Using SWF Files for Motion Graphic Overlay with AWS Elemental Server

With Shockwave Flash (SWF) files, the AWS Elemental encoder renders each frame of animation during transcoding. SWF rendering is resource-intensive, so poorly optimized SWF assets may significantly slow down transcoding time.

If your motion graphic overlay doesn't rely on any of the ActionScript abilities of Flash, for example, performing squeezeback, then a SWF file may not be the best choice, especially at high resolutions and/or high framerates. For more information about using the other supported formats for motion graphic overlay, see Including Inserted Images (Graphic Overlays) with AWS Elemental Server.

For motion graphics that rely on ActionScript, follow the best practices outlined in this document to create SWF files that are optimized to render with the least impact on encoder system resources.

Minimize Your Flash Stage Size

If your overlay only takes up a small portion of the screen (such as a lower-third or animated bug), size your Flash stage as small as possible to still contain the asset's size/motion/movement. Position it within the underlying video in AWS Elemental Server when setting up the event or job. For example, instead of putting a 40x40 animation on a 1280x720 Flash canvas, size your canvas down to 40x40 (or just slightly larger to capture any dropshadow, embossing, and such).

To specify the position of the animation, go to the Motion Image Inserter portion of the Global Processors section of the AWS Elemental event or job. Use the “Left” and “Top” fields to specify the offset, in pixels, from the top left corner of the screen.

Optimize Flash Stage for Input

For best quality, the resolution and framerate of the animation should match those of the underlying video. We particularly recommend against scaling down.

If the animation resolution and framerate cannot be changed, the AWS Elemental encoder automatically adjusts the animation, but the quality of the animation may suffer.

Optimize Your Assets

Be sure the assets in your Flash animation are optimized for the canvas.Don’t embed a series of large images and scale them down to fit.Instead use images that are properly sized before bringing them into Flash.

Sandbox the SWF File

Test the SWF file in the sandbox environment before using it. In the sandbox testing environment, the SWF file must not reference other resources on the filesystem or network, which would slow down the rendering of the frames.

Do Not Embed Video

The AWS Elemental motion graphic overlay feature does not have the ability to decode video.

Therefore, you cannot embed video into your Flash animation.

Be Wary of Simulating Video in Flash

One way of simulating video in Flash is to include a sequence of images in the SWF file.This mechanism is supported but not recommended. We strongly encourage use of the native Flash animation components as Flash is optimized for those. Fall back to using sequences of images only as a last resort and only for small subsections of the screen as Flash is more reliable in those situations.

If you do use a sequence of images, it is especially important to optimize your images—make sure they are small and simple, crop them down to the smallest possible area, and keep them scaled 1:1 with the image canvas.

Set Publish Target and Script

Set your Publish Settings so that Target is Flash Player 11.1 and Script is set to ActionScript 3.0. This is the only version that is supported.