The only caveat, is that you can't use Flash files from MX. Only files from Flash 5, CoffeeCup (wildform) or Swish can be used. The metadata in the MX Flash files won't carry over. I can't recall what about that is the problem, but other tools can't import the MX files either.

Seems to work great. I am working in Flash MX 2004 but I just made sure my publish settings said Flash 5 and it worked. I can control the resolution by setting it in the Flash document. Is there a way to scale the resolution up from within Vegas? I figured since SWF is a vector based format that should be possible, but when I zoom in on it with pan/crop I get pixelization.

edit: I'm thinking this will be great for making complex animated masks / transitions too.

> Is there a way to scale the resolution up from within Vegas?

Vegas tells the SWF plug-in the scale to use. This scale factor is determined from the output frame height and the frame height for the Flash file.

> but when I zoom in on it with pan/crop I get pixelization.

Thanks, we'll look into this. I suspect Vegas isn't taking the pan/crop scale into account when it passes the scaling to the SWF plug-in.

>Thanks, we'll look into this. I suspect Vegas isn't taking the pan/crop scale into account when it passes the scaling to the SWF plug-in.

I would be really impressed if this could be accomplished. Thanks a lot for looking into it. The idea of having a resolution independent input format is really enticing :D For now I can crank up the output resolution of Flash when I need more resolution, but that can be harder than it sounds sometimes. When the document is resized in Flash the objects don't scale.

I must say that this feature is one of the more dissapointing aspects of v5 for me. Since I do a lot of animation, mostly 3d, but some in a vector style in Flash or Moho, I was keen to try and bring some character swf renders in over some video backgrounds and zoom in on some charcters. But as cheesehole has mentioned there is pixelation going on...obviously the swf is being rasterised on import and all vector information is lost...bummer! the only real benefit of importing a swf is for file size, alpha channel inclusion from a program like Flash or Swish and the fact that the swf is scaled to your project size on import.

I also found that while the import is fine for text and masks, some of my characters and more organic animations looked a bit off...ie some lines were too thick and a bit jagged looking for some reason.

Since there is now a vector engine inside Vegas, I can only hope that in future versions, that there will be an option to have the swf not rasterise and to import ai/emf vector files, which would be sweet for logos and masks/wipes. Btw After Effects does the same thing, ie rasterise, to swf files on import ...on v5.5 anyway, don't know about v6 or 6.5?

The vector stuff in v5 is a good start though, so I am not complaining...it can only get better in future versions!

Sony,

If you could fix this, I would be ecstatic. Like Cheesehole and Zendorf, I threw together a quick Swish text aninmation to test in Vegas, thinking FINALLY I can use vector titles in my movies and not worry about pixelation. Unfortunately, this is only half true.

When pulling the text toward the camera using pan/crop or track motion, pixelation occurs, clearly indicating the beautiful vectors are being rasterized too early. I never understood why this happens with standard text layers in Vegas, since the fonts themselves are vector based, but I thought we had a great workaround with SWF files. Unfortunately, I'm still waiting.

Not to complain. If the Flash animation is made with no intention of altering its Z-axis within Vegas, it works great. But by golly, it sure would be nice to move that text around without seeing stretching and pixelation.

Considering that Swish, which I bought last month, has about 230 preset text (and image) effects, you can make some mighty impressive motion menus on a Vegas timeline for later use in DVDA2.

Same problem here,
I wish flash animations could be scaled and not get pixelated.

Thanks,
Nat

It would be nice if we could post the flash files like we do vegies on the sundance site. I have a few I could share. I guess we could there, they just wouldn't be marked as flash. If there were enough of a demand, I'm sure Spot would add that on.
later,
Cheroxy

Hi SonyEPM

Thanks for the tip about using .SWF file in Vegas 5.

Whilst I use 3D Studio Max 4.0 for animated titles etc (which can be very time consuming), I have never considered using .SWF files in Vegas.

Have just purchased SwishMax, and now understand and appreciate some of the artistic possiblities that are available.

I wholeheartedly agree that you can achieve some pretty sophisticated titling and graphical presentations.

Thanks once again, and I wish to express my personal appreciation to you and the rest of the Sony Vegas and DVDA team for a world class video editing application.

A very happy Vegas User, Down Under.

Briang

.swf files scale to the project resolution and should be clean no matter what project size you use. We'll look into providing a way to zoom in on .swf files- can't promise this will show up in an update but what you are asking for is useful and we'll see what we can do.

You know what? I don't use Vegas 5 yet. Nor do I use Flash. Yet.

But I gotta say, you Sony/SoFo guys are awesome! In a very short period of time you identified issues (with the help of the community, of course), reproduced them, and may have a fix in the works to provide additional functionality. Hats off to the dev group and the community in general.

Ah! This would be great! I use swf in every Micromedia Director projects just for these reasons: Full, no quality loss scalability and alpha support.

It was a really big deception for me when i realised the Vegas did not scale swf properly on track motion or pan/crop tool.

Cheroxy,

I've added "Flash" as a file type to the Sundance site. I'll get an icon and other V5 related stuff there as I have time.

Jason

"It was a really big deception for me when i realised the Vegas did not scale swf properly on track motion or pan/crop tool."

No deception intended- .swf behaves just like generated media. The project defines the size, all motion fx operate on rasterized frames.

>.swf files scale to the project resolution and should be clean no matter what project size you use. We'll look into providing a way to zoom in on .swf files- can't promise this will show up in an update but what you are asking for is useful and we'll see what we can do.

SonyEPM,.

Perhaps a compromise would be sufficient. Allow us to set the resolution of the SWF in the Media Properties (currently the dimension boxes are greyed out) - and then we can adapt each SWF to our needs. Personally, that would be all the control I need to make the most of this feature.

Currently it is difficult to do that because the only way to bump up the resolution is by increasing the size of the document in Flash. But since they don't expect anyone to have to do that (since it is a vector based format) - the objects do not scale to match the new document dimensions.

Obviously, infinite resolution is ideal. But if we can't get that, we at least need a way to control it ourselves without having to go back into Flash to re-export the SWF - and that would be sufficient for me.

Thanks for addressing this... it truly is an excellent new feature.

- Ben

I'm witth Cheesehole, being able to change the resolution of the file would solve the problem !

Well, I have written some Quicktime plugins for various video applications, and I can tell you that the Quicktime API allows you to zoom in on a Flash 5 movie and also pan when zoomed in (with no pixelation).

The API functions are called "FlashMediaSetZoom" and "FlashMediaSetPan". It is pretty simple to use the Quicktime API to process flash movies and translate them into standard video streams. So I would recommend that the Vegas developers take a look at that functionality which is free with QT.

I know the video applicaitons I wrote this plugin for benefitted greatly simply by leveraging existing technologies. Scalable and Pannable vector graphix are a powerful addition to any applicaiton.

The swf that I am importing from Wildform SWFX 1.02 is not working correctly. I am using diffuselight (24) and I get the diffuse in Vegas 5, but no text is left behind. Is it the old version of swfx that is causing this?

...and that Screenblast exports it but Vegas does not? Answers like this would help those of us on the fence about the upgrade make a better decision...

Thanks,

- jim

Agree that scalable .swf imports into vegas would be great ... good to know Spot re MX doesn't work, though Flash 5 does... can someone confirm that exporting/publishing from Flash MX in Flash 5 format works for alpha preservation?

I'd like to use flash primarily for titling, would be great if we could import swf files w/alpha intact for title overlays.

Ken