![]() ![]() With Flash CS3 Professional, you get convenient extras like filters (predefined blurs, glows, and drop shadows), blend modes (transparency effects that make compositing, or combining images, easy), and custom easing (the ability to slow down or speed up animated tweens with the click of a button). The examples, explanations, and step-by-step instructions in the next 14 chapters show you how to turn that idea into a working animation.Īdditional graphic effects. All you need are this book and an idea of what you’d like to create. You don’t have to be a professional artist, animator, or software developer to create useful animations with Flash. If Flash is an incredibly powerful, useful program-and it is-it’s also harder to use than a greased tightrope. Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. This ubiquity is a huge boon for anyone interested in creating animations with Flash, because once you create your masterpiece, virtually everyone connected to the Internet will be able to see and enjoy it–with one caveat: If you use brand-new features introduced in Flash CS3, folks running an earlier version of Flash Player (like 6 or 7) may not be able to see your animation the way you meant for it to look, until they download and install a copy of the Flash 9 Player. In fact, depending on whose figures you believe, somewhere between 70 and 98 percent of all the PCs and Macs connected to the Web can play Flash animations right out of the box. So, unlike Apple’s QuickTime or RealNetworks’ RealPlayer, Web surfers don’t have to do anything special to play Flash animations embedded in Web pages. One of the reasons for Flash’s success is that a version of Flash Player comes with most browsers (including AOL, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Netscape, and Opera) and operating systems (including all Windows and Mac versions). With support for runtime scripting, back end data transfers, and interactive controls such as buttons and text boxes, Flash has everything a programmer needs to create a cool-looking game (check out for a few examples) or other rich Internet applications (Adobe/Macromedia’s $20 term for “Web-based program”). But where the TV and film industry is seriously adopting Flash is on promotional Web sites, where they wed Flash graphics to scenes taken from their movies and shows to present powerful trailers, interactive tours of movie and show sets, and teasers. The Hollywood set has been known to use Flash to create spectacular visual effects for TV shows and even small feature films. For example, photo kiosks walk customers through the process of transferring images from their digital cameras and ordering their own prints kiosks in banks let customers withdraw funds, check interest rates, and make deposits. Many of the kiosks you see in stores and building lobbies use Flash to help customers find what they need. Marketing types can use Flash to create slick, storyboarded, buy-our-stuff-now animations and program mock-ups.Ĭustomer service kiosks. You don’t have to deliver your tutorials over the Web, though you can publish them as standalone projector files ( Chapter 14) and deliver them to your students via CDs or DVDs.įull-length ads and product presentations. By hooking Flash up to a server on the back end, you can even present your audience with graded tests and up-to-the-minute product information. Web-based training courses, which often include a combination of text, drawings, animations, video clips, and voice-overs, are a natural fit for Flash. Clicking the banner zips you to a different Web page, where you can place an order online. Here, Magritte-like characters float up into the air, suspended from their umbrellas. The best ones combine creativity with action. ![]() Figure I-2. Over half of the banner ads you run across on the Web were produced using Flash.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |