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Optimaze! by IdeaWorks3D

In Flash MX, you can compress the bitmaps, the sounds and even the ActionScript, but what if you file is primarily built of vectors? Where do you turn to when you need to squeeze some Kb? Optimaze, the only vector compression program available, are put to the test. Optimaze claim a typical 20-45% reduced file size. Can this be true?

Yes it can. This program is nothing less than amazing and it totally lives up to its hype. If you ever have done optimizations by hand, you will love this tool! Ever worked on a project where the client had special requirements for file size? What usually happens is that you have to omit the best looking parts of your project, just to meet those demands. With this program, you may even do the opposite.

First looks
Upon startup, you instantly see this is a special program. The program window itself is 800x600 with no scaling options. The background is black with details in orange. Rather different from your standard grey/blue windows program. Menus at the top, preview area in the middle and playback and compression controls at the bottom of the screen. There is also a summary telling you how many Kb you have saved compared to the original file.

The most fascinating about Optimaze is that not only is this a program for working with SWF files, but the whole User Interface is a big SWF! Right click anywhere on the screen and you'll see the Settings of the Flash Player. Why not? Flash is a great tool for creating interfaces.

Putting it to work
The basic procedure when you're working with Optimaze would be like this:
1. Load the SWF
2. Apply the main compression setting
3. Apply individual compression to movieClips
4. Save and enjoy the savings

The process will take just a few minutes, depending on the complexity of your movie and number of movieClips. Choosing the right compression level does take some time to get used to, but once you get the hang of it, it's easy. Compression is applied by the means of a slider ranging from 0-100. This is by no means lossless compression, so what you have to look out for, is distortions that really change the appearance of your movie.

It may be hard to see the difference unless you apply heavy compression, so Optimaze has a button to switch between the compressed and uncompressed version to see what has been changed. In one of our tests, the eyes of a figure actually changed from "happy" to "angry" when 30% compression was applied, so look out for compression artifacts.

Just next to the compression slider, there is an important button that could easily be mistaken for being just some text. This is the button to switch between the two main compression settings, straight or curved. Use the wrong setting, and you'll get ugly artifacts. Applying the wrong combination might even cause the file to be bigger! Use the right combination and you'll get a smaller SWF.

After applying the main compression, you go to work on the different symbols in the movie. On the left side of the program is a tab that will list all the movieClips in your movie. Click this to expand it and browse the symbols. Optimize can only apply compression to movieClips, so you'll only see those in the list. Compressing the movieClips is done the same way as for the whole movie. Just drag a slider to set straight and curved compression until you are pleased.

How much can you expect to save?
On very simple files, we couldn't compress anything without serious artifacts. This is noted in the Optimaze manual too. Since the program use simplification to compress, there must be a certain level of complexity for it to be able to compress. Our initial test was an animation for Gilera/Burton created by a very seasoned Flasher that really knows what builds file size. After working a while with the program, we really got the hang of this and managed to squeeze at least 30% off the Vectors on virtually all files. How much you save really depends on the file and its complexity.

Can you see any difference exept for the file size? SWF before and after

In some cases, our animation actually looked better after compression due to compression artifacts. Our best result was on a still image of a Jelly Candy figure covered in sugar. This image has a very high complexity and the result was more than 50% off the size without any compression artifacts. The original looks just as good as the compressed.

Filters
They are not easy to find unless you use the manual, but they are there (press CRTL + F). The filters are really cool to play with. With just a few clicks, you can distort a complete animation beyond recognition with filters such as Explode, Windy and Optical. 8 different filters come with the program. In most cases, they do not add much to the file size as compression should be applied after using the filters.

Initially, we thought that this was a program that you could just dive into and start using. That was true, but reading the manual would have saved IdeaWorks3D (the makers) some support emails. When you open the Filters panel, you instantly assume that this is where you apply the FX. When creating effects, you actually have to switch between setting values in the filters panel and applying FX level in the main window. Once the Filter panel opens, the compression slider turns into a slider for choosing the FX-level. Turning this window into a floating panel, like those found in Flash, would solve parts of this confusion, but why not put all related settings in one place? Chances are that many users will not discover this feature, unless they read the manual carefully.

A couple issues
The program behaved very well all the time, but some small things can be done even better for the next release. When switching between the original and the compressed version, some movieClips were reset to their first frame. Due to this, it seemed that the eye behind this girl had been compressed to nothing, but if played back it was still there.

Closed eyes or did I compress it too much?

When I resize something, I usually want it to stay that way. If I scale the window for applying compression to single movieClips, the program will still open a small version the next time. Storing the size of this window would be a nice improvement.

Only being able to apply compression to movieClips is a major drawback that should be fixed in the next version. For animation, designers often use the Graphic symbol as they let you scrub the main timeline while viewing the animation. This is critical for doing lip-sync and animating objects in relation to each other. If you were to change all Graphic symbols to movieClip symbols in a long animation, this would be a huge job.

The Optimaze manual mentions that Graphic symbols may suddenly increase their size massively when modified. We have also noticed this, and it seems to be a bug in Flash. Working tight with Macromedia on this one should make compression of Graphic symbols possible in a future version.

Conclusion
You need this! Anyone doing animations in Flash or any other program should really get this program. Creating smaller, easier streaming animation is a pain. Optimaze simply removes all the hassle. In just seconds, this program can compress the same amount of Kb that you would use a full day to achieve manually, so it will probably pay for itself the first time you use it on a client project.

This is the first version of the program and it does have some minor interface issues in addition to the ones we already have mentioned. IdeaWorks3D has told us that they will address most of the issues in the next update of the program.
Visit File-Size.com to see more examples or buy the program