service (FVSS).

Stream video using Adobe Media Server

Adobe Media Server streams media in real-time to Flash Player and AIR. Adobe Media Server uses bandwidth detection to deliver video or audio content based on the user’s available bandwidth.

Streaming video with Adobe Media Server provides the following advantages over embedded and progressively downloaded video:

• Video playback starts sooner than it does using other methods of incorporating video.

• Streaming uses less of the client's memory and disk space, because the clients don’t need to download the entire file.

• Network resources are used more efficiently, because only the parts of the video that are viewed are sent to the client.

• Delivery of media is more secure, because media is not saved to the client’s cache when streamed.

• Streaming video provides better tracking, reporting, and logging ability.

• Streaming lets you deliver live video and audio presentations, or capture video from a web cam or digital video camera.

• Adobe Media Server enables multiway and multiuser streaming for video chat, video messaging, and video conferencing applications.

• By using server-side scripting to control video and audio streams, you can create server-side play lists, synchronized streams, and more intelligent delivery options based on the client’s connection speed.

To learn more about Adobe Media Server, see www.adobe.com/go/flash_media_server.

To learn more about Flash Video Streaming Service, see www.adobe.com/go/learn_fvss_en.

Embed a video file within a Animate file

When you embed a video file, all of the video file data is added to the Animate file. This results in a much larger Animate file and subsequent SWF file. The video is placed in the Timeline where you can see the individual video frames represented in the Timeline frames. Because each video frame is represented by a frame in the Timeline, the frame rate of the video clip and the SWF file must be set to the same rate. If you use different frame rates for the SWF file and the embedded video clip, video playback is inconsistent.

Note: To use variable frame rates, stream the video using either progressive downloading or Adobe Media Server. When you import video files using either of these methods, the FLV or F4V files are self-contained and run at a frame rate separate from that of all other timeline frame rates included in the SWF file.

Embedded video works best for smaller video clips, with a playback time of less than 10 seconds. If you are using video clips with longer playback times, consider using progressively downloaded video, or streaming video using Adobe Media Server.

The limitations of embedded video include:

• You might encounter problems if the resulting SWF files become excessively large. Flash Player reserves a lot of memory when downloading and attempting to play large SWF files with embedded video, which can cause Flash Player to fail.

• Longer video files (over 10 seconds long) often have synchronization issues between the video and audio portions of a video clip. Over time, the audio track begins playing out of sequence with the video, causing a less than desirable viewing experience.

• To play a video embedded in a SWF file, the entire video file must be downloaded before the video starts to play. If you embed an excessively large video file, it might take a long time for the SWF file to download in its entirety and for playback to start.

• After a video clip is imported, it cannot be edited. Instead, you must re-edit and re-import the video file.

• When publishing your SWF file via the web, the entire video must be downloaded to the viewer’s computer before video playback can begin.

• At runtime, the entire video must fit into the local memory of the playback computer.

• The length of an imported video file cannot exceed 16000 frames.

• The video frame rate and Animate Timeline frame rate must be the same. Set the frame rate of your Animate file to match the frame rate of the embedded video.

You can preview frames of an embedded video by dragging the playhead along the Timeline (scrubbing). Note that the video sound track does not play back during scrubbing. To preview the video with sound, use the Test Movie command.

Embedding a video within a Animate file

Import video files into the library

To import FLV, F4V, or H.264 videos, use the Import > Import Video or Import to Library commands.

To create your own video player, which dynamically loads FLV or F4V files from an external source, place your video inside a movie clip symbol. When you load FLV or F4V files dynamically, adjust the dimensions of the movie clip to match the actual dimension of the video file and scale the video by scaling the movie clip.

 A best practice is to place video inside a movie clip instance, which gives you the most control over the content. The video’s Timeline plays independently from the main Timeline. You do not have to extend your main Timeline by many frames to accommodate the video, which can make working with your FLA file difficult.

Change the properties of a video clip

You can change properties for an instance of an embedded video clip on the Stage, assign the instance an instance name, and change its width, height, and position on the Stage using the Property inspector. You can also swap an instance of a video clip—assign a different symbol to an instance of a video clip. Assigning a different symbol to an instance displays a different instance on the Stage but leaves all the other instance properties (such as dimensions and registration point) intact.

In the Video Properties dialog box, you can do the following:

• View information about an imported video clip, including its name, path, creation date, pixel dimensions, length, and file size

• Change the video clip name

• Update the video clip if you modify it in an external editor

• Import an FLV or F4V file to replace the selected clip

• Export a video clip as an FLV or F4V file

Change video instance properties in the Property inspector

View video clip properties in the Video Properties dialog box

Assign a new name to, update, or replace a video

Control video playback using the Timeline

To control playback of an embedded video file, control the Timeline that contains the video. For example, to pause a video playing on the main Timeline, you would call a stop() action that targets that Timeline. Similarly, you can control a video object in a movie clip symbol by controlling the playback of that symbol’s Timeline.

You can apply the following actions to imported video objects in movie clips: goTo, play, stop, toggleHighQuality, stopAllSounds, getURL,FScommand, loadMovie, unloadMovie, ifFrameLoaded, and onMouseEvent. To apply actions to a Video object, first convert the Video object to a movie clip.

To show a live video stream from a camera, use ActionScript. First, place a Video object on the Stage, select New Video from the Library Panel menu. To attach the video stream to the Video object, use Video.attachVideo.

See also Video and attachVideo (Video.attachVideo method) in the ActionScript 2.0 Language Reference, and fl.video in the ActionScript 3.0 Language Reference.

Update an embedded video after editing its source file