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Your Flash movie is done. Now you need to publish it in its final form, most likely an SWF file that you can post on your Web site. You also have the option to publish to other graphic file formats (such as GIF, JPEG, QuickTime, AVI, and others), in case you want to create a non-Flash site or use your material in another program.
 | Note that although the letters SWF originally stood for Shockwave File, Macromedia no longer uses that term for Flash-published movies, although the letters remain the same. |
Simplifying artwork
By simplifying the artwork in your movie, you can greatly reduce the size of a Flash movie, thereby increasing its speed. Here are the most important techniques:
- Use symbols as much as possible: You can turn any object or group of objects into a symbol. Backgrounds that continue for several frames should be turned into a symbol. Nest your symbols — for example, turn an object into a symbol and then use it in a movie clip or button. Remember that you can change the color of symbol instances — you don't need to create a new symbol.
- Group objects whenever possible: Groups are almost as efficient as symbols.
- Avoid bitmaps as much as possible: If you must use bitmaps, use them only for still elements — don't animate them.
- Optimize curves (choose Modify --> Curves --> Optimize): Whenever possible, optimize curves to reduce the number of lines used to create a shape.
- Use solid lines instead of dashed, dotted, and other line types when possible: Try to avoid custom line widths.
- Use the Pencil tool instead of the Brush tool whenever possible: The Pencil tool uses fewer bytes in your movie.
- Use the Web-safe color palette: Avoid custom colors.
- Use solid fills instead of gradients: Gradients are more complex and make the Flash Player file bigger.
Optimizing text
Text can also consume lots of bytes. Here's what you can do to reduce the byte bite:
- Reduce the number of fonts and font styles (bold, italic) as much as possible: Use simpler sans serif fonts if you can. You'll get the best results size-wise with the device fonts (sans, serif, and typewriter), although you may find these boring. Flash doesn't need to store the outlines of device fonts in the SWF file, so these take up fewer bytes.
- If you create text fields, limit the text and specify any restrictions you can in the Text Field Properties dialog box. For example, limit text length and exclude unnecessary character outlines, such as numbers.
If you have a lot of text, consider which text really needs to be in the Flash file and which text can be created by using Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). For example, you can insert a Flash file on part of your Web page and add HTML-based text on the other part of the page.
Compressing sound
You can compress sounds to reduce file size. When you compress individual sounds in the Sound Properties dialog box, you can fine-tune settings for each individual sound in your movie. Use the MP3 format whenever possible because it compresses well.
Here are some other ways you can reduce the size of your sound files:
- Adjust the sound's Time In and Time Out points to prevent silent areas from being stored in your SWF file.
- Reuse sounds by using different in and out points and by looping different parts of the same sound.
- Don't loop streaming sound.
Animating efficiently
One of the more effective ways to reduce file size is to use tweens whenever possible.
| Tweening means that Flash will calculate the animation between your first and last frames. You can tween movement to make your objects move and to make your objects morph into new shapes. Flash can also tween color and transparency for a range of exciting options. Frame-by-frame animation creates larger files. |
Keeping animation localized in one area also helps. Small animations (animations where the objects don't move much) use less space than wide-area animations. Finally, place non-animated objects on different layers than animated objects.
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