I'm using the older Flash 8, but I glanced over an evaluation version of the latest Flash and it appeared everything here would work.

This is an absolute nightmare of a program to learn and I never even tried.  If you want to whip up some cute Flash-y thing with buttons and animations and all that, there are much easier programs around.

For our purpose, simply converting to FLV, it's a simple process and works perfectly.  And, as noted elsewhere, as far as I can tell, this is the only FLV-maker that will turn out a 100% "quality" video.

Note: To just do a straight conversion to FLV, using the accompanying Flash Video Encoder program is easier, but you should use the actual Flash program the first time through, just so you can get used to it and check out the options.  The actual set-up part of Video Encoder is identical to the Flash routine.  Using Video Encoder is also how you do batch conversions.
  

Fire up Flash:

  • In the 'Background' box down below, select the background color that will be behind the online vid, just in case there's a tiny bit of bleed around an edge.
     
  • Next to it, open the 'Size' box.  Put in the height and width of the production.  If it's a regular video, set the 'Frame rate' to '30'.  If it's something like a picture display, make it '12'.
     
  • Select 'Make Default' so when-, I mean, if you screw something up and have to do it over, you won't have to reset everything.
     
  • File Menu, 'Import', 'Import to Stage'.  Load the file, Next, Next.
     
  • Click 'Show Advanced Settings'.  Over to the right, select 'Custom'.  Set it to 2,000 if it's a high-quality online vid.  If it's for computer use only, set it to 3,000.  If you're simply re-rendering some junky online vid, forget the 'Custom' business and just set it to 'High'.
     
    Assuming you're changing the size, click on 'Resize video' and put in the new 'Width'.  By aspect ratio, the new 'Height' should pop into the box.  If you want to override it for some reason, uncheck the 'Maintain aspect ratio' box.
     
    At the bottom, set the (audio) 'Data rate' to '128' if it's just voices or whatever, '192' if it's music.
     
    If it's a banner or something that doesn't use audio, uncheck the 'Encode audio' box over to the left.  Even a 'blank' audio track will unnecessarily pad the file.
     
  • Click 'Next' to get to the 'Skinning' page.  Select the first entry, 'None'.  The setting will stay in place in the future.  This doesn't matter when making FLV files, but will if you make an SWF, like when using an ActionScript, below.
     
  • Next, Finish.  In the box that pops open, name the project file the name you want the FLV to be.

Like VideoStudio, Flash won't minimize while it's operating.  To do so, hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete or right-click on the Task Bar and open Task Manager.  Click on the 'Applications' tab.  Right-click on the 'Flash' entry and 'Minimize'.

When the render finishes, make sure it's exactly over the background box.  Hold down the Shift key and move the top box one direction or another with an arrow key and you'll see the background box behind it.  Move it back.

Flash trick:  Sometimes the rendered vid doesn't end up right over the background box and you have to use the arrow keys to move it.  I've noticed, however, that it always seems to fit right over the box if the 'Actions' panel is open during the render.  Info on that is below.

Use File Menu, 'Publish Preview', 'Default', to test it out.

It's already saved the FLV, so do a last-minute 'Save' of the project file, just in case you want to re-open it, and you're done.
 

ActionScripts

ActionScripts are little blocks of text you slap in the 'Actions' box to make the video do a few tricks such as loop, go to a web site when clicked on, and/or go to a web site when it's finished playing.

All of these take place after the render.  Down to the left, below the big white box, you'll see a little 'Actions' tab.  Click on it to open the window.  This is where you'll paste in the code.

This process will make an SWF file to play the FLV video track and a web page with the code to display the SWF.  After the ActionScript process, go to File Menu, 'Publish', to create the two files.  The FLV has already been made.

Upload the SWF and FLV to your site, snip out the block of code from the web page and slap it onto your site's web page.  Make sure the paths (two of them) are correct to the SWF file and you're rolling.

Note that there are actually two blocks of code, an <EMBED> code and an <OBJECT> code.  The first is for Internet Explorer, the second for Firefox.  To note is that whenever you change one parameter, be it file name, path or size, you have repeat it with the other.
 

Looping

This is fairly sensitive so don't touch anything after the file renders except pasting in the code:

on (complete) {
 this.autorewind =true;
 this.play();
 }

If an error box pops up when you do a 'Preview', you touched something, possibly the timeline box at the top.  You'll probably have to render it again and this time don't touch anything.

When it's lookin' good, File Menu, 'Publish'.
 

Clickable URL

This either makes the current browser window or a new window go to a web site when the vid is clicked on.

Carefully:

  •  Running along the top of the program is the 'Timeline' box.  Down at the very lower-left is an 'Insert Layer' icon.  Click on it, then double-click on the 'Layer 2' box that opens and change it to 'Actions'.
     
  • Click once the very first frame of the 'Actions' row, right under the '1'.
     
  • Hit F9.
     
  • Paste this into the Actions box, adjusting for your own use:

_root.onMouseUp= function() {
getURL("http://www.domain.com/page.htm", "_blank");
};

That opens a new window.  If you want it to stay in the same window, make it "_top" instead of "_blank".

Note: If you're combining the 'Loop' and 'Active URL', put the Loop in first.

When it's lookin' good, File Menu, 'Publish'.
 

URL At End

This is a little squirrelly, and unquestionably not the 'correct' way of doing it, but it works:

  • In the timeline at the top, move the slider and go to the very end.  Click on the last full slot (there's sometimes a half-slot at the very end) with the right mouse button and "Insert Keyframe".  Now click on the same slot again and 'Clear Keyframe'.  If you'll notice, the timeline has just doubled in length.  We want it at this scale so the next step will be accurate.  Slide out to the end and note the last printed number for future reference.
     
  • Now, maybe my system is screwed up or something, but you'd think you'd put the little "go to this URL now" ActionScript on the very last frame, right?  But when I try that, there's about a 7- or 8-second delay after the vid finishes before it goes to the site.  So, the obvious workaround is to simply place it 7 or 8 seconds earlier.
     
    So, that's your first test.  Go to the last frame, right-click it and 'Make keyframe'.
     
  • Hit F9.
     
  • Punch the following code into the Actions box, adjusting for your own use:

getURL("http://www.domain.com/page.htm", "_top");

Do a 'Preview' and see what happens.  A Flash warning box will pop open at the moment it would normally go to the web site.  If it pops open right at the end, you're good to go.

If it takes its bloody time, do this:

  • Carefully hit Ctrl-Z a few times until you see the timeline box go back to where it was just before you made that last frame a keyframe.  In other words, we want the timeline to be exactly the same (go out to the same last number) for each test or our test frame numbers won't mean anything.
     
    Since I have no idea how long your clip is, just start "a little ways in", right-click on a frame, "Make Keyframe", dump the code into the box and test it.  It'll probably take four or five tries before you nail it.

When it's lookin' good, File Menu, 'Publish'.

If you're planning on doing a number of same-length videos, but with different source files, grab Notepad and jot down the length of the timeline and the number you used for the keyframe for future reference.
 

Resizing the Playback

Up to 640-wide, the standard routine is to make the video the size you want it to display on the web page.  The browser's re-sizing algorithm isn't going to be near as good as a real video program's and the playback quality is going to suffer.  Anything over 640-wide may run into streaming problems.

To resize the playback, slide down the File Menu to 'Publish Settings'.  Click on the 'HTML' tab.  Flip the 'Dimensions' box to 'Pixels' and slap in your new numbers.  You can look around at the other adjustments, but some of them, like 'Loop', don't work.
 

One Pesky Problem

I've run into this twice.  If you're getting one line of video noise along one edge of the online vid and playing with the size code in the web page doesn't fix it, render the video one pixel wider or taller than the background.  That is, if you're getting a band of noise across the top of the vid and you're rendering it to 480 high, make the background box 480 high but render it to 481 high (but not touching the width).  Then use the arrow keys to move the vid when it's finished so the noise band side overlaps the edge of the 480-high background and that'll snip the bad line off the top when you do a 'Publish'.