SWF files on forums? Help please.

[Naomi89]

Hello ^^

I made an animation on Adobe Flash and I saved it as a SWF file. Is there any way of getting it up onto the forums just like you would a png/gif/jpeg and so on? Many hosting sites do not even host SWF but thankfully I found a couple of sites. But I still haven't found a way to add a link for it to show up on the forums. Is there even a way it can be done?

Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you.

[erick-]

Hello ^^

I made an animation on Adobe Flash and I saved it as a SWF file. Is there any way of getting it up onto the forums just like you would a png/gif/jpeg and so on? Many hosting sites do not even host SWF but thankfully I found a couple of sites. But I still haven't found a way to add a link for it to show up on the forums. Is there even a way it can be done?

Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you.

If you can copy and paste it, yes, it can be done. That's how I put the animation of a Terran Marine on my sig. When someone else posted it, I took up the opportunity to copy and paste it onto my sig. Other than that, I do not know what else to say.

[spronekiller]

maybe convert to gif.?

[Naomi89]

I tried gif but the quality is coming horrible and really slow. Actually last I tried it just looked like a badly rendered photo cause it wasn't even moving :( erick I think the animation in your siggy is a gif file, that's why you were able to put it in your siggy. Unfortunately even though I found hosting sites, I was not able to put the link up, because when I did it just remained a link.

Thank you for your help guys I appreciate you taking the time. Maybe theres no way to upload SWF here.

[Aveta]

There is a file format .apng, it stands for animated png. It is supported in firefox and some other browsers. There are limited programs available to make these in though. I used "GIF movie gear". Not sure if I can post a link, so just google "GIF movie gear apng" and their guide to making apngs will show up. The program is a fully functional 30 day trial.

The file appears as a .png, so you can post it places.There is none of that annoying compression and partial transparencies are allowed. My sig is this format, so if you can see the animation, your browser supports it. If it is not supported, only the first frame shows up, so you still have a sig.

Now, what you would do, instead of saving as swf in your flash program, you would find the option to export as png. Export all the frames into a folder, and open GIF movie gear.Open your frames, and you are almost done. There are a few options to mess around with to make it work like you want to, if you need help, I would be more than happy to provide it.

Lastly, the file will come out rather large, my 50 frame sig is 6mb. There are a few places that allow image uploads this large, I use one called Imagebeast. There is an option to thin the file, like my animation started as 100 frames, it deleted every other. You could keep thinning until you have a good balance between quality and size, mine got choppy if I tried to go any lower, due to how complex the effect is.

[Naomi89]

Thank you so much Aveta for your reply. You have been very very helpful :) Unfortunately your sig isn't showing up as an animation on my browser (I am using google crome, and I tried Internet Explorer and it didn't either). But I am now downloading firefox because I would love to see your siggy in full animation. I will give the process and programs you suggested all a try and then I will post back here to let you know how it went :) Unfortunately I am studying for an exam I have tomorrow at the moment, but the moment I have some spare time (hopefully soon) I'll get to work on the animation ^^

Thank you so much for your help!

My Firefox just installed and your animation is coming in perfectly ^^ Nice work it's a very pretty signature.

[erick-]

Thank you so much Aveta for your reply. You have been very very helpful :) Unfortunately your sig isn't showing up as an animation on my browser (I am using google crome, and I tried Internet Explorer and it didn't either). But I am now downloading firefox because I would love to see your siggy in full animation. I will give the process and programs you suggested all a try and then I will post back here to let you know how it went :) Unfortunately I am studying for an exam I have tomorrow at the moment, but the moment I have some spare time (hopefully soon) I'll get to work on the animation ^^

Thank you so much for your help!

My Firefox just installed and your animation is coming in perfectly ^^ Nice work it's a very pretty signature.

I was just curious, but what animation can I expect to see out of this?

[Aveta]

Makes sense that it works on firefox, since it was the firefox devs that made the format originally. The program I suggest just seemed the easiest for larger animations, as the original .apng maker is a flash app that can't handle more than like 2mb at a time

Look forward to seeing what you do with it, I lack talent so all I could do was some text effects :P

[Naomi89]

Yeahh it worked :) is it normal that even when you save it as a png it doesnt show up animated when you click on the file from the computer? It's only showing up animated on the firefox browser. Which is fine cause I'll use the SWF file to view from my computer. And it saved as a .png file for me not .apng. Is this ok? Just making sure I did everything well hehe. But things should be fine cause when I tried to view it on the forum it worked :)

The animation Im making is nothing special. I only just started using flash so dont expect to be wowed lol (but dont be too harsh either :P). But I need to start learning the techniques of uploading them hehe. And I'm switching firefox back to my default browser. it was primarily, but my boyfriend kept suggesting google crome so I switched to google crome. Im still happy that there actually was a way to turn it into a format to put on the forums. Thanks again Aveta :D

PS. Then I will upload it here ^^ When I upload it I'll also give you the link to the SWF file so you can see the complete version with sound too ^^

[Aveta]

Totally normal, the computer itself doesn't have the .apng capabilities. And the apng is shortened to png to be compatible with all the image posting stuff.

I'm a flash nub too, so no worries :D It takes a bit of messing around with to get used to. Just checked with my other browser, the animations are compatible with Opera just like I read somewhere. So the animations like a bonus for people using FF or Opera

[Naomi89]

I've got this craze at the moment about learning illustrator and flash etc. I've been searching for tutorials and stuff. They're just really fun to learn about :)

Yup, I read on the gif movie gear site that opera is supported. But I've never heard of it as a browser - I think firefox is more popular.

[Aveta]

I wouldn't have known about it, if it didn't come pre-installed on my wii *shrugs* Downloaded it for the comp when my ie "mysteriously" stopped working :D

I'm horrible when it comes to new things, instructions and guides, psh who needs those. I find that I figure out how to do stuff that I wasn't looking to do when I just try stuff out, where if I went to a guide I would just know what I set out to do.

[Naomi89]

hello ^^

Ok here is the animation I was trying to get up here. As I said before it's nothing great. But I had fun making it hehe. Wait for your screen to load properly cause the animation looks really slow whilst it's still loading. Oh and if anyone who wasn't reading above is seeing this you need firefox or opera web browser to preview this ^^

You can also view it on any browser here. This version is the full version with sound and stuff so better to see here ^^ ; http://www.screencast.com/t/m4DHizw1d

http://www.imagebeast.net/images/yol8mueu77zxv24h2prp.png (http://www.imagebeast.net/)

[Architect]

Creepy laugh... o 3o

[grummin]

Creepier necro of a thread that's been dead for over a year. 0.o

[Shadowic2]

Closed for Necro-Posting.