What is Flash?
Flash is Macromedia's line-drawing animation technology. With Flash you can create smaller more
sophisticated files than animated GIFs. Because of this, it is becoming the software of choice for
Web animation. In a Flash environment, you can create interactive, vector-based web sites and desktop
applications. Flash allows you to create animations to publish on the Web or as stand-alone files.
With Flash You can cause objects to spin, grow, shrink, or blink, and stop. Do you need to explain how
your product works? Use Flash to create an animated demonstration. Flash is bandwidth-friendly, and the
proper plug-ins make it work with any browser.
Flash can create animated sequences using frame-by-frame and tweened animation. You can use it to
add sound to movies. Flash's advanced ActionScript techniques create interactive forms. Flash evaluates
the position of an object, and dynamically sets properties of an object. With its graphical user
interface, code generating capability and drag-and-drop functionality, animation with Flash can be done
"in a flash"!
With Flash you can import any standard video file supported by QuickTime or Windows Media Player, including MPEG, DV (Digital Video), MOV (QuickTime), and AVI. Manipulate, scale, rotate, skew, mask, and animate video objects, and make them interactive using scripting. Video is natively supported in Macromedia Flash Player 6 with the addition of the Sorenson Spark codec. Learn Macromedia Flash MX quickly with its familiar and flexible development environment. that contains a new Answers panel that connects the web to the development tool and provides useful information to designers and developers within the user interface.
Macromedia Flash Player dynamically loads external JPEG and MP3 media files during runtime, which results in smaller file sizes. Macromedia Flash content can be bookmarked, allowing for the use of the browser Back and Forward buttons. Free Transform tool and Pixel-Level Snapping Control provide enhanced creative freedom and control over graphic content. Persistent XML connectivity allows real-time information to be displayed. Use XML structured data to create sales forms, virtual shopping carts, customer surveys, and more. Flash Player also supports assistive technologies such as screen readers through support of Microsoft Active Accessibility. In addition, Macromedia Flash integrates tools for creating accessible content.
Flash supports vertical text and Unicode for building multilingual content and applications. Flash comes with a core set of pre-built, customizable components for common application interfaces, including scrollbars, rich text fields, input buttons, radio buttons and check boxes, and list and combo boxes.
If you want animation on your web site, then Flash is the software you need.
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Flash Training Courses
The following Flash training courses are available from Blue Star Learning...
FL8-1 - Flash 8: Basic
FL8-2 - Flash 8: Advanced
FL8-3 - Flash 8: Professional
FL8FT - Flash Professional 8: Fast Track
FLCS3AS - Flash CS3: ActionScript 3.0
FLCS3FTP - Flash CS3: Fast Track Professional