Creating Flash banners < 12K

[Agent654L]

hello to all flash experts:

i am a recent college grad who has made their way into a marketing niche. i am having problems with creating flash banners that are small in file size (10-12k).

i am submitting these banners on behalf of my company and instead of photoshop, wanted to be a little more creative by using Flash. however, i have experienced huge .gif animations with the ideas that i have generated.

therefore, in an effort to keep it simple and sharp, i need to know the do's and don'ts with such banner issues (ie. using graphics vs. movie clips / .gifs vs. jpegs, etc).

i wouldn't have this issue if it wasn't for the intended purpose being for internet search engine ad space...they're a little particular on file size. i'd appreciate any insight to this issue.

thanks in advance for those who reply.

p a u l

[Agent654L]

hello to all flash experts:

i am a recent college grad who has made their way into a marketing niche. i am having problems with creating flash banners that are small in file size (10-12k).

i am submitting these banners on behalf of my company and instead of photoshop, wanted to be a little more creative by using Flash. however, i have experienced huge .gif animations with the ideas that i have generated.

therefore, in an effort to keep it simple and sharp, i need to know the do's and don'ts with such banner issues (ie. using graphics vs. movie clips / .gifs vs. jpegs, etc).

i wouldn't have this issue if it wasn't for the intended purpose being for internet search engine ad space...they're a little particular on file size. i'd appreciate any insight to this issue.

thanks in advance for those who reply.

p a u l

[Stinger]

I follow a few simple rules when it comes to banner ads. Some are insugnificant but still important when you are looking for such a low file size.

1) Do not use too many gradient colors on your vector graphics. They are more processor intensive and they can contribute to the size of the file.

2) Do not use imported raster graphics if you don't have to. That speaks for itself. You might get a better look but it can drive the size of your file sky high.

3) Decrease frame rate of the flash movie. I normally work with 24 fps but when I'm really concerned about file size, I reduce it to around 15-18 fps. This can greatly decrease the amount of total frames used and reduce the file size of the movie.

4) Don't have too many tweens happening at once. While this might not help the file size much, but it will make your movie less intense on the CPU. Especially if there are other flash files on the page.

5) Use only 1 scene. For every additional scene you add to your movie will add (roughly) 1Kbyte to the size. I can't think of any reason why you would do this in the first place, but just in case.

6) No sounds. Common sense will tell you that.

I hope this helps you out.

Good luck,

Scott