Low stage quality export?

[NODA Copenhagen]

Whenever I animate in Animate CC (Which I'll call flash for brevity), I set the stage quality to "Low,". I really like the way this looks, but I don't know how to make it export that way. Usually I'd just export from Flash as an swf and convert it to an mp4 or mov, but I'd be willing to try anything for it to export like the preview. If anyone knows how to do this, I'd REALLY appreciate the help.

[rayek.elfin · Accepted solution]

You can export as animated GIF with the SMOOTH option turned off (publish options).

Preferably we'd want to export to a PNG sequence (because GIF only support up to 256 colours) but the Smooth option in Flash/Animate CC for PNG export was broken a number of versions ago, and the developers never got around fixing it.

Another option is to play the stage at low quality, and use some sort of screen recording software to record the canvas part of the screen, and edit later in a video editor.

[Colin Holgate]

There is stage.quality. If you do:

stage.quality = "low";

that should be what you want.

[deans67202452]

This is a personal preference rather than help, but I would export normally from Animate and then replicate the look you are after in After Effects, that would give you more control and is easier to replicate across other machines/locations.

[NODA Copenhagen]

This sounds perfect. How though?

[Colin Holgate]

deans probably means techniques like in this tutorial:

8 bit Animation Tutorial After Effects - YouTube

Did you try the stage.quality = low idea?

[NODA Copenhagen]

My sincerest apologies, I don't think I'm conveying how completely clueless I am. Do I write "stage.quality = low" in the Output tab? Because when I do that, it just disappears after I ctrl+enter to preview.

[Colin Holgate]

Click in frame 1 of any layer (you could make another layer just for this if you like). Open the Actions panel, paste this into it:

stage.quality = "low";

When you export video it should make all the edges look jaggy. It won't be the limited color palette, low resolution graphics from the 1980s, but it might be ok for you.

[deans67202452]

There are heaps of ways to do it, just google 'after effects pixel'. The easiest way is to apply the Mosaic effect on your animation. But if you are particularly fond of the low res Animate look, then follow Colin's directions.