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[infidelappel]

Hello everybody.

I'm in the early phase of development of a project. I'm not even positive it'll wind up being done in Flash; I'm just looking to see if it's possible.

Basically we want a huge movie - driven by two computers and spanning 16 monitors - that will have all dynamically driven, abstract animation.

Is it possible to do something like this in Flash? If not, what would work for this sort of media piece?

I'd appreciate any tips or pointers in the right direction.

Thanks.

[sandyw]

I don't think Flash is what you want to use for this project.
Depends on how big it is.
Director might be a better choise.

Can you tell me how long you want the project to be.

[infidelappel]

I don't think Flash is what you want to use for this project
Professional level software. These programs takes huge amount of hard drive space and memory
Final Cut Pro but it's expensive... Mac only it might come in PC but it will be at a beta level
There is another program which is even better but its very very expensive.
its called avid PC level.

Applied Magic is the cheaps the only draw back is that you have to by a computer which comes with the software

If you want to look Professional I would suggest hiring a professional

Thanks for the quick reply.

I'm also starting to seriously doubt the possibility of this sort of thing in Flash. Just making a huge video is easy enough - it's the fact that it's all meant to be wholly dynamic that provides the hangup. Maybe some kind of java application may work....


As for your other questions, there's no real determined length. The idea was to create something that uses data to randomly change and animate clips or shapes in Flash. That way it has no real length - it's just constantly changing and truly "random" rather than a loop.

[sandyw]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I'm also starting to seriously doubt the possibility of this sort of thing in Flash. Just making a huge video is easy enough - it's the fact that it's all meant to be wholly dynamic that provides the hangup. Maybe some kind of java application may work....


As for your other questions, there's no real determined length. The idea was to create something that uses data to randomly change and animate clips or shapes in Flash. That way it has no real length - it's just constantly changing and truly "random" rather than a loop.

If your a good java programmer then this might be the way to go. esp with randomly making changes and animald clips. Sounds like a fun project. Let me know how it turns out and how you did it..

[Motoma]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I'm also starting to seriously doubt the possibility of this sort of thing in Flash. Just making a huge video is easy enough - it's the fact that it's all meant to be wholly dynamic that provides the hangup. Maybe some kind of java application may work....


As for your other questions, there's no real determined length. The idea was to create something that uses data to randomly change and animate clips or shapes in Flash. That way it has no real length - it's just constantly changing and truly "random" rather than a loop.

This sounds like a task for Max/MSP/Jitter.

[infidelappel]

I think I may have found a way to pull something off in Flash.

If I can create 8 .SWFS (each one encompassing 2 monitor's worth of real estate) I can use local connect objects to share data between them. That should allow me to connect any graphics at the edges of each screen; I already did a proof of concept by having a ball bounce back and forth over 3 .swf's.

The problem is that everything has to be fullscreen, and localconnect (from what I read) objects only work on the same client computer. So the question is - since 2 computers are required for all 16 displays to be working - can local connect connect swfs on two networked computers?

Also, the fullscreen problem stems from the fact that flash projectors tend to want to go fullscreen only on the main display. Is there a way to override that tendency and have them go fullscreen on whichever of the 8 displays I prefer? Or I heard that Director may allow for fullscreen mode over multiple displays, but I haven't been able to confirm that. Does anybody know about this?


And thanks for all of the suggestions so far - the only problem with doing it in Java or something is that I'm really not experienced enough to do it. And Flash is preferable for the ability to incorporate flash video, images, etc.

[Motoma]

Ultimately I think you are going to have a lot of problem rendering the amount of flash you are talking about. Perhaps you should do a few benchmarks to find the limitations of your hardware, as well as your choice of Flash.