Convert images to swf?

February 28, 2007 10:18 AM

I want to convert a bunch of images (.gif or .jpg) into a swf. What is the best way to do so?

What I'm doing is exporting a bunch of graphs (as many as 350 at a time) that need to be animated. The final result has to be in swf format. I can export the graphs as .gif, .jpg, or .bmp.

I've tried using software that claims to convert image files into .avi files and then importing the result as .flv, but nothing seems to work so well.

posted by vraxoin to computers & internet (9 answers total)

Do you have a copy of Flash? What are you exporting the images from?

(won't be able to respond again for a bit, busy at work, but if you don't have flash and need a quick solution you can email me the images and I can make a swf for you tonight. email is in profile)
posted by blind.wombat at 10:45 AM on February 28, 2007

If you have Quicktime Pro, you can add the On2 Flix Exporter plug and export a stack of bitmaps to a SWF file.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:47 AM on February 28, 2007

If the files are named sequentially (pic1.jpg, pic2.jpg, pic3.jpg), you can import them into Flash all at once. Each image will get placed in a separate frame (image 1 on frame 1, image 2 on frame 2, etc).

However, if you export out like this... it'll go by in a blur, playing at about 12 frames per second, although you can adjust the fps. Which may be what you're after. However, if you want there to be a pause between each image, that gets a little more involved.

Like Blazecock said, QT lets you pull in an image sequence, and QT Pro lets you kick it out to swf (or flv).

In case you don't have flash, you can download a free trial (30 day, fully functional) version of Flash from Adobe here.
posted by avoision at 10:55 AM on February 28, 2007

If you want this to not look like poo, you should avoid raster formats (avi, jpeg, bmp, flv, ...) Save or generate the graphs in a vector format and import that directly to Flash.
posted by Rhomboid at 11:09 AM on February 28, 2007

SWF Image Replacement might get you a way along.
posted by wackybrit at 11:47 AM on February 28, 2007

Actually, I just realized that might not be importable.

If you're doing animation, I'm guessing you have Flash or something similar.. and you can usually just import graphics into that.
posted by wackybrit at 11:48 AM on February 28, 2007

I've used Pixel2SWF
in the past and its worked without any issues.
posted by 543DoublePlay at 12:11 PM on February 28, 2007

Apologies - on a re-read I see you are not converting individual images to swf's which is what Pixel2SWF does.

Memo to self: Read more carefully in future
posted by 543DoublePlay at 12:21 PM on February 28, 2007

Adobe Captivate has a setting for doing this. If it's a one-shot project, you could download the demo and knock it out (it's fully functional but time limited).

If you have PowerPoint, you could pull them all in and then use one of the many ppt2swf tools out there to create it.
posted by wheat at 1:13 PM on February 28, 2007