Moho makes it so easy to quickly produce unique-looking, high quality animations...
But many of the coolest features are not supported for .swf export (and result in glitches and/or crashing players when attempted).
So I raise this question for all the web-heads out there:
What do you think is the optimum output/broadcast format for Moho Web content? Streaming quicktime, quicktimes embedded in .swfs, animated gifs, etc? If you want to popluate your website with animation that uses all of Moho's features (image warping, noisy vectors, etc) what is the best format or combo of formats?
best option for full-feature web output?
Moderators: Víctor Paredes, Belgarath, slowtiger
If you're interested in producing animations for the web, I assume you already have Flash? Flash can import Quicktime movies and sequences of stills, and can handle sound better than Moho. So you could use Flash as a kind of "video editor for the web"
It's horses for courses. You could divide up your output into 3 main areas: swf-compatible, non-swf-compatible, and static backgrounds. You could still use Papagayo, Pamela or other programs to help you lip-synch in Moho. Just strip out the soundtrack before you export to keep file sizes down, then line up the soundtrack again in Flash. (Flash is also less fussy about MP3s and WAVs).
The static backgrounds could be imported straight into Flash.
The non-swf stuff could be exported from Moho -- use 32-bit PNG files if transparency is an issue.
Finally, the swf-compatible stuff can be exported from Moho.
I realise this could still leave lots of hanging threads -- maybe other people could help with those?
That's my two pennies anyway.
J
It's horses for courses. You could divide up your output into 3 main areas: swf-compatible, non-swf-compatible, and static backgrounds. You could still use Papagayo, Pamela or other programs to help you lip-synch in Moho. Just strip out the soundtrack before you export to keep file sizes down, then line up the soundtrack again in Flash. (Flash is also less fussy about MP3s and WAVs).
The static backgrounds could be imported straight into Flash.
The non-swf stuff could be exported from Moho -- use 32-bit PNG files if transparency is an issue.
Finally, the swf-compatible stuff can be exported from Moho.
I realise this could still leave lots of hanging threads -- maybe other people could help with those?
That's my two pennies anyway.
J
You can't have everything. Where would you put it?
BA:
I've been struggling over this issue for a long time. I have always leaned toward QuickTime implimentations, simply because the QuickTime container is so useful for so many things. But, streaming has always been an issue and things still seem to take too long to view.
Then there is Flash. I just plain don't like Macromedia or its implimentation of the technology or the paradigm of the MX environment. There doesn't seem to be any elegant way to interactively present and view animated content of the quality Moho produces via the web.
At this stage, I think I will still resort to the QuickTime solution, hoping that applying a few tricks using authoring tools, the viewing experience can be sped up and enhanced. Moho's output quality and variety is among the best I have ever seen, especially suited for QuickTime.
Greg Smith
I've been struggling over this issue for a long time. I have always leaned toward QuickTime implimentations, simply because the QuickTime container is so useful for so many things. But, streaming has always been an issue and things still seem to take too long to view.
Then there is Flash. I just plain don't like Macromedia or its implimentation of the technology or the paradigm of the MX environment. There doesn't seem to be any elegant way to interactively present and view animated content of the quality Moho produces via the web.
At this stage, I think I will still resort to the QuickTime solution, hoping that applying a few tricks using authoring tools, the viewing experience can be sped up and enhanced. Moho's output quality and variety is among the best I have ever seen, especially suited for QuickTime.
Greg Smith
So many people have broadband internet so high quality streaming video with Windows Media Player, Quicktime or Real (how's that for unbiased!) is no problem nowadays. I think that's one of the reasons Flash has pushed the interactive part more and more the last couple of years. Moho has gotten critisism over the flawed Flash output, but it's just impossible to get all the effects in Flash, so blame Macromedia if you want to blame anyone... So I'd suggest make the best looking animation you can with all the bells and whistles you can imagine and compress them as streaming video for the web. Do it in different bitrates so people can choose depending on their connection.
I wanted to write a funny metaphor but it might come across as insulting to some...well no joke then, just laugh anyway
Reindert.
www.nobudgetvideo.com
I wanted to write a funny metaphor but it might come across as insulting to some...well no joke then, just laugh anyway
Reindert.
www.nobudgetvideo.com
My quick choice - if you are tending towards developing in flash, exporting your animation in your codec of choice and re-encoding it into .FLV (flash video) format could be a good option. The compression is decent, it looks pretty good, and the flash player is everywhere (although it takes a little bit to set it up with older versions of flash - MX has something like the "media player object" or somesuch which just lets you drop video in, with reasonable controls). That's what I'm planning on doing.
A little questions for FLV encoders; Am I correct in assuming FLV can't play full screen? I never see it, only small inline frames in webpages. My theory is that since it is cross-platform it can't use features like Direct-X on Windows so it relies on the processor too much for full-screen playback. Does that make sense? And the video quality is not as good as the other three streaming methods can deliver. But it has its purpose, in particular enhanced interactivity but without full screen functionality I don't see it as a fully equipped video solution yet.
Reindert.
www.nobudgetvideo.com
Reindert.
www.nobudgetvideo.com