Flash Optimization Tips

Q: We are attempting to optimise an existing Flash animation to be web friendly. The current animation has a stage size of 640 x 480. While reducing the stage size and compressing the audio has proved successful its still not enough. Is there a way we can exclude any animation occurring off stage with out editing the animation frame by frame? Is there any technique or Freeware utility or paid for Application that anyone can recommend? We know about Optimaze, but is that all? A: There are all kinds of things you do in this department that will save on file size. 1) Try Optimaze - it helps in a lot of cases without degrading your animation. Specifically designed for SWF optimization - no guarantees though. 2) Modify > Shape > Optimize in Flash for any vectors with a lot of detail. Run over each object in small increments until you're still happy with the anim itself but the file size is lower. 3) If you've imported vectors from Freehand or Illustrator, make sure to break them apart in Flash (Ctrl+B until you see meshed dots) and then regroup them. This gets rid of unnecessary background fills. 4) As far as removing anims that are offstage, make sure they don't appear until they absolutely have to on the timeline and then get rid of them using blank keyframes when they're offstage. This will help save on the users system resources and the whole thing will move better. 5) Do NOT leave raw data on the stage - convert everything to symbols and reuse them as much as possible. Raw data on the stage = bad for processor. 6) Um ... That's all I've got right this second. I was busy writing an article but I saw this and thought I'd help out.