Digital Workshop

I have just got opus mainly for the purpose of using Flash animations in presentations.
Powerpoint cannot do this very well

When I add the Flash swf using Docview then it is an activeX object and so always appears on top of the page.

If I use the Video to embed swf then it will not play properly but I need this for transparencys, and placing objects over the swf
I know we need Quicktime and I have Quicktime 6 installed

So what version of Flash player will Opus be able to support?

Also it appears that movie clips within movie clips do not play when using the Video object. The main timeline is playing fine but not the objects within it.
Is this a problem in Opus or Quicktime and is there a resolution?

By doing a bit of searching I have found the cause of the problem

Opus uses Quicktime to play flash movies (.swf)
Quicktime 6 only supports Flash Player 5

Flash Player 5 does not support a load of features in my animation (e.g setInterval).
So movie not working

So have to wait for Quicktime to support Flash player 6 (or better still would be support for player 7).

Don't suppose there is anyway to do transparencies and object layers with the Docview to embed flash?

There are many more reasons to use Opus than just for Flash!

However - You CAN successfully use flash in Powerpoint. You just need to know how. I'm a presentation graphics specialist for corporate conferences and we have to do it all the time.

We prefer to develop presentations in Opus as it's much more versatile than PowerPoint!

But - you can add flash into Powerpoint by using the free addon tool at www.globfx.com

Problem is of course - you can't have anything over the top of flash in powerpoint - unlike in Opus.

I have also embedded Flash into PowerPoint and you can use the VB scripts to manipulate this but it is not really so easy for general users.
Therefore we are looking at Opus

So can we embed animations that require Flash Player 7 into Opus which can then have objects placed on top and moved around easily?

That's why I suggested the free addin for Powerpoint. It puts an option into the insert menu and you place flash just as you would an image or video file. No having to fart about with VB controls! Try it - IT'S FREE!


As for version of flash (7 or whatever) you can use in Opus - I'm not sure. As you say as far as I'm aware it uses the Quicktime Player to use flash as a video object..one for the developers to answer I think! But once placed into Opus it can be treated like any other video object... Objects placed on top and moved around etc...as long as you choose either the chromakey (best - but not for moving the flash around) or rendered (more effects possible but video/flash slightly jaggy) - video option it should be fine!

I attach an example

That works really well. So easy to use

I'd still like Opus to handle Flash objects easily and better than PowerPoint such as allowing layering but we'll have to wait for that. Suppose that will always depend on QuickTime keeping up with the Macromedia Player

Didn't want you to miss my edit...

I think you read my unedited one whilst I was making the example!