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Wildform
is the creator of the Flix SWF video encoder and the SWfX
SWF text effects generator.
©2001 Wildform, Inc. |
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Help Index | Introduction | FAQs | Creating Your Own Movie| Saving & Using Your Movie | Using Additional Effects | Support | |
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Wildform SWfX FAQs |
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FAQs:
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FAQs
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| SWfX
includes 251 installed effects: 87 Flash 3 effects (non-highlighted) and
164 Flash 4 (highlighted) effects. Macromedia Flash 4 and 5 can not import
Flash 4 specific SWFs into the program, only Flash 3 compatible SWFs.
This is an issue with Macromedia Flash 4 and 5. So you can import the
Flash 3 effects created by SWfX into Macromedia Flash. To use the Flash
4 only output in your own movies, you should use the "Load Movie"
ActionScript command in Macromedia Flash 4. For more information on Load Movie check out our load movie tutorials at: http://www.wildform.com/tutorials You can also check out sample .FLAs with basic commands to load and control a separate .swf. http://www.wildform.com/downloads We have also posted Load Movie "Smart Clips" which can be used to automate the Load Movie action in Flash 5. They are available at: http://www.wildform.com/smartclips |
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| Just place the .WFX or .SWF files into your
Wildform>SWFX>Effects directory. The new effects will appear the
next time you open SWFX. |
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| We know that the bug exists and we will fix it in an update. For now, just create your original text 8 points smaller if you want to use it in Flash. If you're going to deploy it as-is, then create it at the desired size. The Flash player renders the effect at the size set in SWfX, but there is an issue when you bring the effect into the Flash program. | |
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| The duration of the effect can be changed by setting the "delay of X frames" setting in Flash. Any number greater than one will cause SWFX to insert extra frames after the appearance of each letter, thus changing the total duration of the effect. The source FLA for the effect can also be modified to get finer control over the duration of an effect. To change the duration of an effect with "Sync letters" selected, the original source FLA needs to be changed. For more information on editing an FLA for use in SWFX, check out the tutorial at: www.wildform.com/tutorials/wildfx_creation. | |
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| We
have a complete tutorial on this subject at: www.wildform.com/tutorials/wildfx_creation. |
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| To
run Wildform SWfX, we recommend the following system specifications:
For PC: For Mac: |
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| SWF
is an open multimedia format owned and marketed by Macromedia, which also
releases Flash, the standard SWF creation tool, and the Flash Player -
the most widely distributed internet software ever. SWF files will play
in most browsers without a download. For those users who do not have the
Flash player, the download is under 200K. |
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Can I import SWfX-created SWFs into Flash? |
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| Yes, but only Flash 3 compatible effects. Simply use SWfX to create your effect, save the SWF, and import it into Macromedia Flash. To use Flash 4 only effects, use the "Load Movie" command in Macromedia Flash. | |
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Do I have to have Macromedia Flash to use SWfX or to use the effects on my web site? |
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| No,
you do not. SWfX operates independently of any other SWF-creation tool,
and you can use SWfX-generated SWF movies on your website. However, SWfX
is a very useful tool for Flash developers because they can import the
SWF into larger movies. |
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How do I use SWfX-generated SWFs with Macromedia Flash (LoadMovie vs. Import)? |
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are two ways of working with SWfX-generated SWFs with larger Flash projects. One option is to import your SWF into Flash. However, Flash can only import Flash 3 SWFs, so this will only work with Flash 3 (non-highlighted) effects. The other option, which works with both Flash 3 (non-highlighted) and Flash 4 (highlighted) effects, is to employ the "Load Movie" action. You will need to align your SWF with your larger Flash file. There are ways of making alignment within your Flash movies easier. 1. Set the size (width and height) of the SWfX effect movie to match the size of your main movie. Align the text where you think it should be, and save the movie. If you place the target movie clip for the "Load Movie" command in the exact center of the stage, the text effect should appear properly aligned inside your movie when you load it. 2. Use "Load Movie" into a target movie clip in Macromedia Flash and use the "SetProperty" ActionScript (for _x and _y) to move the effect into its proper place. Use the "Trace" ActionScript command with the "GetProperty" command to find the current coordinates of the loaded movie. For example: Trace("x:" & GetProperty("/path/to/load/movie/target", _x)) and Trace("y:" & GetProperty("/path/to/load/movie/target", _y)) Make sure that you enable "Trace actions" in your "Publishing Settings for Flash" to view the Trace information in the "Output" window. These methods should make it easier to align and place your movie. In addition, ActionScript can be used to skew, scale, rotate, and change the alpha value of any SWfX effect you use via the "Load Movie" command. Tweens may also be applied to the target movie clip to transform and move the effect on the stage. |
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Why doesn't SWfX support Macromedia .FLA or Adobe .LIV files? |
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Both
.FLA and .LIV are closed, proprietary formats, which means that only
Macromedia and Adobe, respectively, can read and write to them.
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How do I apply the effect to the entire text simultaneously? |
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the effect settings tab underneath the effects library, check "sync
letters." |
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How do I adjust the delay between each character animation? |
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change the value in the "delay of __ frames" field in the effect
settings tab. When "sync letters" is checked, there is an assumed
delay of 0. The default value is one. |
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What different fonts can I use? |
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You
can use any TrueType or ATM font on your system. However, SWfX does not recognize
UNICODE or double-byte fonts.
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Why does the text look jagged in my Flash movie, but properly anti-aliased in the preview window? |
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First,
when exporting the main Flash movie, select "High-quality".
Then, set the HTML EMBED tag to include "quality=high".
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How do I embed a SWF into a web page? |
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If you check "export HTML" SWfX will output an html file that will play your SWfX created SWF. To manually embed any SWF in a webpage, you will need to know the dimensions. The dimensions of your SWF are the same as those of your preview window, and can be changed by the Height and Width values in SWfX. If you have the "View Cursor" option selected, resizing the preview window automatically adjusts the Height and Width values. Here is an example
illustrating how to embed your SWF into a web <PARAM NAME="movie"
VALUE="effect.swf"> <EMBED src="effect.swf"
quality="high" bgcolor="#000000" WIDTH="100%"
HEIGHT="100%" TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" The <OBJECT> tags are specific to Internet Explorer and the <EMBED> tags are for most other browsers, including Netscape. Therefore, both tags are needed for the Flash SWF to display properly on all browsers. Please make sure that the attributes in both tags match, otherwise unexpected behavior may result. More information is available here: http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/tn4150.html |
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| Help Index | Introduction | FAQs | Creating Your Own Movie| Saving & Using Your Movie | Using Additional Effects | Support | | |
| ©2001 Wildform, Inc. | |