Additional tools provide the ability to control fonts. These can be either TrueType or Postscript fonts (royalty free fonts, graphics, sounds
and images come with Flash 2) and can control alignment, size, kerning, spacing, tracking, indents and color control for animated logos or banners.One of the strengths of Flash 2 is that it can make individual
picture elements a separate object and then assign them specific properties. Because of this you can work on it with the precision that most illustration packages allow.
It can also group numerous objects into a
Symbol and then work on it as if it were one Object. A Symbol can then be reused many times in an animation but only needs to be downloaded once. This improves the on-line download time considerably.
Its graphics
resize in real time as the web browser window resizes. This aids web developers who can work confidently without having to know in advance the size of the audience's browser windows.
Flash graphics are anti-aliased.
Unlike others image format it renders smoothly on the PC without producing rough edges (jaggies). Because this rendering occurs on the PC, the size of Flash files are much smaller than others, especially GIFs.
Nonetheless they don't work well with photographs (JPEG is best for that), but for intensive line art.
Creating Animations:
In order to create animations one uses either the timeline interface or the tweening
tools. The timelines feature will be familiar to those who have used Director, DreamWeaver or Adobe's Premiere. The timelines tools support multiple layers. Tweening (which originated from the term in-betweening) allows
you to place images at the beginning and end of a file and then allow Flash to merge them for you. No programming by the user is involved.
Creating an animation can be achieved with frames by filling each frame with
multiple layers of objects. Flash then fills the gaps between the intermediate frames with other frames. This allows the transition between frames to move very smoothly.
The addition of Flash 2's stereo sound features
places it far ahead of other rival plug-ins. Though not advanced enough to be a standalone sound studio, it allows various effects to be interwoven into the files.
For example, sound can fade in/out or go from left to
right between the user's PC's speakers: a nice feature for advertising and entertainment people. Sounds can also be compressed and a powerful generated report breaks down the file size into graphics and sound.
However, after you have created you animations you need to alter your web page with a few lines of HTML code. This code is to automatically download the plug-in onto the user's hard-disk. The users will also need to get
the Shockwave Flash Animation plug-in or ActiveX module from the Macromedia site. Web designers will need to add the Flash 2 MIME to the web server otherwise no-one can view their work.
Flash 2 also isn't restricted
to animation as it can create interactive buttons, terrific sounds, and allows users to move to next/previous pages. Again, all without programming.
Summary:
Flash 2 is still proprietary and Macromedia's
marketing people have not managed to get it bundled with either Netscape or Microsoft. Although there is talk of it - and Shockwave - being bundled with later Netscape releases, until then, user's still have to
visit the Macromedia site to download the plug-in.
Getting to understand the interface, though as slick as other Macromedia products, takes some patience. The excellent documentation and help files should assist both
the novice user and web developers in their adventures with advanced web animation.
Its inexpensive price - $199 - and ample tutorials more than compensate for the inconvenience that the interface sometimes
creates.
Flash 2 offer such a range of robust features that it a must-have animation tool that web designers need in their toolbox.
