Other video compression settings are as follows:

• Compression quality: Select from 0 to 100 to adjust the amount of compression.
• Key frame interval: If you select a compressed format, you will have the option of setting a keyframe interval (see Figure 18). This setting determines how frequently a full frame of the source video is preserved in the Timeline. A smaller value results in more keyframes, and subsequently a larger file size. A greater value results in fewer keyframes and a smaller file size. Animation with little motion (such as a talking head) may be suitable with a larger keyframe interval value, while a movie with an abundance of animation may benefit from a smaller keyframe value.
• Data rate: Specify the data rate of the converted video.

  If you have any audio in your Flash project, you'll want to make the following Audio settings:
  

• Record from current SWF file: Record audio from the current SWF file and then merge it with the video.
• Recording volume: Adjust the volume level of the waveform recording device.
• From WAVE file: Use an external WAVE file to create your audio by clicking Browse to choose the WAVE file. The audio data of this WAVE file is merged with the video data; the audio in the original SWF file is ignored.

  The final two settings are important to consider too:
  

• Split file when exceeding: Specify the file size limit before the file is split into two different files.
• Play after creating: Open the output AVI file with your preferred default media player when export is complete.

Once you export your Flash project to your preferred video format, you can import it into a video editing program such as Premiere or Final Cut Pro, or a compositing and motion graphics program like Adobe After Effects, for further editing, special effects, and color correction.

Where to Go from Here
My Flash career began with authoring content for broadcast video. At the time I was the director of creative development for an animation studio in the Boston area. Part of my job was to research and implement graphics and animation software into the production process. We produced and animated content for Comedy Central, ABC, and The Cartoon Network, and were completely desperate to find the right tool to replace the animation program we were rapidly outgrowing.

When I discovered Flash, I knew right away that this tool would allow us to grow as an animation studio. It had all the features we were looking for, including support for QuickTime and AVI formats.

I hope this article successfully conveys some of my experience. It should help answer at least some of your Flash-to-video questions. Future articles will cover using After Effects to add some cool visual effects to your movies and burning video content to DVD using Adobe Premiere.

In the meantime, here are some other resources that address exporting Flash to video and creating broadcast-quality Flash projects:

• Taking Flash Animation to DVD Video (by Brooke Burgess)
• Flashants Forum (makers of SWF2Video)
• Flash to Video Tutorial (from FlickerLab)
• Flash to Video Encoder PRO 4.2 (from GeoVid)
• Flash MX Design for TV and Video (by Janet Galore and Todd Kelsey; Wiley, 2002)