FLV export gone.. need alpha channel in video for Flash

[JoelArt]

Hello, I've just noticed that the option of exporting video files in FLV format has been removed from the AF CC 2014 version. This is very destructive to our workflow as we need the "alpha" channel of the flv for use in Flash.

Is there a way to restore flv export functionality?

[Todd_Kopriva]

If you need to export an FLV file, then you can use the previous version of After Effects (After Effects CC 12.2.1) for this specific step.

[JoelArt]

I guess, but it makes thing unnecessary cumbersome and needlessly slows down the workflow. And what of the future, how long will those previous versions be available to me and will there be another video file format that has native alpha support built in?

[Todd_Kopriva]

We will continue to make older versions available for a very long time. We have publicly committed to having at least five major versions available in the archives.

There are several movie formats available that use alpha channels.

[ShaG1]

Hi, I might be wrong , but I think the concern is that there aren't several movie formats which you can import/embed on the Flash timeline.

[tristratos]

While reading the features of AfterEffects CC2014, I noticed the following:

"removal of H.264, MPEG-2, WMV, FLV, F4V, and SWF exporters from After Effects"

THAT IS IS REDICULOUS!!

NO FLV !?!?
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT USERS TO IMPORT INTO FLASH ??
IF no FLV export is available under After Effects CC 2014, there is NO WAY to EMBED an flv into flash !! (Linking is NOT always what is wanted!!)

NO H264 !?!?!
HAVE YOU GONE CRAZY ?!!?!?

YOU BREAK WORKFLOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THAT IS REDICULOUS!!!

Any chance of restoring such features so that it makes updating to it worthwhile ?

WHY should we keep a whole OLD version to disk (not to mention WHY updating) JUST to get a simple and well established worklow (exportint to flv to use in flash) ???????????????????????

[Szalam]

Tristratos, You don't seem to understand what Adobe is doing. There is no need to get angry.

The intent is to use the significantly superior H.264 and FLV creation of the Adobe Media Encoder to make your Flash format file. The Adobe Media Encoder can import AE compositions (and you can send comps to the AME from inside After Effects) or you can render an intermediate file from AE and use that file in the Adobe Media Encoder. This is the workflow I used even before the AE team removed the other functionality.

[JoelArt]

Szalam, media encoder doesn't  support Flv encoding in the latest version. Sure you can use an older version perhaps, but there is something else going on here. They removed the Motion editor without any form of replacement crippling the software. There is no other reasonable way for me to work with flash without the alpha channel of Flv.

[Todd_Kopriva · Accepted solution]

If you need to export an FLV file, then use the previous version of the application.

See this for an explanation for the change regarding FLV and F4V and for the recommended workflow:

removal of FLV and F4V export features from Adobe Media Encoder, After Effects, and Premiere Pro

See this for an explanation for the change regarding H.264, MPEG-2, and WMV and for the recommend workflow:

using Adobe Media Encoder to create H.264, MPEG-2, and WMV videos from After Effects

[JoelArt]

I'm really great full for the explanation and appreciate that FLV is an old format. But as the H.264 doesn't have an alpha channel, it simply can't replace the functionality of FLV in our Flash products, how poor the format may be. We will still need Flash to accept a video format that uses alpha for as long as Flash is a viable platform. What new video format is going to replace this alpha ability of FLV?

[Todd_Kopriva]

Those are all good questions for the Flash team. I encourage you to ask them on the Flash forum.

For now, if you need an alpha channel in a video for Flash Player, you can still use the previous versions of Adobe Media Encoder and After Effects to create them. That's one of the reasons that we make it easy to have multiple versions installed at once, as explained here:

http://blogs.adobe.com/aftereffects/2014/06/plug-ins-settings-after-effects-cc-2014-13-0.html

[tristratos]

Excuse me to say again...

BUT...

H.264 may be made through Media Encoder BUT

1) It may NOT be embeded to flash (ONLY flv format is embedable at all in flash!!!!)

2) Does NOT provide ANY kind of transparency!!

WHO decided to brake the workflow THAT BAD is NOT UNDERSTANDABLE at all!!!

Wish this will be addressed somehow, so that it would really make upgrading to CC 2014 meaningfull at all!!

Keeping whole previous version just to get this little - but yet fundamental workflowwise- export to flv is simply insane!!

Re: Adobe Kills Flash ?

[Andrew Yoole]

I understand your frustration, but the signs are clear that FLV is a rapidly dying format.  The future appears to be with HTML5 compatible formats.  WebM, for example, supports transparency/alpha.

Adobe seem to be taking a harder line recently on culling technologies that are clearly on the way out (much like Apple have been doing for years!).  This can be extremely annoying when you have a structured workflow in place.  My workflow has also been forced to change somewhat by the removal of some codecs from the Render Queue.

But the long term benefit is that, by removing this stuff (pruning the dying branches, you might say) you accelerate the change and progress to the newer technology more quickly.  

Your choices are clear:  either stick with the version that works, producing content in the way you are currently, or find newer codec technologies that will achieve your goals.  You might find that, by moving from FLV to newer codecs, you open up a much wider audience via mobile OS's etc that your FLV content will never reach.

[tristratos]

I get what you imply BUT the question still remains...

If Adobe removed flv from AE CC 2014, and still presists such AND ONLY format from flash to be used as an embed option, what signal should we get ?

If Adobe thinks as well that html5 is the future, why release flash at all ? Why not use flash to export to html ONLY and not swf !?

It's getting insane the least...

All in all, it is completely insane, to remove a format, WITHOUT at the same time to introduce at least another as an alternative one, for a specific task that is meant to be used for years!!

Not only you block users from given and working workflows, but it just really makes NO sense!!

Unless Adobe, fills like suiciding its own products...

Hope all these posts in this forum might ring at least a bell... just in case Adobe heras it anyway...

[simbol2]

Adobe really need to rethink this as I too am reliant on a feature that has now been rendered obsolete since the removal of FLV and F4V see:

Re: How do I use Flash Que Markers without the ability to export to FLV or F4V in Premiere Pro CC 20...

As with your issue there is no current alternative!

[Rick Gerard]

I know that this is not going to make you feel better but I have not had a single request from a client in the last 3 years for FLV of F4V video to be used in a Flash presentation. Every video project I have been involved with, every one of them, has had HTML 5 compatibility the job specifications because every one of my clients are demanding that all video content be 100% accessible with mobile devices. If your clients are still preferring flash as their preferred delivery method for video content they are missing a huge and growing part of the market. Things change, and Flash is one thing that has to change to stay viable. So far, flash development is way behind the market. Sure you can do a lot of 'cool' things in Flash, and sure, you have to use previous versions of software to build video specifically and uniquely for flash using FLV or F4V formats, but mp4's will embed just fine in a Flash project.

[tristratos]

You still miss the point.

If Adobe admits that html5 if the way to go instead of flash, then let's get that OUTLOUD!

If not (Why on earth did they release an updated to flash after all right ?!) and they feel like flash is still being used in production (those you've mention are just a small part of it - several others DO exist that rely on flv or at least a way to EMBED video INTO flash instead of streaming it) they shouldn't have broken the workflow at least.

If they feel that flv isn't the way to go, then provide AT LEAST an alternative method that would be embedable and support transparency!!!
If they feel that .swf isn't the way to go either, dig deep down flash, OR use it to export html5 instead and STILL being able to embed into it another format that would provide the goodies that flv did offer.

If there is no other format that would be able to support such, then the decision to brake the above workflow must have been a DUMMY decision after all and at least try EITHER to INVENT a new format, OR provide a SOLUTION to this!

Really, its getting preposterous...

For me as is, there is NO reason of updating...

[Rick Gerard]

What I'm saying is that flash is changing. FLV and F4V are going away. What will replace them is a yet to be widely implemented mp4 format that will support transparency inside Flash. If you do not need transparency, which is a design consideration then an mp4 will embed inside flash just fine, play better than an FLV, and prevent you from supplying duplicate media for flash and mobile devices. That's all. I'm sure that the Flash folks are hard at work trying to make the Flash framework more efficient. If they do then it will mean changes there too. If they are not successful, then, just as the Real Player, the only viable option just of a few years ago to play back web video, Flash will go away and never be seen again.

[simbol2]

I think the point here is that there's no alternative now! - and really is it such a big deal to leave the older export options/formats in??????? - Adobe should leave these options in and let the software users decide whether they want to use them or not.

[Todd_Kopriva]

> Adobe should leave these options in and let the software users decide whether they want to use them or not.

It is not free to leave old features in the new version of an application. It takes software engineering resources to maintain such older features, and this detracts from work done in other areas.

Also, we are leaving an option for people who still want to use these formats. We are making it as easy as possible to have the old version of the application installed alongside the new one, and we are making it as easy as possible to still download and install the old version when you need it for something like this.

[tristratos]

Adobe, again, excuse me ...

...but asking users to update to a new version, while you demand from them, to keep a whole older version JUST to get a simple common task that USED to work just fine, is just REDICULOUS!!!

Especially when that missing feature brakes a whole workflow and there is NO other alternative method to get the job done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Flash accepts NO other format other than FLV to be EMBEDED into flash! (@ Rick Gerard: Βtw, mp4 is NOT EMBEDable and supports NO transparency!!!)

Before cutting the export option, you should have at least modified this import procedure to accept something alternative that would be embedable and still work with tranparency!

Not doing so, just spoils your OWN products!

What is so difficult to understand ?

If that is not unprofessional, I really wonder what is...

[simbol2]

It is not free to leave old features in the new version of an application. It takes software engineering resources to maintain such older features, and this detracts from work done in other areas.

When AS2 support was taken from Flash CC (which was a shock to say the least), I could kind of understand this way of thinking, but we are talking about leaving an export codec in AME here!!! You're telling be this is a big resource problem for a multi-billion dollar corporate giant like Adobe!!! - Clearly the teams, behind Adobe's software products, have changed their direction here. Adobe used to make 'feature rich products' for 'professional power users' sadly this direction seems to have changed since the the introduction of CC. I'm not saying the products are in anyway less advanced in the main areas, it's just that there are useful features that seem to have gone missing in many of your later products, this one being 'mission critical' to some users. (I dare say many users will not have noticed this omission yet!)

Tristratos - For the future and what Adobe seem to be saying... the only work around to this, is to do any compositing in the video edit - this does of course mean, that you will loose the ability to add interaction to video, with alpha - something of a 'power feature', that's been around since Flash MX (I think).

I used to get excited when new Adobe software was released, now... I'm just going to wonder what's been removed this time!

[rosaposafish]

This is absolutely counterproductive. It seems as if people who want to use these programmes for animation are continuously ignored. It integral to using flash for animation to be able to embed video into Flash.

This is outrageous and annoying! People need this for their work, it's not like we are using these programmes for the good of our health!

[Szalam]

As has been mentioned, you can still install the older versions and make FLV's. Nothing has been taken away. You can install the older versions through the CC software; it's explained here: Creative Cloud Help | Download, install, update, or uninstall apps‌

[daved99448361]

I don't have the option to install older versions. Can't filter by Previous Versions, no option given to download older versions,