using cue points in Flash video

[gelcreative]

Hi - I've got a big job to do in Flash. Something I'm not brilliant at! Maybe someone could help by giving me a step by step guide to do the following:
I will be given 8 .flv files by a video company.
I need to create a flash presentation with these 8 video files appearing on top right of the screen (talking head 320 x 240 ish).
The other area of the screen will need to show graphics, either an image - or words floating across the screen, etc. a bit like news backdrops, just representing the speaker in the video.
Coming from a Macromedia Director background and using that terminology, I guess I will need to add cue points/keyframes into the video and then Hi - I' ve got a big job to do in Flash. Something I'm not brilliant at! Maybe someone could help by giving me a step by step guide to do the following:
So ... question is.... is this easy? And if so, how do I do it? Someone talked about adding a layer into the .flv but so far not sure now to do this as I've never 'played' with a .flv file before!
Any help would be gratefully received.
TA. Jane

[graphyx]

I might be able to help you. I am relatively new to Flash as well but I am currently working on a project which might be in line with what you are doing. I can't go into detail as I'm under confidentiality agreement until the project is launched. I don't know the rules here about soliciting so I will be careful in my wording. I am a graphic designer and digital artist and I can do Flash animation but I am not a programmer. What you are looking for is animation but I don't believe it requires programming. If you would like to email me at david@graphyx.com I think I might be able to walk you through what you need to do.

David Griffith
Graphyx Media Design and Digital Illustration

[gelcreative]

Thanks David - I'll email you directly later in the day (when you wake up over there in Oregon!). If we do find the right course of action it would be helpful if we post it here for others to see and comment on ---

[BossWebmaster]

It's not easy. Probably the easiest way I can think would be to use AJAX. Make multiple files of each flash animation from the cue point until they wait for the next cue point. Then have AJAX load the next two SWF files at each cue point, and so on. If they were both in the same flash panel it would be much easier, but as I said it's complex to keep two separate files synced up.

If there's an easier method I would be happy to hear it.

[gelcreative]

Hi - I'm going to repost my question as the original seems to be missing half of the content!


I will be given 8 .flv files by a video company.

I need to create a flash presentation with these 8 video files appearing on top right of the screen (talking head 320 x 240 ish).

The other area of the screen will need to show graphics, either an image - or words floating across the screen, etc. a bit like news backdrops, just representing the speaker in the video.

Coming from a Macromedia Director background and using that terminology, I guess I will need to add cue points/keyframes into the video and then get the flash timeline to wait until the cue points are reached in the video file at specific keyframes?

The other two helpful posters above seem to be relating to flash animation, but its actually Flash Video!!

The presenter will talk for approx. 3 minutes in a small video at the top right, and I need to change wording in the main body of the screen at certain keypoints through that presentation to represent what they are saying. As the Flash videos aren't swfs, I can't break the animation up into pieces as its video!!

Oh dear.. this seems like a really difficult one, yet so simple in Director!

[BossWebmaster]

Well, if everything is going on in the same applet, it's not too difficult. If they are in separate applets is when it gets tricky.

[gelcreative]

Um --- you're losing me. What is an applet?

I'm new to Flash, usually I just do little animations of words and things.... nothing like this!

I don't even know how to add in the video file. I will be given .flv files by the client and have been asked to create an interface with the video playing in the corner and with certain words appearing on the main screen at certain points throughout the video presentation. Is this going to be really difficult? Does something have to be done to the .flv file before I get it to set out the key (cue) points in the video, or can I add something to define that once the video is added to the flash file?

[BossWebmaster]

nevermind applets....

FLV is the native flash video format, so that is no problem at all.

You can bring those files into flash using File/Import to Stage

Flash will then add the FLV file to your time line.

Layers and time lines are very basic flash functionalities, it sounds like you need to create a flash file and start playing with it it so you know what we're trying to explain to you. Maybe do an intro to flash tutorial on the web somewhere. Adobe.com has some.

[gelcreative]

Hi guys,

I've created a couple of rough flash files at these two locations:

Untitled-1
Untitled-2

In these two files, the FlashVideo file starts to play and I have set up various words to appear at certain points in the timeline. However, this is dangerous as, if the video halts or buffering is slow, then the video will eventually become out of sync with the timeline. What I am trying to acheive, is to set some cue points in the video (eg. when the speaker says a certain thing) and I've managed to do this quite easily. The thing that I am struggling with, is how do you get the words or other animation on the rest of the screen, to only play when it gets to a certain cue point in the video?

I have the .fla and .flv files available if anyone can help ?

Thanks guys

[gelcreative]

Hi - next instalment:

I've got a flash file with an .flv imported. I've used the parameters cuepoint option to set up 4 actionscript cuepoints.

I've hunted around forever and found that I am supposed to add a listener to an actions layer in my flash file. Which I've done... the listener code is below:

import fl.video.*;
import fl.video.MetadataEvent;

function cp_listener(eventObject:MetadataEvent):void

{
trace("Elapsed time in seconds: " + my_FLVPlybk.playheadTime);
trace("Cue point name is: " + eventObject.info.name);
trace("Cue point type is: " + eventObject.info.type);
}

my_FLVPlybk.addEventListener(MetadataEvent.CUE_POI NT, cp_listener);

The thing I can't work out - is how does this piece of listener code reference each individual cue point. They have names eg. 1, 2, 3 etc. All it does at the moment is throw up a metadata error.

Please could someone help with a Step by Step guide. I've now spent over 3 full days trying to work this out. There must be someone who can guide me..... please.

Jane