I’ve been wanting to use Adobe’s Flash CS software for animating my film, but I haven’t because Adobe made all Flash QuickTime movie exports completely unstable. The frame rate is all cock-eyed and unpredictable. Even if you did PNG sequence exports, something embedded in the PNGs makes them just as unreliable if you re-import/re-export. This just isn’t acceptable when you’re a filmmaker! So, I’ve been animating in Flash 8 instead, which is the last version (Macromedia) that did QuickTime exports just fine.
But, the Flash CS5.5 interface has it’s bonuses, and I’m stubborn as anything… so, I worked at it, and I now have a reasonable solution for being able to use Flash CS5.5 on a Mac, and to get useable QuickTime movies with an established frame rate and compression codec that I determine.
The resulting file will NOT have audio in it, just your animation. This is fine with me, since it’s all going into an NLE anyway.
I don’t know much about coding on my own. This was a LOT of testing, copying/pasting from many sources online, and eventually I pulled it together enough to work, and to work well.
MAIN IDEAS:
– I am using a Mac Intel, OS 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard), and Quicktime Player 7 Pro
-Two receiving folders on your desktop (1 for the exported PNG sequence, 1 for the new movie and Quicktime Export Settings file) (I put visual icons onto my folders so I can quickly identify them.)
-Writing and Applying AppleScripts and Folder Actions
– Using Quicktime Player 7 Pro, NOT Quicktime X (garbage)
-Creating a Quicktime Export Settings file
-Exporting a PNG Sequence from Adobe Flash CS5.5
-AppleScript Folder Action will run a Quicktime routine that will convert your PNG sequence into a Quicktime movie that you can use.
HOW TO DO IT:
1) Create two folders on your desktop. Name them (simple names). One is for the exported PNG sequence from Flash. One is for the new movie and Quicktime Export Settings file. Have them next to each other, because this process involves DRAG & DROP of one into the other to activate the folder action script.
2) Export a PNG sequence from your Flash CS5 animation file into folder 1 (png seq).
3) This AppleScript will be saved as a SCRIPT, and attached to your “movie” folder as a folder action. OPEN AppleScript Editor, copy and paste this in, and modify it with your own paths and file names where indicated. When done, COMPILE, RUN and SAVE it in your User/Library/Scripts/FolderActions folder.
————
on adding folder items to thisFolder after receiving droppedFolders
repeat with aFolder in droppedFolders
tell application “Finder”
set theFolder to aFolder as alias
set thePath to container of theFolder as string
set theName to name of first file of theFolder
if length of theName > 17 then
set theName to text 1 thru 17 of theName
end if
set theSequence to (get first file of theFolder as alias)
end tell
tell application “QuickTime Player 7”
activate
open image sequence theSequence frames per second 30
set imageSequence to thePath & theName & “.mov”
tell document 1
with timeout of 50 seconds
export to imageSequence as QuickTime movie using settings (“Users:youruseraccount:Desktop:yourmoviefolder:QuicktimeExportSettings.qtes”)
end timeout
close saving no
end tell
end tell
end repeat
end adding folder items to
———-
AppleScript looks like this when in the editor:
4) RT+Click the movie FOLDER on the desktop , select > Folder Actions SetUp
The pop up window shows you the list of available actions. Select yours from the list.
OKAY.
5) Now you will make an AppleScript that will generate a Quicktime Export Settings file, which will govern how your movies are made.
Copy this following AppleScript and paste it into a new AppleScript file. Save this in your User/Library/Scripts folder.
Leave the AppleScript OPEN for now.
——–
set file2save to (choose file name default location (path to desktop) default name “QuicktimeExportSettings.qtes”)
tell application “QuickTime Player 7”
tell first document
save export settings for QuickTime movie to file2save
end tell
end tell
——–
6) Now, you need to use QuickTime to establish your preferred export settings. WARNING: “Animation” codec is NOT STEADY for establishing frame rates in this situation. If you’re looking for a hi-rez intermediate codec, try Apple Intermediate or Apple Pro Res 422 (bigger file size.)
a) Open QuickTime Player 7
b) File > Open Image Sequence
c) navigate to your folder and select the first file from your Flash PNG sequence
d) select your frame rate in the pop up
e) Select “QuickTime Movie” in the menu pull-down
f) Click OPTIONS
g) Setting > Apple Intermediate Codec / select Frame Rate / Other > OKAY
h) Size> change if needed
OKAY
OKAY (exports)
LEAVE THIS QUICKTIME FILE OPEN for right now.
7) Go to your AppleScript for QuickTime Export settings
a) Click RUN.
b) select the movie folder on your desktop
OKAY
The “QuicktimeExportSettings.qtes” file is now located in your movie folder. The folder action on the folder is targeting it, and it will guide the export process.
8.) Close your QuickTime image sequence movie file
Don’t Save.
So, you’ve done all of the set up for your process!
9) You can now DRAG & DROP the PNG sequence folder INTO the movie folder.
Your image sequence is loaded into a Quicktime movie, exported with your determined settings, and then closed without saving.
Your movie uses the name of the first file in your PNG sequence as it’s title.
I put a restriction of 17 characters on any title. You can find that in the script and remove/change it, of course.
You’ll also need to empty out your “png sequence” folder before you export a new shot into it!
I hope it works for anyone that tries it. The result of this for me is that I can now use Flash CS5.5 to animate and receive quality QuickTime results!
🙂