In the last tutorial we looked at the design considerations for maximum optimisation. Included in this are some considerations for the usage of sounds and images.
Sound Sounds
One of the funky aspects of flash is its ability to play sound with its animations but the flip side of the coin is that it takes up space, a lot of it.
Sound uses something called a sample rate. The lower the sample rate the lower the file size (and quality). You can adjust the rate and compression (MP3 is the smallest format for sound) for exported stream and event sounds (see our tutorial on Adding sounds for more info on the difference) in the sound properties box for individuals sounds or in the Publish Settings dialog box for all sounds, by choosing File> Publish Settings. Clicking on Set will give you this dialog box to modify the rate and the compression:
Note: If the movie has no streamed sounds, this setting has no effect.
Note: The sample rate and compression type of sounds acts in the same manner as a .jpg or any other lossy image format. You can go down in quality but you can't go up. The quality of the original file is as good as you will get it (even with increasing the sample rate) without re-recording it.
One technique employed to play great sound is with the use of loops. A small section of good quality sound is cut and looped over and over again. Dance music fits in neatly because of its repetitive nature. Flashkit has a whole selection of sound loops here. However it doesn't mean you have to give up the Brandanberg Concertos. As I mentioned in the overview, Flash also gives you to option to stream sound across the web. So if you are really desperate for BC#4 then you can try this: Select the frame you want the sound to start, open the frameproperties dialog box.
Now click on the drop down box labeled Sync and select stream. You can loop your sound if requred but your music will now stream across the net. Your only other option is to preload all the music first.
Well not quite, but they do take up a substantial amount of space particularly if you have a number of them. So use them sparingly and try to avoid animating them. If at all possible try to recreate or trace them in Flash, this will save you a lot of space. To import a bitmap, choose File> Import, the file will be placed in your library. Select the small arrow in the top right hand corner marked Options> Properties. This dialog box will appear.
You will be able to modify the compression settings of your image here. The Test button shows the results of the file compression. You can compare the original file size to the compressed file size.
Important: Remember that flash is vector-based and not a bitmap program like Photoshop.
Now all the work has been done! You've had an overview of movies in Flash, a look at the design considerations and the ups and downs of images and sounds. Now to quantify the space you have saved after applying all this knowledge or at least see what went where after you published it, the last installment of .fla optimisation will look at the Size report that can be automatically generated at publishing time.
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