Uploading Flash Videos to Youtube

February 16, 2009 1:01 PM

I recently started making animated movies in flash. When I upload them to Youtube or Google video, the audio translates well but the video becomes very jerky. I assume its a byproduct of the way they compress the files, but is there a way to avoid this?

For example, in this video, the blanket is supposed to come up in a single smooth motion, and the wink is one smooth motion.

It's especially bad at Youtube, which is a shame, because Youtube is more popular and so I'd rather use it more.

Does it make a difference if I upload a .swf file or a .mov file? Is it because the file size is too big? Would it be better to save it a higher resolution? Am I just uploading them wrong?

I think the animations I've done so far are coming out pretty well, so I would really appreciate anything that would help me show them to people in the way that they were created.

posted by Kiablokirk to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

i've found that videos look better on vimeo, but if your files are .swf already you don't actually need to upload them to a video hosting service. if you've got web space somewhere, you can just put the file in a directory and point people straight to the .swf or embed it in a page and share that page.
posted by lia at 1:28 PM on February 16, 2009

Part of my job is exporting clips (promos for a TV show) for YouTube. Here's what I'd do:

Export to a mov file first. Export them to either a 4:3 or 16:9 (widescreen) ratio. Ours are typically 640x360 (16:9 because the show's generally widescreen) and they look sharp. If you're going 4:3, I've used 640x480 with success. You might have your flash stage set to a totally different ratio, and you'll need to find a way to letterbox or pillarbox the movies if this is the case to avoid distortion (it occurs to me that you can change the size of the stage and add a layer of black underneath everything to accomplish this).

Here are the settings that I use for movs destined for youtube:

h.264 codec, 1800 kps video bitrate
29.97 frames per second
128k mono AAC audio.

Hope that helps.
posted by Mayor Curley at 1:57 PM on February 16, 2009 [1 favorite]