Editing and importing SWF files. Best SWF Editor: Software Review Edit swf file

Probably everyone has seen some kind of advertising animation on the sites, when you hover the mouse over it, something starts to change in it. Or played online apps/games on websites (social networks or others). Even if you go to this site using a non-existent link, you will be taken to approximately the same page, created on the basis of flash animation technology. And they have a file with the SWF extension. This article describes what kind of file it is, how to open it (for example, play a toy offline) and how to change it (for fans).

What is the .swf file?
The SWF file is a flash animation created with Adobe Flash or another program for developing flash applications. Flash movies can contain both plain text and vector, raster images, 3D graphics (limited), audio, video, ActionScript scripts.

The Flash platform has become very widespread in the field of creating interactive applications. It can be flash-cartoons, games, video clips (.FLV files), websites created in whole or in part using this technology.

Well, then follow the instructions from the site.

To open, launch the browser (preferably create new tab in it), "take" LMB for your swf file and drag it to the browser.

Option 2
Through the program.
There are 2 good programs for opening such files - this (I did not find the site) and .

As for the second one, it's free, but it's in English and the developers stopped releasing updates for it, and it's a maximum for XP.
If you get lost on the manufacturer's website and do not find how to download this program:
select the Downloads tab in the top menu

SWF (Small Web Format) is a proprietary video format used for flash animation, vector graphics, audio and video content on the Internet.

The advantage of the format is its small size, due to this video in SWF format is loaded and played faster, and vector images are scaled without distortion.

The scope of use is quite diverse - banners, websites, lightweight games (for example, in in social networks), presentations, cartoons.

Opening SWF files with a browser

Almost any browser can be used to open SWF files ( google chrome, , , Safari, etc.).

However, it is worth mentioning that the Flash player must be installed in the browser. In some it is installed by default, ie. When you install a browser, you also install the Flash player.

Note! During the installation selection process, the installer will also offer to install free antivirus- McAfee. There is nothing wrong with this, but if an antivirus is already installed on the system, installing another one can lead to system instability.

To open a SWF file, just drag it (drag 'n 'drop) into the browser window. If the file does not open, your browser's Flash player may need to be updated.

The advantage of opening SWF files with a browser is that you can quickly view the file without having to download a special file. software(as a rule, the Flash player is already installed in the browser).

The disadvantage of viewing SWF files in the browser is the relatively low functionality (the ability to pause, rewind, stop the video sequence), compared to the players.

Opening SWF Files with Flash Player

There is enough a large number of paid and free Flash players that can be found on the Internet. Functional free players, in fact, does not differ from paid counterparts.

Enough popular program, although no, this is not just a program, but a whole multimedia processor from Korean developers, which, in addition to viewing SWF files, supports most modern multimedia formats.

This feature is implemented thanks to the impressive library of codecs built into the player.

Gnash (a word derived from GNU and Flash) is a player and plugin released under the GPL license to replace proprietary programs (Adobe Flash).

The goal of the Gnash developers is to bring the functionality of the project as close as possible to the proprietary player from Adobe.

Works in UNIX environment.

Swfdec is a free file player distributed under the GPL license.

Presented as a plugin for browsers that support the NSPlugin interface ( Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Konqueror) and player. Works in UNIX- and BSD-like operating systems.

Editing SWF files

Editing SWF files may be necessary when making small adjustments to finished page website, in which case there is no need to use the programs in which the file was created.

With the free SwiX editor, you can make changes directly to the SWF file, without losing the original quality (only the edited component is changed), all you need to do is open the file, make and save the changes.

The editor interface is quite simple and consists of a toolbar, a resource directory and an xml editor.

The key features of the program are the Russian-language interface, the stability of work with big files, the ability to compile / decompile files, as well as the presence of an editor with syntax highlighting, code formatting and auto-completion.

Paid editor Flash Decompiler Trillix with Russian-language interface.

In addition to actually decompiling and editing SWF files, it allows you to convert a SWF file to the FLA format, and SWF elements (audio, video, images, text, shapes, frames) to various formats for the purpose of their subsequent analysis and modification.

The editor has a batch file conversion feature that allows you to select a batch of files to convert, and you can do more useful things.

One of key features of this editor is the ability to view changes "on the go", does not need additional installation Flash Studio and Adobe Flash.

The price for a single-user license is $80.

Sothink SWF Quicker is a fairly powerful application that allows you to not only edit, but also create colorful, animated banners, flash games, videos and much more.

Beginners can use the wizard to create a project, with the ability to select one of the many templates.

Using the editor, any element of the SWF file can be edited.

The features of the program include the presence of an editor with code highlighting, the use of Flash filters to add special visual effects to objects.

As well as applying the effect of morphing to photos and text, the ability to create vector graphics and texts using the WYSIWYG environment, a large number of built-in animation effects.

The license price is $85.

SWF - how to open file

How to open swf files? The extension will help google browser which can be found in the google chrome store

Often a situation arises when it is necessary to make changes to the finished "creation" without having the original FLA file. It can be anything: changing text, pictures, sounds, etc., while in some cases it is not at all necessary to resort to the exact tools with which the file was created. The main difficulty is that the SWF file is an already compiled FLA file. In the presence of the latter, the user has the opportunity to see the entire structure of the file, while SWF contains a minimum of information. After compilation, the SWF file can be imported into Flash, but without additional software it is unlikely that it will be possible to restore its structure. Accordingly, in order to make changes, it is necessary to decompile the SWF file.

This situation has given rise to a lot of programs, such as: Sothink SWF Decompiler, Eltima Flash Decompiler Trillix, Power Flash Decompiler and a great many other utilities. In this article, we will give examples and parameters of some decompilers, as well as consider the decompilation process itself using the Sothink SWF Decompiler program as an example.

Sothink SWF Decompiler is a program for capturing and decompiling a SWF file to FLA, as well as extracting various resources from it. The program allows you to extract images, fonts, sounds, etc. from ready-made SWF files and is considered one of the the best programs for decompilation.

For a person familiar with such a system, it will not be difficult to "disassemble" and then "assemble" a SWF file using the program. For amateurs, this can be a very difficult task. So what does the decompilation process look like in Sothink SWF Decompiler?

Let's start with the interface. Actually, the main window of the program looks like this:

Cost: $79.99

Possibilities:

• Ability to search in source code Action Script - Converting SWF to FLA and to FLEX
• Extract SWF from EXE
• Preview and Export File Resources
• Export ActionScript file to AS and HTML formats
• There is a player for playing flash files
• Detailed view of the properties of elements in a Flash movie
• Support to scan the IE cache and list all the Flash files you have viewed

Cost: $79.95

Possibilities:

• Supports Action Script v. 2.0 and v.3.0
• Ability to export flash movies to formats such as AVI, MPEG, etc.
• Ability to fine-tune SWF to FLA conversion
• Ability to decompile and convert multiple flash movies at the same time
• Ability to edit file objects without converting to FLA
• Extract file resources to various formats
• Has a built-in Flash player
• Ability to save Flash movies online
• User-friendly interface: scalable, toolbar ribbon

Cost: $44.95

• Convert SWF to FLV and EXE
• Ability to export data from a flash file to a FLA file:
  • Export sounds and videos from a flash file
  • Export text, shapes, buttons, images, fonts and frames from a flash file
  • Export scripts from a flash file
• Browse and preview resources before exporting
• Support editing dynamic text in flash file
• Support moving images in flash file
• View detailed information about each object from a flash movie

What else would you like to add about flash decompilers? At first glance, working with them is quite simple, and to a certain extent it is. However, when decompiling SWF files, difficulties may arise, since when using such programs, errors in the code may occur, which will have to be corrected "manually". And for a user unfamiliar with the Action Script language, this can be a very difficult task.

A free program for creating flash videos of almost any degree of complexity! It includes almost all the necessary tools for everyday work with flash and can be used by both beginners and professionals. The main difference and advantage of this program is support for ActionScript 2.0, without which it is simply impossible to imagine the creation of professional flash content.

It seems that Dima Bilan is right when he says that the impossible is possible :). Until quite recently, web developers had to either pirate or pay quite a lot of money for the opportunity to work with flash animation. And finally, the hour has come when the third full-fledged option has appeared - to use a free flash editor.

Previously, our site already had one similar program, but its minus was some obsolescence, a limited set of tools and the lack of support for the ActionScript programming language, which is so necessary to create any kind of functional sites, games, etc.

Today I will introduce you to a completely modern flash editor, which can compete almost on an equal footing with the eminent Adobe Flash - Vectorian Giotto.

Comparison of Vectorian Giotto with a paid analogue

As you can see, the developers of Vectorian Giotto did their best and tried to fit into their program the maximum possible set of functions similar to Adobe Flash. In addition, most of the keyboard shortcuts are also the same, so those who are used to working with the Adobe editor, it will not be difficult to switch to the free Vectorian Giotto platform!

Well, for "dessert" in free editor there is also something that is sometimes so lacking in the "big brother" - a built-in library of animation effects that will appeal especially to those who create flash banners.

Preparation for work

To get started with Vectorian Giotto, we need to download the archive with the installer, which, by the way, weighs only 8 megabytes! When the archive is downloaded, open it and run the file VectorianGiotto.exe.

Despite the fact that the installation (and the program itself, sadly :)) is in English, it should not cause any difficulties, since it is not necessary to change anything in the default settings. Just click the "Next" button several times and wait for the installation process to complete;).

First acquaintance with the interface

At the end of the installation, if we did not change anything in default settings, the Vectorian Giotto working window will appear in front of us in full screen:

As I already said, the program interface is in English, so in order to avoid misunderstandings and misunderstandings when performing further actions described in the article, I would like to introduce some kind of conceptual apparatus :). Let's start, as usual, from top to bottom and from left to right.

Menu bar. This is the panel on which all the menus of the Vectorian Giotto program are located. When working with animation, you may need sections such as "File" (to save and export your animation to SWF), "View" (to set the display settings of the workspace), "Modify" (to control the parameters of the current document and work with the library effects) and "Window" (to customize the displayed modules and panels of the program).

Main toolbar. Here are the project action control buttons and the animation playback panel.

Drawing panel (occupies the entire left part of the program window). Here are all the necessary tools to create any desired objects for your animation, as well as buttons that allow you to configure the parameters of the desired tools.

Storyboard (or timeline). Allows you to manage cells for frames and created layers.

Color Control Panel. With it, you can quickly change the color of previously created shapes. It also serves to select the type of filling for your animation objects (solid, gradient, etc.).

Workspace. It is a virtual sheet of "paper" designed for drawing your animations :).

ActionScript editor. If you need to create not simple banners, but something more complex, including buttons and all kinds of interactive objects, then you cannot do without a script editor.

Clip structure panel. Displays all the shapes that are "in the frame" and allows you to quickly switch between them and manage their sequence.

Properties panel. Each object in flash has certain properties. This panel is used to manage them.

Transform panel. Allows you to quickly change the size and position of the selected animation element.

Library of elements. Represents a list of created or imported objects that can be (and repeatedly!) inserted into the animation.

Animate can import the SWF file format. However, the SWF files are processed and many types of data inside the SWF file cannot be re-imported into Animate.

SWF format

The SWF format is a special compressed file format designed for small file sizes with scalability. To keep the file size small, several elements from the original Animate format are compressed into such data that Animate cannot re-import them.

If the "protect from import" option is selected when creating the SWF file, Animate will prevent the file from being re-imported. Attempting to import a protected SWF results in an error message.

Opening and import

Opening a SWF file (File > Open) opens the clip in clip test mode.

Importing a SWF file (File > Import) produces the following results:

• Sounds are not imported.
• Graphics containing animation are imported with each animation keyframe in a new keyframe. The content of each frame in the source animation is converted to a new graphic symbol, one for each frame in the source symbol.
• The entire layout is lost. The import adds keyframes to the layer that was active when you chose the File > Import menu command, but the original layout structure and layer names are not preserved.
• Clip timelines are not imported. Individual elements from the first frame of the clip's timeline are imported but converted to graphics. All other frames of the clip are lost.
• Buttons are now treated as clips. Graphics in the Not Pressed keyframe state are converted to graphic symbols. Everything else is lost.
• Animation is not imported.
• Motion paths are not imported. However, the images from each in-between frame of the motion path are imported as separate images in separate keyframes.
• Imported bitmaps used in the clip import successfully, but their original library names are not preserved. They are renamed to "Bitmap 1", "Bitmap 2", etc.