RE: FLASH: LiveMotion - Pros & Cons

[J. Lutes (pixelTwiddler)]

>> rummor has it that flash 5 will have filter effects and almost

>> the same exact feature that LM has.


>It would be sort of self-destructive to

>willfully bloat SWF files like that, so I'd be surprised if Flash 5 put

>effort into supporting pixel-based filtering... there are more important

>things to do.


I agree.  One of my disappointments with the release of LM, as a big Adobe

supporter, is the seeming disregard for certain efficiency issues -- one of

the reasons for the widespread adoption of Flash in the first place.


All of the 3-D effects, and some other things in surprisingly unexpected

places, output a raster format.  Blech!  If I wanted this, I could do it,

and much better, in something more dedicated to 3-D effects or raster

processing.  Another recent encounter with inefficiency...  I made a five

second test with some combination tweens on a simple vector object/shape --

rotate, scale, alpha fade, color shift, etc.  Each of the tween "frames"

(time slices) tranferred/exported as a graphic symbol, resulting in a 26K

file with 60 symbols!  Yikes!  I can't hold this against them, though.  I

haven't seen any SWF output from third party (conversion/translate) tools

fully eliminate the object/frame redundancy inherent in creating outside of

the native Flash environment (because the translation is apparently

difficult to accurately make).  The current crop of over-touted 3-D

conversion software is still king of this sort of efficiency violation.  It

is a problem wherever you go in CG.  Even Macromedia still doesn't do

something as simple as translate Targa files correctly when importing into

Director.  Nor does Adobe translate (as expected they might easily do)

Dimensions output, from the PostScript it uses, to a properly

ordered/arranged 2-D AI output.  It's tough going!  That is really why with

Flash you still have an edge -- optimization.  Having said that...


Here is the short list of some recent LM disappointments.


o There is no simple object snap.  That's an incredible oversight!  Someone

please tell me where to find it if it's there and I just haven't seen it.

In my mind this, and the automatic point-of-intersect parsing of vector

lines, is one of Flash's main strengths over whatever else I use to

manipulate vector artwork.


o Some of my favorite shortcut key combinations (which I use across

multiple Adobe applications) aren't in this software.


o Limited gradient support compared to what I expected/hoped for/find in

other Adobe software.


o It lags sometimes interactively while constructing/designing --

especially if you have the grid showing with auto-picking of the selection

tool enabled.  Depending on what you are doing, this is a terrible problem.

Incidently, I am on a pIII 600 w/ 256 Mb of RAM, but only an 8 Mb ATI video

card -- it's a laptop.  Why am I lagging at all?  Note: I am on to you wise

acres who just got a notion to respond with, "'Cause you're not on a Mac!"

It lags on the G4 here also.  Sorry, folks.


Anyway, beyond the minor disappointments (the biggest of which is probably

the Flash 3-level interactivity limitation), Live Motion is a really nifty

product.  Again, I have an Adobe-centered bias that is difficult to sway.


Here are some areas where I feel it rules over Flash.  I am leaving out

some things for the sake of brevity, and am in no way suggesting

abandonment of Flash -- to the contrary, I am for LM as only supplemental

at this point (but stay tuned).


o More immediate design/construction possibilities (within the interface)

compared to Flash.  This will be compensated for in the next Flash release,

to an extent.


o Somewhat familiar paradigm for users of other Adobe products, especially

After Effects.  It is not a workflow panacea, though.  There are some new,

potentially confusing, interface "enhancements."


o The style bin (allowing you to store and reapply effects/animation/etc.

with drag and drop ease) -- a borrowed model which you will, and should,

see other software adopt.  Something similar is coming in Flash 5.


o The timeline, which is a little nicer to edit than the Flash (Future

Splash holdover) timeline.


o Precision editing of individual effect or transform key frames, with

(Drum roll please!) the ability to ease to/from _both_ sides of the key

frame.  Wow!


o Awesome interface model (with a floating palette/bin) for those who

frequently incorporate textures/bitmap fills.  Flash is still clunky,

buggy, or deficient in the handling of color, gradients, and bitmap fills.

<OMG!  Did he just say what I thought he did?  Boy, he's going to get it now!>


In summary, I like Live Motion a lot.  At this point, though, you are

better off sticking to Flash, unless you can afford both tools.  Live

Motion will take some development time to solidify as a self-contained

Flash option.



-

J A S O N   L U T E S

ICQ: pixelTwiddler (#18046724)

E-mail:

jasongrafikimagism [dot] com

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