Creating FLV and F4V files

Learn to create and optimize FLV files in Adobe® Media Encoder, Adobe After Effects®, and Adobe Premiere® Pro.

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Requirements

To complete the tasks demonstrated in this tutorial, you need the following software and files:

Adobe Creative Suite Production Premium CS4

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Prerequisite knowledge

Intermediate knowledge of the After Effects interface

Creating FLV and F4V files

You can create video (FLV and F4V) files that are playable in the Flash Player and in the Adobe® Media Player using Adobe After Effects® CS4, Adobe Premiere® Pro, and Adobe Media Encoder. FLV files are encoded using the On2 VP6 or Sorenson Spark codecs. F4V files are encoded using the H.264 codec. In this tutorial, you will learn how to create FLV and F4V files and how to save XFL files that can be opened in Flash.

Rendering a composition as an F4V or FLV file

To create video for the Flash Player from an After Effects composition, you first need to render the composition as an F4V or FLV file. To render the composition:

1. Open the composition you want to render.
2. Choose Composition > Add To Render Queue. The Render Queue dialog box opens. (Note that you can also select Adobe Media Encoder Queue.
3. Leave the default settings selected and click OK.
4. Choose an Output Module from the Render Queue panel at the bottom of the After Effects window. The Output Module Settings dialog box opens.

   

   Figure 1: The Render Queue panel
5. Click the Format pop-up menu in the Output Module Settings dialog box and select F4V (H.264). The FLV | F4V (H.264) dialog box opens. (If the dialog box does not open, click the Format Options button in the Output Module Settings dialog box.)

   

   Figure 2: The Output Module Settings dialog box
6. From this dialog box, you can set custom preferences for the F4V or FLV files using the Preset menu. For the purpose of this tutorial, select F4V—Same As Source (Flash 9.2 And Higher) as the Preset setting. Click OK.

   

   Figure 3: The FLV|F4V (H.264) dialog box
7. Click OK again to close the Output Module Settings dialog box.
8. Choose an Output File Name and a folder to save the file in from the Output To: menu in the Render Queue panel. The Output Movie To dialog box opens.
9. From the Output Movie To dialog box, select the location in which you would like to save the file. Name the file and click Save.
10. To create the F4V file, click Render in the Render Queue panel.

Creating video for the Flash Player using Adobe Premiere Pro

You can also create a video for the Flash Player using Adobe Premiere Pro. To create a video:

1. Open Adobe Premiere Pro. Choose the sequence you want to export. Choose File > Export > Media. The Export Settings dialog box opens. Adobe Premiere Pro uses Adobe Media Encoder to deploy video for the Flash Player.

   

   Figure 4: Export Settings dialog box
2. In the Export Settings dialog box, choose FLV|F4V (H.264) as the Format.
3. For the Preset, choose the appropriate FLV or F4V file format. For the purpose of this tutorial, choose FLV—Same As Source Flash 8 And Higher.
4. In Adobe Premiere Pro, you can crop the movie and add queue points for use with ActionScript 3.0. Click OK. The Adobe Media Encoder dialog box opens.
5. To start the queue, click the Start Queue button.

Using the Adobe Media Encoder CS4 stand-alone application

You can also use the Adobe Media Encoder CS4 stand-alone application to create video for the Flash player. To use encode video using the Adobe Media Encoder:

1. Navigate to the folder containing the file you want to encode and select the file. Drag the file into the Adobe Media Encoder.

   

   Figure 5: Placing a file in the Adobe Media Encoder
2. In the Adobe Media Encoder, choose a file format from the pop-up menu.

   

   Figure 6: Choosing a file format
3. Choose a preset in the Adobe Media Encoder window. The Export Settings dialog box opens. Choose FLV—Same As Source Flash 8 And Higher. Leave the rest of the settings at their defaults and click OK.
4. Return to the Adobe Media Encoder window and click Start Queue to start the render queue.

Playing video using Adobe Media Player

You can play video directly using the Adobe Media Player. To play video using Adobe Media Player:

1. Open the Adobe Media Player. Navigate to My Favorites.
2. Click the My Personal Videos tab. Click the Add Video icon at the lower-left corner of the window. The Select Files dialog box opens.

   

   Figure 7: The Adobe Media Player window
3. Ctrl/Command-click the video created in After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, and the Adobe Media Encoder. Click Select.

Where to go from here

• Creative Suite 4 Help and Support
• Learn Production Premium CS4
• Using the XML project file format, by Todd Perkins
• Using InDesign Export to Flash (XFL), by Todd Perkins
• Exporting to Flash, by Chad Perkins
• Lynda.com

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License

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