Best MP4-encoding settings for Flash

Since version 9,0,115 of the Flashplayer has been released I was wondering how to encode H.264-videos quickly, efficient, easy and especially for FREE. Didn't take me long to stumple upon the Sourceforge-project MediaCoder. It supports a huge variety of formats and is extremely fast encoding (sleep well, Squeeze, you lazy bugger!).

But MP4 is not MP4, there are a lot of weird compressions, Sorenson, Apple, Microsoft.. they all try to abuse it for their own sake. Bastards! Luckily I found the perfect working combination of settings that the Flashplayer is able to play smoothly.

First Audio:



Notice, that FAAC is the encoder of choice. Unfortunately LAME is out of game. But FAAC seems to the job much better anyway. So no tears..

Now Video:



Play around with "Mode" to find the best working results for you. I always opt for Two-Pass. Extremely useful for movies with stills as well as lot of movements.

If anyone of you knows it better, please comment on this one. Can't stop learning!

Herr Flick is back

Herr Flick waas happy to make a funny little video wis us.

The great Tudors Mystery

As announced: Ralph is kicking out the viral campaign for Tudors, a new Showtime series about Henry8.

It not only works with simple "fake-text-in-real-video" but this time also with a real image. Thanks to "addChild" in AS3 you can easily stick existing Sprite-Objects into other instances while it is running and keeping all its properties untouched - absolutely impossible in AS2. Honestly, I love AS3 for that.

Another feature: you can seek through the movie. Which was a braincracker since I had to keep the dynamic parts flawlessly running as if everything was one simple, single video. And: I didn't use Timer. But a pimped up version of TweenLite.

And now lets prank a friend: www.wkts-tv.com.

Transform your face

That is currently my favourite website.

Nothing Flash but my Boss just asked me to hook it up with Actionscript to generate pictures like that in Flash...

We'll see!

Ralph is kicking out new Viral campaigns

First: HUMAN LAB RAT on Justin.tv



Another "prankish" website for the upcoming Paramount/Dreamworks-Blockbuster "The Ruins". Its created in cooperation with justin.tv, an "everybody-can-be-a-star" live video stream website, where people can play Big Brother from both perspectives: surveillant or exhibitionist and sometimes both. Like youtube, only live.
I won't reveal details, just have a look for yourself, its really well made: HUMAN LAB RAT.
Thanks to Marcin, Peter and J3K from Ralph, you did a great job!

Second: ARE YOU THE THE MYSTERY MILLIONAIRE?



"Tudors", an upcoming Showtime Series about King Henry 8 is doing a Dexter-ish campaign but with a different thrill: rather than shocking or giving someone the creeps it plays with a more subtle but at least working feeling: greed.
A fake news site shows a report about a recently discovered document that claims the ownage of land where the todays Buckingham Palace is standing on. And now guess who THAT guy might be?
Link is coming shortly, not live yet. Sign up to the Ralph-newsletter if you want to be the first to know about its release.
Filmed and produced by Ralph.

Third: SAVE THE WORKERS!



This one is funny: Cartoonists at Adultswim need your support! Vote for one or all of them in a campaign that saves them from being exploited or even worse... The choice: a monkey with Tourette syndrome, an Orphan who is on the dinner list of some church priests or a tramp with a puking hand puppet as alter ego.
You can personlize all three with your name and send it either to yourself or to your friend.
Not live yet - sign up for the newsletter to be the first!