A way to reduce choppiness?

[DaSquirrel]

Hey guys, I'll try to keep it short.

I'm currently in the midst of animation, and I seem to have run into a problem.

1. When doing a pan shot of a background (Just one layer, not a lot goin on), and I view the movie, it comes out a bit choppy.

2. I have another instance later on where a character (Made up of quite a few layers) in an idle animation (Breath in, Breath out) it also becomes a bit choppy.

So, I was wondering, what techniques do you guys know to help remedy this? I know lag with the second is to be expected, but the first one is a bit perplexing (There's not a lot going on, and it still chugs.) Anyways, all suggestions are welcome, and thanks for the help!

PS: I have Flash CS3 if that helps.

[ZuluCS]

Clips with a lot of vectors take a high amount of CPU to be redrawn over and over when they pan.

You can put large vector drawings into a movie clip and use "bitmap caching" if you're only moving the clip across the stage. It also has to be a single frame inside the clip. I'm not sure if you can rotate and stretch the clip or not.

Read all about it here.

If small amounts of vector animations and tweens are causing choppiness you made need a faster computer. If it's not CPU lag, try increasing the frame rate.

[Scorium]

Whenever there are big objects that aren't properly sized or compressed as a symbol, then the object will take more CPU power to display and move, just like graphics in a video game.

This problem is most prominent with big "fuzzy" objects, or objects that are faded or blurred for effect.

Make sure you use the "bitmap catching" and "reducing frame-rate" moves Zulu talked about to reduce CPU power consumption.

[PowerRangerYELLOW]

if you are just learning how to animate than some of your early animations will be choppy anyways but if it's a computer problem than perhaps it's not you.

[BillyNapalm]

Are you set to 12fps or 24fps?

[snowclouds]

reduce and special effects if you have any. if you are doing cartoon-ish animations then try make those special effects via other methods. e.g. draw it out