How do I get actionscript animation to video?

Question

I have a flash movie with actionscript animation that I need
to convert to video. How can I do it? Every time export it to video
from Flash (8 pro) I get nothing but stills. I have a number of mx
transitions that would take forever to convert to timeline
animation. Please help.
~Nate

Answer 1

You have the right idea. Since Flash seems to ignore AS
generated animation like interactivity, the only option left is to
record the screen while the animation is running. You can either go
hardware or software for this.
Software would be the most convenient, but I can't recommend
a specific screen capture utility for the Mac, as I'm on a PC.
However, if you go to versiontracker.com and search for OSX screen
capture utilities, you should find one. Also some other Mac users
may be able to help.
For software conversion, the general method is to get your
flash sized as close to the final video size on the screen. For DVD
this will be 720 x 480. If you can modify your Flash stage to be
this size, it will simplify the process, as many capture utilities
can capture from a window instead of the whole screen. Capture the
video at 30 frames per second, uncompressed. .It will be a large
file, but all the quality will be maintained at this step. If
"uncompressed" is not an option, choose the quicktime animation
compressor, as this will do a lossless RLE compression, and still
maintain the quality. Next you will have to transcode the video to
MPEG2 for DVD. Many of the burning and authoring packages can do
this. Or a video editing package should be able to do it, as well.
The free video package that comes with OSX (can't remember the
name, imovie maybe??) can export for DVD, also.
The other route is hardware: For this you will need an scan
converter and a recorder or camcorder with inputs. Many of the
miniDV cameras can take an analog or DV signal in and convert to
MiniDV on to tape. Many low cost encoders have come on the market
to allow powerpoint or games to be displayed on a standard TV. And
many of them allow you to pan, zoom and center the image. The
general method is to size your desktop for the max resolution of
the encoder, usually xga (1024 x 768). Size your Flash as big as
possible on the screen. Plug your Mac video out into the encoder.
Plug your Mac monitor into the encoder (to pass the signal back to
the monitor so you can see it). Plug the encoder into the inputs of
your recorder or camcorder. Play the animation and start recording.
Then use your firewire to capture the video back into the computer
as a DV file. Convert to MPEG2 as described above.
Here is a link to a cheap scan converter at buy dot come as
an example.
http://www.buy.com/prod/startech-com-vga-to-ntsc-pal-pc-to-tv-video-converter/q/loc/101/10 313177.html
Another place to check for a scan converter is
bhphotovideo.com. They have a lot of video stuff for Mac.
Sounds complicated, but Flash is not really made for this, so
you have to "improvise" I have used both hardware and software to
convert both Flash and Shockwave animations to from the PC to DVD,
so it is possible to get good results. Hope this helps.