I keep seeing threads about technical issues in Flash that make me want to correct people so i thought i'd get it all out in one post and this should hopefully keep the boring threads about technical problems to a minimum.
Keep in mind i still use Flash MX (v6) and Flash 8... i dont know if all of these issues are still in the newer versions... but knowing Flash's developers, if it doesn't affect programmers it wont be touched.
-The Stream Feature-
The first prominent bug flash animators will run into is this one, which is shrugged off by Macromedia/Adobe as a feature...
Problem: Whenever there's multiple streaming audio clips in the flash with a gap between them, Flash will ignore the gaps and play each one immediately after the next.
Solution: Never have a gap between streaming clips. The most common way to do this is have a silent audio clip set to loop throughout the entire animation. (You can make any audio clip silent by editing the "Effect" on the audio.)
Protip: Having lots of different audio clips playing at once can cause lag the same as having lots of visuals on screen at once. So when you're done syncing you should export the soundtrack using FILE>EXPORT MOVIE.. then selecting .wav as the savetype. You can then use this single audio file as your soundtrack. Another benefit of this method is you can load the single file up in a sound editor and level the audio all at once.
-.97 sync-
This is another audio bug that i don't see people bitching about often but it exists in pretty much every animation. It's rare for people to notice it because it requires a long playtime to be noticeable. And given how rare it is, it gave me massive headaches trying to find the solution to it when working on the 20min+ long, morphemon duelists ep1.
If i remember correctly i found the solution, 50 pages into a google search, in a tiny forum, where the person with the problem had stumbled upon the solution himself.....and upon revealing the solution was heckled by other users about it.
Problem: The audio slowly increments out of sync with the visuals (how fast this happens depends on the framerate, at 24fps it will take about 10 minutes).
Solution: Drop your framerate by one than trail .97. So if your fps is 24, make it 23.97fps.
Protip: It's as simple as that and won't even affect the animation speed (it should still display the original framerate in the timeline's fps display). Don't ask me why it's .97 ..i don't understand the technical intricacies of it.
-Simple Library Organization (or "there's no reason to name everything!")-
If you've ever been interested in a collab you've probably seen a condition that requests you to name everything in your library so it doesn't conflict with other submitters.
It's fucking stupid and here's why...
Problem: Importing a library item to another flash that has a library item of the same name will cause a naming conflict where Flash which will overwrite one of those items.
Solution: Before copypasting in frames (and auto-importing it's clips), take all the current items in the library and place them in a FOLDER. There will be no naming conflict now.
Protip: Click one item>SHIFT+Click a different item to select those two items and everything in between them. CTRL+Click to add or remove single items from the mass selection. This works outside of Flash too... you can try it on your desktop right now.
-Don't use Movieclips, use Graphic clips-
This is dangerously close to just being tutorial stuff but i've seen enough animators with years+ experience in flash using them that i figured it's worth mentioning.
MOVIE CLIPS ARE FOR CODE, GRAPHIC CLIPS ARE FOR ANIMATION.
And buttons are just gimped Movieclips.
Reasons you should be using Graphic Clips... go look at a graphic clip's properties:
LOOP / PLAY ONCE / SINGLE FRAME (an editable number denoting which frame the clip's internal timeline is on)... this shit is controls! you dont have to loop endlessly!
-Tween Sync Bug & Feature-
Bug...
Problem: So you just finished doing a tween, then you created a blank keyframe after it, put a different clip in the keyframe and make a tween for that clip....and suddenly that clip is transformed into the previous one?!
Solution: Undo! And make sure to ALWAYS turn Sync off on in tween properties. Flash selects it by default when it really really shouldn't.
Feature...
Problem: You've got a tween of your looping graphic clip but you decide you want the tween to be shorter/longer and move a keyframe... now your loop is out of sync.
Solution: You can either reset the clip's frame manually in properties OR turn on sync to automatically sync the loop (this only works for frames being tweened though, if your messed up clip is at the end of the tween; give it a broken tween to do this) then make sure you turn off the sync once again. The fixed loop will be retained.
-Don't use Scenes, use Movieclips + the 16k frame limit-
From my experience and many animators i know... using Flash's Scenes results in a clusterfuck of bugs of every kind.
For most cases you shouldn't need Scenes OR Movieclips...having everything all in one timeline may seem disorganized at first but you'll get used to it.
However if you feel an absolute need for organization of scenes (like for a collab) or if you're going to pass the 16,000 frame limit (which Scenes won't get you around anyways) then you should use Movieclips to split up the animation.
Movieclips are the only way to get around the 16k frame limit because they have the unique feature of playing their timeline independent of the main timeline.
If you need programming help with using movieclips as scenes... go search the damn googles (or ask here).
-JPEG Quality Bug-
Problem: That JPEG QUALITY slider in publish settings doesn't affect the quality of JPEGs. Go ahead slide it to zero, your imported jpg's are completely unaffected.
Solution: Use PNG's.... the JPEG QUALITY slider works for PNGs. LOL, FLASH.
That's all i could think of.
Hope i was clear enough.
