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Exporting to Macromedia Flash (SWF) format


    You can export compositions as Macromedia Flash (.swf) movies. Web browsers with the Flash player plug-in can play the SWF format. During export, After Effects maintains vectors as much as possible. However, raster images and certain features such as pixel effects, layer modes, and motion blur cannot be represented as vectors in the SWF file. For information on which After Effects features are supported for SWF export, see Supported features for SWF export.

    You can choose to ignore these unsupported items so that the SWF file includes only those After Effects features that can be converted into native SWF elements, or you can choose to rasterize frames that contain unsupported features and add them to the SWF file as JPEG-compressed bitmaps, which may reduce the efficiency of the SWF file.

    Audio is encoded in MP3 format and added to the SWF file as a stream sound.

To export a composition to Macromedia Flash (SWF) format:

  1. Select the composition you want to export, and then choose File > Export > Macromedia Flash (SWF).
  2. Specify a filename and location, and click Save (Windows) or OK (Mac OS).
  3. Specify the following options and then click OK.
    • For JPEG Quality, specify the image quality by typing a number, selecting an option for JPEG Quality, or dragging the slider. The higher the quality, the larger the file. The JPEG quality setting is used for all JPEG-compressed bitmaps exported to the SWF file, including bitmaps generated from composition frames or Adobe Illustrator files if Rasterize is selected for Unsupported Features.
    • For Unsupported Features, select Ignore to skip all features that are not supported by the SWF format, or select Rasterize to render all frames that contain unsupported features as bitmap images. Selecting Rasterize increases the file size and may significantly reduce the streaming quality.
    • Under Audio, specify the sample rate, mono or stereo channels, and bit rate. Select Auto for Bit Rate to get the lowest bit rate available given the Sample Rate and Channels settings. Higher bit rates increase file size. For more information on audio output, see Changing output module settings.
    • Select Loop Continuously if you want the exported SWF file to loop continuously during playback. If you plan to specify looping by writing HTML to control the Flash player, select Loop Continuously.
    • Select Prevent Import to prevent the SWF file from being imported into editing programs.
    • Select Include Object Names to include layer, mask, and effect names. Selecting this option increases file size. See Including object names in a SWF file.
    • Select Include Layer Marker Web Links if you want layer markers to be used as URL Web links. See Including Web links in a SWF file.

    A report is created in the same folder into which the SWF file was exported. The report has the same name as the SWF file, followed by R.htm. Open the report in a browser to see which items in the composition were unsupported in the SWF file.

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