Matching the design has always been a hassle to me. The method that I used to use was either to put the design in the background or to take a snapshot of the developed version, put it in Photoshop, bring the transparency down and repeat the cycle again if they do not match closely enough.
Recently, I developed a Flash project with thousands of assets that are resizable and positionable through XML. Even with the aid of XRAY debugging tool, the production people are still taking a long time to position those assets right. Understandable.
As deadlines are approaching, I began thinking about a way to speed up the process a little bit. So I advised them to find a tool that can bring a window transparency down. That will at least reduce 1 step from the cycle.
What they found is Afloat, a tool for Mac that do exactly that.
If you are on a PC, PowerMenu, is the one to use.
I, personally have not even installed any of those at the time this post is writen. However, the production people are saying that it helps a lot.
Might be worth while to check it out. Will help prevent designers from suffering heart attacts when looking at the developed version.
I had to convert thousands of files from FLV to SWF not too long ago, and I found that finding the right software and tool is actually the most time consuming part to accomplish the task.
Now that I have accomplished the task, I would like to give some reviews for 3 of the softwares that I tried.
1. Total Video Converter
+ve: Very easy too use. Can convert from 1 video file type to all other video file that I know. It is also affordable at $45.95 / license.
-ve: Can only do batch process about 300 files at a time (The software crashed on my machine if I drag more than that). There are some artifacts on some of the converted files (Might be because of the quality of the FLV that I tried to convert, because the Quicktime version gave perfect SWF file).
2. FFMPEG
+ve: FREE and opensource is always good. Can convert from 1 video file type to all other video file that I know. Fast and can do batch process.
-ve: Not as straight forward to use because the software is executed through command line (I have seen people use a GUI for this, but have not tried it myself). There are some artifacts on some of the converted files (Might be because of the quality of the FLV that I tried to convert, because the Quicktime version gave perfect SWF file).
3. Flix Pro
+ve: Give perfect video conversion. Very easy too use. Can convert from 1 video file type to all other video file that I know.
-ve: A little expensive at $249 / license.
So, personally I will go for FFMPEG first simply because it is FREE, unless there is a need to get a high quality conversion or the company is paying for the software ;p, where I will go for Flix Pro.
