Flash Site Design - a few questions

Author

a few questions

sr817

2007-08-14, 10:16 pm

Hello everyone,
I had a few simple questions for flash regulars. I would be grateful for a
response to all or any of the following questions:

Do all the objects in a flash library influence the final size of the flash
file, or is it only the objects being used that influence it?

Is there a way to load particular parts of a sites at different times (say
there is a subcategory, gallery, that is a large part of site. could u load it
seperately only when a visitor click the button to refer to that part of the
site?)

Finally, what would you say the average size of a flash website is (500k, 2
mb, 5 mb?). I'm worried about my filesize and I would just like examples of
the size of other people's sites.

Thank you for taking a look at this and thank you in advance for replies.

Sam

David Stiller

2007-08-16, 6:17 pm

Sam,

> Do all the objects in a flash library influence the final
> size of the flash file, or is it only the objects being used
> that influence it?

In general, you can fill up your Library as much as you like, because
(generally speaking), objects only add to the weight of the published SWF
when they appear on a timeline (main timeline or otherwise), on the Stage or
even just in the pasteboard area. Even better, included objects are only
added to the final file size once. If you have a graphic symbol of a tree,
you can make a whole forest on the Stage, adjusting brightness and
dimensions for each individual tree, and the final SWF will only weigh as
much as the original Library copy of that tree.

Exceptions are assets that have been exported for ActionScript.
Right-click / Command click on any asset and choose Linkage or Properties to
see what I mean. Sometimes, you'll want to pull assets from the Library at
runtime using ActionScript. Because those objects haven't already been
dragged to the Stage, they wouldn't be available to the movie -- unless
they're purposefully exported for ActionScript. Components (see the
Components panel) are automatically exported for ActionScript.

> Is there a way to load particular parts of a sites at different
> times (say there is a subcategory, gallery, that is a large part
> of site. could u load it seperately only when a visitor click
> the button to refer to that part of the site?)

Yes. Create separate SWFs for each section and use
MovieClip.loadMovie(), or better, the MovieClipLoader class, to summon those
SWFs as desired.

http://www.quip.net/blog/2006/flash...nal-swf-loaded/

> Finally, what would you say the average size of a flash
> website is (500k, 2 mb, 5 mb?).

That's a bit like asking what the average size of a tree is. What sort
of tree? Bonzai, California Redwood? Does your site feature audio clips
and/or movie clips? Is it heavy on raster images, or is the artwork all
vector? Have you embedded font outlines of complex, ornate fonts?

David Stiller
Co-author, Foundation Flash CS3 for Designers
http://tinyurl.com/2k29mj
"Luck is the residue of good design."

sr817

2007-08-17, 6:16 pm

thank you very much David,
That was exactly what I was looking for.

Cheers,
Sam

Netdaemon

2007-08-24, 6:16 pm

test

"sr817" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:f9tfg1$nej$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> Hello everyone,
> I had a few simple questions for flash regulars. I would be grateful for
> a
> response to all or any of the following questions:
>
> Do all the objects in a flash library influence the final size of the
> flash
> file, or is it only the objects being used that influence it?
>
> Is there a way to load particular parts of a sites at different times (say
> there is a subcategory, gallery, that is a large part of site. could u
> load it
> seperately only when a visitor click the button to refer to that part of
> the
> site?)
>
> Finally, what would you say the average size of a flash website is (500k,
> 2
> mb, 5 mb?). I'm worried about my filesize and I would just like examples
> of
> the size of other people's sites.
>
> Thank you for taking a look at this and thank you in advance for replies.
>
> Sam
>