Flash for web site

Widetrack wrote on 9/19/2008, 11:45 AM

I've read a bunch of posts here and elsewhere about putting flash video on websites, but they all seem to apply to embedding an actual program that the viewer clicks on and watches a la YouTube.

I'm interested in using Flash to put up animated, but not interactive elements--eye candy, basically, like the banner at the top of

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/worldwide/

Is there anything more complex to doing this kind of stuff than assembling a video in Vegas with a still image or 2 on top with a simple looping, generated BG, then rendering it to mp4 or Flash or whatever is best, and embedding it on the web page?

Comments

Widetrack wrote on 9/20/2008, 3:22 PM

...Anyone...?

Or is this just too dumb a question?

Masters of the obvious...?

bStro wrote on 9/20/2008, 4:51 PM

Technically, that's not "Flash Video" -- it's just Flash. Flash Video files have a .FLV extension and are used in conjunction with a Flash player (as you said), which is the SWF file that lets the viewer watch (and sometimes control) it.

For something like what I believe you want (essentially just a banner ad), all you need is to convert your content to an SWF file and embed it. Although, honestly, if you don't intend to have any interactivity at all, you may as well use an animated GIF (assuming 256 colors is enough).

See this W3School page on how to embed SWF files in your web page. If you need to convert your videos to SWF, CamStudio has a tool called SWF Producer that not only does this, but also creates the HTML code you need. (Be sure to see the note on that page -- the SWF Producer has a slight bug, and you need to make an adjustment to the HTML it spits out.

Rob

Widetrack wrote on 9/20/2008, 6:23 PM

Rob:

Thanks for the information. Can an animated gif have scrolling background, customized to my stuff, like the bloomberg banners?

thanks.

bStro wrote on 9/21/2008, 11:32 AM

Sure. An animated GIF can have pretty much anything any "video" can have -- it's just a matter of having a good tool for creating the GIF and some creativity. In fact, there are programs for converting video files to animated GIF.

Rob