Adobe Production Studio: Producing Flash Output Raleigh NC

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Originally published at Internet.com

Note: Our good friend Jan Ozer has just published a book on Adobe Production Studio (Adobe Digital Video How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques with Adobe Production Studio) so we asked him if it had any great tips for online DV professionals. The following is one of five tips he let us reproduce from the book.

Tip 82: Producing Flash Output

Flash video is a popular streaming format for Internet and intranet use. The Adobe Media Encoder can produce Flash video in the FLV format, but not the SWF format, which contains the metadata required to make a Flash video executable online.

If you've used the Flash 8 Video Encoder, the process will look very familiar, since Premiere Pro uses many of the same controls. Even if you're a total newbie, however, you'll find the controls very simple. Assuming you've got your project completed and ready to render, here are the steps. 1. Choose File > Export > Adobe Media Encoder. 2. In the Export Settings area located in the upper-right corner of the dialog box, click the Format drop-down menu and choose Macromedia Flash Video (FLV). 3. In the Export Settings area, click the Range drop-down menu and choose the target Range (either Entire Sequence or Work Area). 4. In the Export Settings area, click the Preset drop-down menu and choose the target Preset (Figure 82a).

Note The FLV7 presets use the older Sorenson Spark Codec, which produces far less quality than the On2 VP6 codec used in the FLV8 presets. Only choose FLV7 if required for backward compatibility with older players or computers.

Figure 82a FLV encoding presets separated by codec, video standard, and data rate. 5. Click the Video tab to open the Video settings. 6. In the Video tab, click the Options button to open the Flash Video Encoding Settings dialog box. 7. In the Flash Video Encoding Settings dialog box, click the Show Advanced Settings button. This reveals all encoding options and changes to the Hide Advanced Settings button (Figure 82b).

Figure 82b The Flash Video Encoding Settings dialog box is identical to the Adobe Flash 8 Video Encoder. 8. In the upper-left corner of the Flash Video Encoding Settings dialog box, choose a profile. If you customize any parameters, Premiere Pro will change the preset to Custom. Most parameters work as you would expect, so they are not detailed here. Controls worth noting include the following:

For Better Flash Video Quality
Premiere Pro uses one-pass, constant bitrate (CBR) encoding for Flash video, which works well for low-motion (talking-head) videos at higher data rates. If your projects involve high-motion video or low bitrates, or you're not satisfied with the quality produced by Premiere Pro, consider a third-party encoder like On2's Flix Pro or Sorenson Squeeze. These tools utilize 2-pass, variable bitrate techniques that produce better quality than the single-pass, CBR output produced by Premiere Pro.

More on Producing an Alpha Channel for Flash Video
Step 8 on this page includes only the final step of producing an alpha channel with Flash video; here's the overview. First, shoot your video against a green or blue screen; then use Premiere Pro's Chroma Key filter (#48) to key out the background. Then encode as described above, making sure to select the Encode alpha channel checkbox (Figure 82b).

This article includes text and images excerpted from Adobe Digital Video How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques with Adobe Production Studio by Jan Ozer. Copyright © 2007. Reprinted with permission from Pearson Education, Inc. and Adobe Press.