Audio - Best Practice

Hi,
I have been using Captivate for a while now, and am slowly
starting to get the hang of it!
I am currently working on a project which includes static
instructional material that is broken up by interactive software
demos, all deployed through a LMS.
I have not delved into using audio in my captivate projects
before however am about to take the plunge . . .
I am wondering what information to best include in the audio
tracks?
Should i essentially cover the (limited) content that is
shown in the captivate captions or should I expand on these and
provide more in depth detail (i.e. information taken from the more
theoretical static content)?
I want to steer away from providing any new information in
the audio tracks because I do not know if all users will turn the
sound on :)
Any thoughts, advice, or links to articles covering this
topic would be most appreciated.
Kind Regards,
Matt.

Matt,
I have had similar questions and I decided to look for some
answers rather than give my own experience. In attending seminars
on learning and e-learning I remember getting conflicting advice
from experts. Some say the audio should be exactly the same as the
text and others say they should not be the same.
Ask your self, what value will the audio add to the project?
Do all of your users have audio and do they have headsets or
speakers? Why are you adding audio? Is it because you want to
experiment or because your audience is asking for it?
I did a google search on "elearning audio vs text" and it
turned up some interesting ideas. One was an article on the Adobe
site. Try this link
elearningtech.blogspot.com/2006/03/what-prevents-use-of-research-example.html
and this article
http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/pdfs/captivate_leveraging_multimedia.pdf
I also thought this was a good article and it has some other
links you may want to explore.
communication.howstuffworks.com/elearning6.htm
Some of the other ideas in this google search may be good but
they are blocked by our security. At any rate, this is food for
thought.
My own preference is to have text and audio be similar but
different. You have to think about the people who can only read vs
those who can only hear. Do they both get the same story as the
people who do both? At least with text, screen readers can do the
audio for those who cannot see and it still works for those who
cannot hear. Another thought is with text people can read at their
own speed. With sound, you have to listen at the rate of the
machine. The other thing is audio takes up a lot of computer space
especially over the web. Captivate files are huge when adding
sound.
Hope this helps.
Jeff

Similar Messages

Audio Best Practices- Help

Hi everyone,
I've been working with Captivate for a while and am currently
using version 2. An issue I haven't really solved successfully has
to do with distributing audio timing in a non-tedious fashion.
When making a demonstration, Captivate makes separate slides
for each click. Now, let's say I record my demonstration and have
an MP3 narration file to record for the whole project. I choose the
option to manually distribute the audio file over separate slides.
The problem is that the slide length doesn't adjust...so when
I click next slide, the slide bar goes to a different point than
the one I want. In short, Captivate doesn't adjust slide lengths
through the timeline audio editor, according to the audio sync-ing.
I know that smooth narration can be done throughout all of the
slides, from those tiny "click" slides to the longer ones...but
HOW? Some slides change mid-word in the audio file, or contain only
a fraction of a word. Without really intense audio chopping., how
is this done?
I'm so frustrated.
Thanks!
Jessica

Hi Rick,
Thanks for your response.
Yes, I have recorded audio directly in Captivate, though not
in a demonstration movie. I imported screenshots that were provided
to me. When you record audio directly, it adjusts the slide length
as you record? (I did change the default to be really short...also
for objects)
I have a bunch of movies and am replacing the existing audio
files with new, external audio files that just won't sync...but I
will try re-recording the audio in Captivate. My co-workers record
audio externally and import per slide, but I want continuous
narration while the animations are playing, which gets tricky with
audio editing like that. I've seen this done well, so I know it is
possible.
So the scripting workflow would be to record the movie, then
designate the slide changes in the script (even those tiny slides
that have a partial word for audio) and just record in Captivate,
advancing to the next slide while speaking?
Thanks!

Scripting Audio - Best Practices

I had gotten into a fairly productive routine, using CP to
produce quick tutorials to support the many applications in my
company. Once i had captured and cleaned up the process using CP,
my next step would be to select the first slide in my presentation,
open the Recording panel, and begin scripting my narration
slide-by-slide using the slide notes pane. The arrows in the
recording panel would navigate from one slide to the next
(displayed behind the recording panel) and present the script for
each slide as I edited them.
In CP2, however, I am finding that:
The recording panel has a notes pane that displays notes that
are added by editing the slide properties, but adding/editing notes
in the Notes pane in the Recording panel does not save the notes --
once you close the Recording panel, the notes are lost.
The slides are not displayed in the background as you
navigate forward and backward through your slides in the Recording
panel. This creates the awkward situation where you must write a
script for your presentation without being able to see the
presentation slide that you are writing the script for (without
considerable clicking and frustration).
Perhaps this is just my buggy installation, or is this a know
"issue" with CP2, or is it more simply just the new way the app
will work and I'll have to modify the way I script and narrate?
Thanks for your feedback.
Mike

>>>we do try our best.<<<
No argument from me! You guys do a bang-up job of working and
testing these applications prior to their release. Overlooking a
few "issues" here and there are absolutely to be expected --
especially when dealing with the more esoteric functionality of the
application.
I found the Notes pane (well, "noticed" it really -- afterall
it *was* looking me right in the face the whole time) in the
development window shortly after I jotted my first remarks. It's
all well and good to have them there, but not much help to the
scripting/recording process as it worked so well in the prior
release. Where it does come in very handy is when adding the Closed
Captioning content.
Since I script my narration verbatim in the notes pane, it is
a simple matter to cut-n-paste the notes into the Closed Caption
editing interface (though there's an interface that could use a
little improvement as well).
Thanks again for the helpful replies (and the bang-up beta
testing as well)!

Audio & Captivate: Looking for best practice

Good Morning,
i'am looking for some sort of best practice, handling a lot of audios within single captivate slides. Please let us take a look at the workflow:
I write concepts in Word or OpenOffice, describing on a slide-base the content, media (pics, animations, ...), interactions
The client read these concepts, and write a reading report with all changes, additions
We held a harmonisation meeting for every 3-5 hours calculated e-learning-concepts, argueing about the clients annotations and looking for a stable agreement
I produce the first version, in this case with Adobe Captivate, and for the audios i use text2speech.
The client checks this first Version, send me his audit report.
I produce version 1.
So, where is the problem? My problem is the handling of the audio-files, up to 10 per slide. In version 1, all audios are spoken by professional speakers from german radio-stations, recorded in our own studio. And i'am looking for a comfortable way to exchange all synthetic audios without leaving anything within captivate, the final version must be as clean and slim as possible.
For the handling and tracking i use AlienBrain, because in some projects, we have a few hundred of thousands assets to watch and track ... and it is no problem if anything wents wrong, just some clicks and i've restored the older version of a pic, audio or a complete project.
Using other tools, i do not care about this. Within the project-folders, they are stored within a modul-based audio-folder. And every single audio-files as an unique identifer (A024_37_12_004.mp4, "A" for Audio, then chapter_module_page_sequentialnumberperpage.mp4/mp3/wav). After i have recieved the spoken audios from the studio, i just overwrite the synthetic audios and the "real" audios are automatically embedded in my slides, so if i make a new release, everything is fine. Older, synthetic version kept by AlienBrain.
In Captivate, everything seems to be ... hm, i have to be polite ;-) ... a little more complicated. Or even worse, i'am unable to see the solution. Maybe somebody may share a working and fast way for the needed audio-procedure? Or something like a proofed workaround?
Kind regards
Marc :-)

Additional information:
Mostly, we have 3-5 audios per slide/page. 10 is absolutely maximum.
And because we are talk about overall thousands of audio-files, i hopefully find a good way to keep them as external sources and Captivate embedd them just at the moment, when i have to produce a new release. (That is the main problem - sorry, my english language modules are still asleep after a long and busy weekend) And as i've learned, object-audio can't be used with external audio-files.
At the company, we've talked about the best process (theres is another huge project running and the guys - experienced people - are also new to captivate). At this moment, the prefered solution is to connect all audios, 4 by example. And then we can "Play/Pause" the audio at our needs. It is a little bit like stumbling blindfolded through heavy mist.
Another idea, brought up by me, was to multiply the slide so the first slide shows paragraph/pic/audio. After a click, next slide loads, exactly in the same state as the previous slides ends, next text/pic/animation and the next audio. But with that, i will end up with thousends of slides only because of the audio-handling.
Maybe it is a good idea to explain a really typically update process which may show what we like to see:
The modul is ready, delivered and the client is happy
After 6 months, there is a technical change within one part and the client need a single new audio
In reality in one special module, part of over 200 hours learning, after a year we've been instructed to record new versions for 35 of 80 audios ... in just one of somehundred modules
In captivate we try to avoid touching every single slide again.
At the moment i own just a standalone version of Captivate (5.5), the eLearning Suite has been ordered and arrives next week.
Tools we've used in the past (and until now due to clients requirements) without any problems ... dealing with audios ;-) :
Toolbook
Sumatra
CourseLab
Individual Flash Solutions
others

Audio workflow - Best practices?

For the past week, I've been working diligently creating lots of content with Captivate. I have a question about workflow. Since Captivate captures individual screenshots to generate the movie, what is the best way to lay down audio? For example, I may have several slides dealing with some configuration of the software that takes place through a right-click context menu. Each click to get through that menu is a separate slide. Is there a way to get the audio to span several slides or do I just put a short audio clip on each one?

Hi there
I'm not sure if it's necessarily "Best practice", but Captivate normally likes to have the audio narration at the slide level.
However, if you have a few slides where it doesn't make sense to do this, note that you can record a longer audio clip (maybe on a blank slide) then assign the audio to the slide where it should begin. If the clip is longer than the slide, Captivate will offer a dialog allowing you to choose how the clip will be split. You would then choose the option where it simply spills into subsequent slides.
Cheers... Rick
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Best practices for setting up projects

We recently adopted using Captivate for our WBT modules.
As a former Flash and Director user, I can say it’s
fast and does some great things. Doesn’t play so nice with
others on different occasions, but I’m learning. This forum
has been a great source for search and read on specific topics.
I’m trying to understand best practices for using this
product. We’ve had some problems with file size and
incorporating audio and video into our projects. Fortunately, the
forum has helped a lot with that. What I haven’t found a lot
of information on is good or better ways to set up individual
files, use multiple files and publish projects. We’ve decided
to go the route of putting standalones on our Intranet. My gut says
yuck, but for our situation I have yet to find a better way.
My question for discussion, then is: what are some best
practices for setting up individual files, using multiple files and
publishing projects? Any references or input on this would be
appreciated.

Hi,
Here are some of my suggestions:
1) Set up a style guide for all your standard slides. Eg.
Title slide, Index slide, chapter slide, end slide, screen capture,
non-screen capture, quizzes etc. This makes life a lot easier.
2) Create your own buttons and captions. The standard ones
are pretty ordinary, and it's hard to get a slick looking style
happening with the standard captions. They are pretty easy to
create (search for add print button to learn how to create
buttons). There should instructions on how to customise captions
somewhere on this forum. Customising means that you can also use
words, symbols, colours unique to your organisation.
3) Google elearning providers. Most use captivate and will
allow you to open samples or temporarily view selected modules.
This will give you great insight on what not to do and some good
ideas on what works well.
4) Timings: Using the above research, I got others to
complete the sample modules to get a feel for timings. The results
were clear, 10 mins good, 15 mins okay, 20 mins kind of okay, 30
mins bad, bad, bad. It's truly better to have a learner complete
2-3 short modules in 30 mins than one big monster. The other
benefit is that shorter files equal smaller size.
5) Narration: It's best to narrate each slide individually
(particularly for screen capture slides). You are more likely to
get it right on the first take, it's easier to edit and you don't
have to re-record the whole thing if you need to update it in
future. To get a slicker effect, use at least two voices: one male,
one female and use slightly different accents.
6) Screen capture slides: If you are recording filling out
long window based databse pages where the compulsory fields are
marked (eg. with a red asterisk) - you don't need to show how to
fill out every field. It's much easier for the learner (and you) to
show how to fill out the first few fields, then fade the screen
capture out, fade the end of the form in with the instructions on
what to do next. This will reduce your file size. In one of my
forms, this meant the removal of about 18 slides!
7) Auto captions: they are verbose (eg. 'Click on Print
Button' instead of 'Click Print'; 'Select the Print Preview item'
instead of 'Select Print Preview'). You have to edit them.
8) PC training syntax: Buttons and hyperlinks should normally
be 'click'; selections from drop down boxes or file lists are
normally 'select': Captivate sometimes mixes them up. Instructions
should always be written in the correct order: eg. Good: Click
'File', Select 'Print Preview'; Bad: Select 'Print Preview' from
the 'File Menu'. Button names, hyperlinks, selections are normally
written in bold
9) Instruction syntax: should always be written in an active
voice: eg. 'Click Options to open the printer menu' instead of
'When the Options button is clicked on, the printer menu will open'
10) Break all modules into chapters. Frame each chapter with
a chapter slide. It's also a good idea to show the Index page
before each chapter slide with a progress indicator (I use an
animated arrow to flash next to the name of the next chapter), I
use a start button rather a 'next' button for the start of each
chapter. You should always have a module overview with the purpose
of the course and a summary slide which states what was covered and
they have complete the module.
11) Put a transparent click button somewhere on each slide.
Set the properties of the click box to take the learner back to the
start of the current chapter by pressing F2. This allows them to
jump back to the start of their chapter at any time. You can also
do a similar thing on the index pages which jumps them to another
chapter.
12) Recording video capture: best to do it at normal speed
and be concious of where your mouse is. Minimise your clicks. Most
people (until they start working with captivate) are sloppy with
their mouse and you end up with lots of unnecessarily slides that
you have to delete out. The speed will default to how you recorded
it and this will reduce the amount of time you spend on changing
timings.
13) Captions: My rule of thumb is minimum of 4 seconds - and
longer depending on the amount of words. Eg. Click 'Print Preview'
is 4 seconds, a paragraph is longer. If you creating knowledge
based modules, make the timing long (eg. 2-3 minutes) and put in a
next button so that the learner can click when they are ready.
Also, narration means the slides will normally be slightly longer.
14) Be creative: Capitvate is desk bound. There are some
learners that just don't respond no matter how interactive
Captivate can be. Incorporate non-captivate and desk free
activities. Eg. As part of our OHS module, there is an activity
where the learner has to print off the floor plan, and then wander
around the floor marking on th emap key items such as: fire exits;
first aid kit, broom and mop cupboard, stationary cupboard, etc.
Good luck!

Best Practice for Conversion Workflow

Hello,
I'm converting video files from our "home grown" virtual media reserve to iTunes U. Some of the files are in RM format, some are already compressed .mov's (not H.264) and some I have the original DV files for.
Anyone out there have a best practice for converting these file types for posting to iTunes U? I have Final Cut Studio (Compressor), QT Pro and Squeeze available to me.
Any experience you have with this would be helpful.
Thanks,
Jeana

For converting old files to a podcast compatible video and based on the machine you have, consider elgato turbo.264. It is a fairly priced "co-processor" for video conversion. It is comprised of an application and a small USB device with a encoder chip in it. In my experience, it is the fastest way to create podcast video files. The amount of time that you will save will pay for the device quickly (about $100). Plus it does batch conversion of any video that your system currently plays through QuickTime. it has all the necessary presets and you can create your own. It has a few minor limitations such as not supporting (at this moment) enhanced podcasting features such as chapter markers and closed-captions but since you have old files for conversion, that won't matter.
For creating new content, the workflow varies a lot. Since you mention MP3s, I guess you are also interested in audio files. I would stick with GarageBand, especially if you are a beginner plus it supports enhanced podcasts.
In any case the most important goal is to have the simplest and fastest way to go from recording to publication. The less editing the better. To attain that, the best methods will require the largest investments. For example, for video production the best way is to produce the content live so when you finish recording it is only a matter of encoding and publishing. that will require the use of a video switcher that can ingest at least one video camera and a computer output to properly capture presentation material. That's the minimum. there are several devices that can do this for you. Some are disguised PCs and some connect to a PC for tapeless recording. You can check the Tricaster, which I like but wish it was a Mac and not a Windows Xp PC. Other routes may include video mixers from manufacturers like Edirol, Pansonic or Sony connected to a VTR or directly to a Mac for direct-ti-disc capture. I f you look at some of the content available in iTunes U, you will see what I explain here. This workflow requires preparation and sufficient live support but you will have your material ready for delivery almost immediately after the recorded event. No editing required. Finally, the most intensive workflow is to record everything separately and edit it later, which is extremely time consuming.

Best practice for server configuration for iTunes U

Hello all, I'm completely new to iTunes U, never heard of this until now and we have zero documentation on how to set it up. I was given the task to look at best practice for setting up the server for iTunes U, and I need your help.
*My first question*: Can anyone explains to me how iTunes U works in general? My brief understanding is that you design/setup a welcome page for your school with sub categories like programs/courses, and within that you have things like lecture audio/video files and students can download/view them on iTunes. So where are these files hosted? Is it on your own server or is it on Apple's server? Where & how do you manage the content?
*2nd question:* We have two Xserve(s) sitting in our server room ready to roll, my question is what is the best method to configure them so it meets our need of "high availability in active/active mode, load balancing, and server scaling". Originally I was thinking about using a 3rd party load balancing device to meet these needs, but I was told there is no budget for it so this is not going to happen. I know there is IP Failover but one server has to sit in standby mode which is a waste. So the most likely scenario is to setup DNS round robin and put both xserves in active/active. My question now is (this maybe related to question 1), say that all the content data like audio/video files are stored by us, (We are going to link a portion of our SAN space to Xserve for storage), if we are going with DNS round robin and put the 2 servers in Active/Active mode, can both servers access a common shared network space? or is this not possible and each server must have its own storage space? And therefore I must use something like RSYNC to make sure contents on both servers are identical? Should I use XSAN or is RSYNC good enough?
Since I have no experience with iTunes U whatsoever, I hope you understand my questions, any advice and suggestion are most welcome, thanks!

Raja Kondar wrote:
wht is the Best Practice for having server pool i.e
1) having a single large serverpool consisting of "n" number of guest vm
2) having a multiple small serverpool consisting of less of number of guest vm I prefer option 1, as this gives me the greatest amount of resources available. I don't have to worry about resources in smaller pools. It also means there are more resources across the pool for HA purposes. Not sure if this is Official Best Practice, but it is a simpler configuration.
Keep in mind that a server pool should probably have up to 20 servers in it: OCFS2 starts to strain after that.

Best practice for importing non-"Premiere-ready" video files

Hello!
I work with internal clients that provide me with a variety of differnet video types (could be almost ANYTHYING, WMV, MP4, FLV). I of course ask for AVIs when possible, but unfortunately, I have no control over the type of file I'm given.
And, naturally, Premiere (just upgraded to CS5) has a hard time dealing with these files. Unpredictable, ranging from working fine to not working at all, and everything in between. Naturally, it's become a huge issue for turnaround time.
Is there a best practice for preparing files for editing in Premiere?
I've tried almost everything I can think of: converting the file(s) to .AVIs using a variety of programs/methods. Most recently, I tried creating a Watch Folder in Adobe Media Encoder and setting it for AVI with the proper aspect ratio. It makes sense to me that that should work:using an Adobe product to render the file into something Premiere can work with.
However, when I imported the resulting AVI into Premiere, it gave me the Red Line of Un-renderness (that is the technical term, right?), and had the same sync issue I experienced when I brought it in as a WMV.
Given our environment, I'm completely fine with adding render time to the front-end of projects, but it has to work. I want files that Premiere likes.
THANK YOU in advance for any advice you can give!
-- Dave

I use an older conversion program (my PrPro has a much older internal AME, unlike yours), DigitalMedia Converter 2.7. It is shareware, and has been replaced by Deskshare with newer versions, but my old one works fine. I have not tried the newer versions yet. One thing that I like about this converter is that it ONLY uses System CODEC's, and does not install its own, like a few others. This DOES mean that if I get footage with an oddball CODEC, I need to go get it, and install it on the System.
I can batch process AV files of most types/CODEC's, and convert to DV-AVI Type II w/ 48KHz 16-bit PCM/WAV Audio and at 29.97 FPS (I am in NTSC land). So far, 99% of the resultant converted files have been perfect, whether from DivX, WMV, MPEG-2, or almost any other format/CODEC. If there is any OOS, my experience has been that it will be static, so I just have to adjust the sync offset by a few frames, and that takes care of things.
In a few instances, the PAR flag has been missed (Standard 4:3 vs Widescreen 16:9), but Interpret Footage has solved those few issues.
Only oddity that I have observed (mostly with DivX, or WMV's) is that occasionally, PrPro cannot get the file's Duration correct. I found that if I Import those problem files into PrElements, and then just do an Export, to the same exact specs., that resulting file (seems to be 100% identical, but something has to be different - maybe in the header info?) Imports perfectly into PrPro. This happens rarely, and I have the workaround, though it is one more step for those. I have yet to figure out why one very similar file will convert with the Duration info perfect, and then a companion file will not. Nor have I figured out exactly what is different, after running through PrE. Every theory that I have developed has been shot down by my experiences. A mystery still.
AME works well for most, as a converter, though there are just CODEC's, that Adobe programs do not like, such as DivX and Xvid. I doubt that any Adobe program will handle those suckers easily, if at all.
Good luck,
Hunt

Best Practices for Projects

I have a Mac Pro and one very full drive, so I've purchased an external drive to back-up all of my files and a new internal drive as well. It may be important to note that the FCP projects I create aren't true video projects. It's pretty simple -- I use FCP to bring together recorded audio with still images, and add some motion in to create "movies". Each of my movies (around 30 so far), and their specific associated files (audio and project-specific images) reside in their own file folders. My trouble comes in that I also have a huge folder of purchased stock images which resides in a separate file folder. Each of my individual movies connect to several of these stock images that exists outside of the movie's folder.
I'm stuck on what I should do. The purchased stock image folder is common to all of the movies. Over time it will continue to grow. What I think I need to do is move this folder off of my main working drive and onto another drive that can handle the load. I would like to move my completed movie projects either to a self-contained disk for future reference and edits if necessary. I have no idea how to proceed, but I need to, and quickly. Can anyone offer a best practice on how to set this up and and tips/tricks to avoid potential pitfalls in doing this?
Thanks in advance for any and all assistance!

Because I edit in a few locations with several external drives I try not to use "common folders" anymore. Just gets too difficult if I have footage spread over multiple drives.
I normally create a project and save it to a "projects" folder on the system drive.
I capture to the root of an external drive.... I do not create any folders for this, FCP will create the project specific folders for scratch and renders.
I then create a project specific "elements" folder on my external "project elements" drive. Any graphics or titles or stills or music that I create or use on the project gets placed here. So if I had, as you do, "a huge folder of purchased stock images" I would copy the pics I need for the specific project to it's elements folder before importing them into FCP. In my case it's usually old footage that is common to various projects. This does, of course require more drive space, but anything that helps keep my disorganized brain more organized is worth it to me.
When I want to archive projects I just copy the project file and it's "elements" folder to my archive drive. I delete the capture scratch and render folders for that project as they can be recaptured and re-rendered if the need arises.
rh

Best practices when carry forward for audit adjustments

Dear experts,
I would like to know if someone can share his best practices when performing carry forward for audit adjustments.
We are actually doing legal consolidation for one customer and we are facing one issue.
The accounting team needs to pass audit adjustments around April-May for last year.
So from January to April / May, the opening balance must be based on December closing of prior year.
Then from May / June to December, the opening balance must be based on Audit closing of prior year.
We originally planned to create two members for December period, XXXX.DEC and XXXX.AUD
Once the accountants would know their audit closing balance, they would have to input it on the XXXX.AUD period and a business rule could compute the difference between the closing of AUD and DEC periods and store the result on an opening flow.
The opening flow hierarchy would be as follow:
F_OPETOT (Opening balance Total)
F_OPE (Opening balance from December)
F_OPEAUD (Opening balance from the difference between closing balance of Audit and December periods)
Now, assume that we are in October, but for any reason, the accountant run a carry forward for February, he is going to impact the opening balance because at this time (October), we have the audit adjustments.
How to avoid such a thing? What are the best practices in this case?
I guess it is something that you may have encounter if you did a consolidation project.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Antoine Epinette

Cookman and I have been arguing about this since the paleozoic era. Here's my logic for capturing everything.
Less wear and tear on the tape and the deck.
You've got everything on the system. Can't tell you how many times a client has said "I know that there was a better take." The only way to disabuse them of this notion is to look at every take. if it's not on the system, you've got to spend more time finding the tape, and adding "wear and tear on the tape and the deck." And then there's the moment where you need to replace the audio for one word from another take. You can quickly check all the other takes (particularly if you've done a thorough job logging the material - see below)_.
Once it's on the system, you still need to log and learn the material. You can scan thru material much faster once it's captured. Jumping around the material is much easier.
There's no question that logging the material before you capture makes you learn the material in a more thorough way, but with enough selfdiscipline, you can learn the material as thoroughly once it's been captured.

Best practice for putting together scenes in a Flash project?

Hi, I'm currently working on a flash project with the following characteristics:
using a PC
2048x1080 pixels
30 fps
One audio file that plays (once) continuously across the whole project
there are actions that relate to the audio, so the timing is important
at least 10 scenes
about 7 minutes long total
current intent is for it to be played in a modern theater as a surprise
What is the best practice for working on this project and then compiling it together?
Do it all in one project file?
Split the work into different project (xfl) files for each scene and then put it together when all the scenes are finalized?
Use one project file but create different "scenes" for each respective scene? I think this is the "classic" way (?).
Make the scenes "movie clips" and then insert them into the timeline with the audio as its own layer?
Other?
I'm currently working on it by having it all in one project file. But I've noticed that there's some lag (or it gets choppy) at certain parts during playback and the SWF history shows 3.1 MB with a yellow triangle with exclamation point symbol. Thanks in advance.

you would only do that if it makes your job easier. generally speaking, it would not.
when trying to sync sound and animation i think most authors find it easiest to use graphic symbols because you can see their animation when scrubbing the main timeline. with movieclips you only see their animation when testing.
however, if you're going to use actionscript to control some of your symbols, those symbols should be movieclips.

Must use Captivate v4.0 to capture playing video - Best practices & PC requirements?

Hi all,
I like Captivate, but have had a lot of trouble capturing playing video (a big part of my client's product) in the past. Despite encouraging client to consider other tools, they have decided they want to continue using Captivate and output to SWF. Some of us on the team for a previous project using v3.0 were able to successfully capture moving video, others weren't. (Vaguely recall something to do with a Hardware Acceleration setting, but it didn't work for everyone.) We've all upgraded to v4.0 but haven't used it yet. My questions are:
1. Has this been improved at all in v4.0?
2. What is the "optimum" PC hardware for doing this? (I am purchasing a new desktop, and need to keep cost to a minimum, BUT that is secondary to being able to produce these demos with moving video captured well!)
3. Can you give me any best practice tips specific to capturing moving video? FYI, we will be adding audio narration (after capture), but will not be using written captions except for a few Notes/Tips.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Katie
Senior Technical Writer
Phoenix, AZ

Hi all,
I like Captivate, but have had a lot of trouble capturing playing video (a big part of my client's product) in the past. Despite encouraging client to consider other tools, they have decided they want to continue using Captivate and output to SWF. Some of us on the team for a previous project using v3.0 were able to successfully capture moving video, others weren't. (Vaguely recall something to do with a Hardware Acceleration setting, but it didn't work for everyone.) We've all upgraded to v4.0 but haven't used it yet. My questions are:
1. Has this been improved at all in v4.0?
2. What is the "optimum" PC hardware for doing this? (I am purchasing a new desktop, and need to keep cost to a minimum, BUT that is secondary to being able to produce these demos with moving video captured well!)
3. Can you give me any best practice tips specific to capturing moving video? FYI, we will be adding audio narration (after capture), but will not be using written captions except for a few Notes/Tips.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Katie
Senior Technical Writer
Phoenix, AZ

Best Practice for Recording to HDD's.

I want some answers from some people who have been using Logic for a while and have experience in this topic. I have a 2010 MBP 13" with 1 Firewire 800 port, after looking for a cheap quality interface i purchased a Saffire Pro 14 which has a Firewire 6pin interface and i assume is Firewire 400mbps. The interface also doesn't have an extra Firewire port and the manual says not to "daisy-chain" becuase of latency and CPU spikes. Honestly i haven't noticed any problems with my HDD I/O in Logic, when i skip around it peaks but never any errors. I formatted an old 160GB Sata 1 drive and hooked it up over USB, i noticed that when i "skip" arround or w/e its called it doesn't peak (get red) anymore. I want to know peoples experience with Daisy chaining firewire devices, and using USB HDD's.
When i invest more money, would it be ok to stick with my interface for now and get a Glyph drive and daisy chain my interface on at the end? Should i stick with USB storage? Should i stick with internal 5400RPM drive? Should i upgrade it to a 7200RPM ( my original idea). In I.T. we call it best practices, whats the best practice for storing your audio/logic files on a Mac when running Logic.

Please don't just tell me Firewire is faster than USB.....I'm an I.T. Proffesional (wishing i went to school for recording ) I know how comptuers work, i build them and fix them all day. I want to know from peoples personal experience what they run and their suggestions. Thanks so much!

Best practice video conversion from download

I am looking for best practice for video conversions.
I am downloading adobe recordings via this method:
http://server.adobeconnect.com/xyz/output/filename.zip?download=zip
From here, I have been converting the FLVs using either freemake video converter or FLV converter. I have tried converting into AVI (XVID), MOV, WMV, etc. (I need the file to be under 600 MB for an hour of recording, therefore it is going to need some type of compression).
My goal is to import the video into Sony Vegas Pro 10 for further editting. I have found that whatever method I use, the video and audio does not sync properly about 50% of the time. The video time is longer than the audio time usually. Or that there are other various errors, such as the video just freezing halfway through the video.
I have been using connect for a few years now, but with each update I find (connect 8, 9, etc), that the problems are getting worse. At this point I am just wasting time trying to convert into various formats using various codecs just trying to luck upon one where the video is at least without error.
What methods are others using to convert the FLV to a workable editable format?

Can't the FLV files be changed into many different formats through Apple's
Compressor or Adobe Media Encoder? These formats can then be opened in
standard video editing software for editing.
Best practice video conversion from download
mach5kel
to:
jsb152
05/21/12 01:03 PM
Please respond to jive-509399086-9dnu-2-2mvb7
Re: Best practice video conversion from download
created by mach5kel in Connect General Discussion - View the full
discussion
Yes, I use this as a last resort, as the quality of capture this was is
signifcatnly lower. As well as it is a much more time consuming process. I
sometimes have over 50 parts of 1 hour video. To use camtasia, you need
first to record it, then it must be saved in a camtasia format, and then
lastly rendered into avi or wmv. Therefore, it is does take awhile.
Really, I feel there shouldnt be so many errors in the conversion process,
but I am finding the FLV recordings themselves have problems. This last
file I am looking at, even the recording playback on adobe connect, has
serious issues with audio and video sync. A problem that is all too common
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Audio - Best Practice

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