Bringing FLASH library assets into AfterEffects? $100 to the first who can answer

[Mark Johnson]

Any FLASH mavens here? How about reasonably competent?

Here's the deal. I have a FLASH file that a client gave me. The original project file is not available anymore BUT I can open it and see the assets in the library of this file. There are probably 200 frames of an animation that I want to bring into AfterEffects. HOW the heck do I export those frames into a clip or into numbered image files that I can bring into AE as a clip???? Anyone??? If someone can give me the answer I am delighted to send you $100 as a consultation fee. It's certainly worth that to me. So, if you are the first one to tell me how to successfully (and reasonably easily) do this FAT MONSTER FILMS will send you a crisp hundred dollar bill for your help. I mean, I don't consider "Use a screen capture utility to capture all 200 of those suckers" to be a quality answer :)

THANKS

the dude abides

[mcgeedigital]

http://www.avi-swf-convert.com/

[Mark Johnson]

http://www.avi-swf-convert.com/

But I don't see how this will convert the library assets into a clip I can bring to AE. If I'm missing something, let me know. SEE SCREEN SHOT BELOW

http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/10478/1206496378.jpg

[Neil Rowe]

if the images for each asset that you want to import are numerically sequencial (as they appear to be), you could just import them as an image sequence which of course acts the same as a simgular clip in AE.

[Tom Marshall]

If the entire animation is just images, you can do a "File > Export > Export Movie" and export it as a Quicktime clip.

[Charlie Anderson]

you can do that or you can lay out each image into the flash timeline and then export as a quicktime movie

[Charlie Anderson]

DAMNIT Tom beat me to the punch :(

[Tom Marshall]

By a minute... :)

[Mark Johnson]

Tommy - you got a hundred bucks if you can make this happen. I"ll send you the file if you wanna take a shot at exporting that clip.

[Simon Höfer]

What about the following Mark? It's freeware and splits swf files into image sequences.
SWF Picture Extractor: (http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Web_Authoring/Multimedia_Web_Authoring_Tools/SWF_Picture_Extractor.html)

SWF Pictutre Extractor is a program for image extraction from SWF files. You can view the images that are saved in a SWF file and save one or all of them (BMP, JPEG, PNG formats) using SWF Picture Extractor. SWF Pictutre Extractor can work with the packed SWF-files.
The program is simple in utilization, all the actions are carried out by means of click on the corresponding button on the toolbar.

With SWF Picture Extractor, you can easily:

* look through all the images in the SWF files;
* save one or all of them.

SWF Picture Extractor was designed with real user in mind. You are not required to be a Flash guru or know all the nuts and bolts of the flash file format.
All you need is to go a few straightforward steps through the intuitive interface.
Edit: After rereading and rereading this thread I come to the conclusion that my information might be useless :D What type of flashfile do you actually have? Have you got an .swf file? Or what? And did Tom's suggestion help you?

[Mark Johnson]

Matt G seems to think the software he posted will do what I need. I'm sending him the file to let him give it a shot (and I'll post his success if he does succeed). I'll also send Tommy the file and let him show me what he is describing. If Matt's solution works I'll send him the bucks cause he was first, but if not then Tommy's the man. Even if Matt wins the prize I shall reward Tommy separately with a bonus for his work.

Stay tuned!

[seejay1031]

Mark... sorry to confuse the issue, but Neil Rowes Solution is the most straightforward and should work immedietly without additional software. Is there a reason why importing an image sequence will not work?

[Larry Rutledge]

Did you get your images out of your flash file? There are numerous tools out there that will extract assets from flash files, so there should be no issue getting them out.

I've done it several times, so if Matt and Tom fail you, just give me a shout.

Peace,
Larry

[Mark Johnson]

Did you get your images out of your flash file? There are numerous tools out there that will extract assets from flash files, so there should be no issue getting them out.

I've done it several times, so if Matt and Tom fail you, just give me a shout.

Peace,
Larry

THANKS Larry. I will give these guys some more time to help but I'm on a deadline so if I don't get anything from them soon (perhaps they are still sleeping in???) I will contact you. I've just never used Flash and it sure seems to me that this has to be somewhat easy since the assets are visible and named. I used to work with Director a lot and I assumed these would be just like "cast" members in director but when I try to drag them to the time line or to the "stage" I can't figure out how to get them to play in sequence. I'm a loser at Flash obviously. Maybe I need to read a manual.

THANKS

[Mark Johnson]

Mark... sorry to confuse the issue, but Neil Rowes Solution is the most straightforward and should work immedietly without additional software. Is there a reason why importing an image sequence will not work?

It sure sounds like the easy way but for some reason I can't get this to work. I'm used to working with Director where I'd drag "cast" members to the "stage" and I could easily set up a sequence of images to play as a clip. Having not used Flash I obviously am missing something as when I drag the images to the main window they all stack up on top of each other and I can't figure out how to make them play in a sequence. Yeah, I'm a loser. I know I should read the manual but, hey, I'm jammed for time here.

If you care to take a look here's four flash files - any of which will work. I'm interested in getting ONLY the sequence of the blood cellsl moving as a separate clip so I can use in AfterEffects:

http://www.archivisuals.com/dempsey/

Pull down a file and open it in your Flash program and see if you can figure out what the hell I'm missing here!

[Larry Rutledge]

Wait, so you have Flash? If that's so, then you simply have to drop each image into its own frame (sorry, been a while since I used Flash so I can't tell you how to do it ... but just look at help for frames). Then you can export the whole movie to a QT file or a series of stills.


It's crazy ... there's a million (ok, maybe not that many ... but a lot) tools out there for converting an .swf (compiled flash file) to .fla (flash source file) and viewing/extracting the contents. There doesn't seem to be a single one for working directly with the .fla file - which is weird since that is what they work with once they uncompile them.

I would say if you have flash do it there...drop each asset in teh sequence into its own frame and then it should play as an animation. Then export to a file you can use in AE.

[seejay1031]

I think you misunderstand... I'm Talking about importing them as an image sequence in After Effects. You simply go to File> Import> File. Then navigate to the folder with the images, select the first one, then at the bottom left hand corner there is a checkbox for image sequence... check it and open the file. You should have an image sequence imported into AE as a fully editable motion file.

[Larry Rutledge]

seejay - I think he knows how to pull an image sequence into AE ... The problem is, the images are currently inside an .fla (flash source) file. He is trying to figure out how to get those images out of flash so he can import them into AE, either as an image sequence or a movie file.