Flash Renderer limitations

The Flash Renderer does not support models with multiple materials or textures. Try to use only two or three colors, as the Flash Renderer must convert the material or texture data into vectors.

All models should be either single material models or have one of the compatible shaders applied to them. If you attempt to export a model with many materials, it may render as gray. You can hide all models you do not want to export.

Only simple textures should be used with the Flash Renderer. Ideally, there should be only two or three colors, no gradients, no anti-aliasing, and only simple images, such as a star.

If you have several pixels with different colors, the vector creation process (picture-to-Flash conversion) generates several regions. The file size is much larger than an .avi render.

The Flash Renderer takes the rendered picture and finds a uniform color region. The color must match perfectly; the Flash Renderer does not support color thresholds.

You can render a Flash .swf file using shaders, with a few exceptions.

The following shaders do not work with the Flash Renderer:

Live Shadow shader
Matte shader
Reflection shader
Selective Lighting shader
Shadow Map shader
Wire Frame shader

To render a file using the remaining shaders, follow the procedures provided for each shader, in the following sections.

Edge Cartoon Shader

Before you use an Edge Cartoon shader for rendering, try to generate edges with the Use Edge Generator option in the Flash Render Options dialog box. Edges created in this way take up less space than those rendered with the Edge Cartoon shader. See Flash Render Options window for more information on Edge generation.

Note: If you use the Edge Cartoon shader with Flash rendering, you can get better results if you set a larger Minimum Width value. The larger the Minimum Width value, the more pixel space the Edge Generator uses to create a uniform region for the entire continuous edge.

Flat Shader

There are no issues with the Flat shader when you use the Flash Renderer.

Lighted Shader

Rendering with the Lighted shader is good for low polygon models. No gradients appear when you render with a Lighted shader; they appear only as a flat color.

Multilevel Cartoon Shader

The Multilevel Cartoon shader lets you apply a posterized effect with full control over the luminosity, contrast, and number of steps in the gradient between the shadow and highlight colors.

The Flash Renderer only supports up to four Color Steps between the Shadow Color and Highlight Color. If you specify more than four steps, the gradient between the Shadow and Highlight Color adjusts automatically to only four steps.

MultiLevel Cartoon Shader Settings

For the best results, use two or three steps, with increased steps resulting in a complex rendering of the .swf file.

Particle Shader