Flash! Ahh-ahhhhh... (Macromedia Flash 5)

Member Name: tclark

Product:	Macromedia Flash 5
Date:	28/08/02 (408 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Makes sites more interesting, you can do almost anything with it!

Disadvantages: Difficult to learn and perfect, expensive

...saviour of the universe! So sang Queen. But they were not, alas, referring to this fab product which, while not possessing universe-saving properties nor a natty dress sense, would at least have impressed Ming the Merciless enough to divert him from his evil plans.

Getting back on topic...even if you haven't heard of *Macromedia* Flash, it's likely that you have visited a website that uses it. The software lets you create smooth vector graphic animations (think South Park) that can be as simple as a cartoon bee buzzing in the air to whole Flash sites with interactive quizzes and streaming MP3 background music.

The interface looks a lot like a conventional drawing program with its pencil, brush, line, circle and eraser tools, as well as the blank canvas, but it's a lot more complicated than this. Each Flash movie is made up of a number of what animators call "keyframes". You make changes between each keyframe to create the illusion of smooth movement. For example, you on keyframe 1 you might have a man with his hand on his hat, on keyframe 2 the man holding his hat in the air and keyframe 3 the same as 1. The software works out the extra frames in between those keyframes...put it together and you have a man taking his hat off! Simple so far, but imagine what great animations you could create. You could be the next Tex Avery!

Unfortunately, unless you are Tex Avery, the procedure to create even such a simple cartoon can be daunting. It took me a few weeks to learn how to use Flash, although the software is made as simple as possible. The help feature is realy informative too, with examples and lessons that actually get you using the software, not just reading about it.

So how do these animations get from your screen to the user's web browser? Well, you need a plugin, a small program that expands your web browser's abilities, before you can see any Flash animations in your browser. Happily, the latest
browsers already come with this plugin: over 90% of computers already have the plug-in and if not, it only takes a few minutes to download from the Macromedia site. However if your content isn't worth viewing, if it's just a splash screen for example, visitors won't bother to download the plugin. So you do have to make sure you're making something worthwhile with Flash.

Flash isn't just about static animations, oh no, this latest version is all about interactivity. You can use the in-built scripting language, ActionScript (which is a bit hard to learn, but the program helps you every step of the way) to do virtually anything in Flash. You can for example add surveys and games to your Flash movies, play sounds when the user completes a task, and much much more. These site have examples of incredible Flash use, and couldn't possibly have existed without Flash:

http://www.praystation.com/
http://www.volumeone.com/

The software has other uses too. You can make a presentation small enough to fit on a floppy disk and save the Flash file as an executable (program file), so it can work even without a web browser. You can also save Flash movies as AVI or Quicktime videos, to use in other programs, and animated gifs. If you can think of a multimedia idea, it can probably be done in Flash!

The software's a bit expensive at over £300 but you can sometimes find previous versions on computer magazine CDs. Students should contact Macromedia as they often have special prices for learning editions which are just the same as the normal versions except they can't be used for commercial purposes. Hope this has helped, and "happy flashing"!

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