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CLICK...NOW, I SEE SMALL MATCHSTICK
that is burning with speed on the right bottom of my computer screen.
I can feel it's burning very realistically because I am hearing the sound effect
'Geeeeeeegeeee'. Suddenly, the screen starts to fill with some logos with jazz music.
As soon as I read them, the letters change their shapes and colors drawing a particular
moving line. And then they disappear backward very smoothly and quickly as if a planet
were sucked into a black hole in space. However, another graphic is coming right
away. At that moment, those words just come out from my mouth. ' Wow! It's really
cool! How could they make web sites like this?
When I first saw web sites using Flash, I was really shocked. The web sites showed
dynamic animated logos, appropriate sound effects and fantastic moving graphics that
load and play instantly. I guess most web surfers have this kind of experience like
mine. And I believe they would become very interested in Flash and want to know about
it next. Even though I am newbie in using this multimedia application, I will try
to tell when it was introduced, what Flash is and why it is welcomed to lots of web
developers by looking into the characteristics of Flash.
Macromedia Inc. introduced their first Flash 2.0 version in April 1997. Although
this early version had some limits, it gave the new chance to show the moving animation
directly in the web browser to Internet. However, Flash 3.0 just followed to the
early version in May 1998. As soon as Flash 3.0 with various tools and technical
aspects was introduced, it became popular in Internet. Graphics and animation created
with Flash technology provide a positive experience for web visitors. And web developers
began to use Flash to create dynamic web sites that needed beautiful moving graphics
as well as sound effects beyond the existing static or slow animation.
Flash has the advantage of being able to jump over the graphic effects of Java applet,
DHTML, JavaScript because Flash could deliver the moving animation instantly without
waiting to load active graphics and occupying huge file size.
In addition, Macromedia has made numerous distribution agreements to ensure the ubiquity
of Flash. It means Flash ships with most leading operating systems, media players,
and web browser, including Window 98, MacOS8.6, American Online 4.0, Web TV, RealNetworks'
Realplayer, and current Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. So, Web
users can view Flash content without having to download plug-ins. Lately, Macromedia
Inc. released the new version Flash 4.0, the latest incarnation of its multimedia
player and authoring software. The company's consistent development of new version
and web browsers' supports tell that Flash is widely used by people and has worthy
enough to be recognized as a powerful multimedia tool.
Now, let's see how Flash has become welcomed to web users by understanding its various
characteristics and advantages.
First, Flash offers vector-based images, instead of mapping out image pixel by pixel.
A vector graphic simply tells a display program to "draw a perfect circle exactly
100 pixels in diameter." A bitmap program maps out every pixel in that circle,
which requires more information. Therefore, a vector graphic not only occupies just
a small file size and is delivered in a short time but also is still good and sharp
even though the image is enlarged 10 times. On the other hand, a bitmap graphic can
be broken or shows bad quality in case of scale-up or down, as well as it has a large
file size. Because of bandwidth concerns on the Web, there has been an urgent need
for vector graphic standards. However, Flash is satisfying its need.
Second, Flash gives web designers the ability to import their artworks on other design
tools like Photoshop, 3D tool, Illustrator, Freehand and various sound file formats.
Those files can be re-authored with Flash's tool like Timeline in order to create
extremely small, high-impact, vector-based web sites that deliver motion, sound,
interactivity and graphic. Lately, Macromedia Inc. unveiled Flash Writer, its free
downloadable plug-in for Adobe Illustrator. This enables Illustrator users to save
their graphic files to the Flash Player file format (SWF) so that Illustrator users
can immediately utilize their artwork on the web without having requiring them to
reform it as a bitmapped file. These kinds of interactivity and flexibility would
be the reason that people prefer to Flash.
In JUNE 1999, NPD research, the parent company of MediaMetrix, showed the research
result that 83.1% of web users could experience Flash content. Why do many people
feel a strong interest in Flash? Well, I tried to say about Flash here. However,
I believe my explanation would be not enough. Okay, I will introduce some dazzling
web sites using Flash for you. After enjoying those web sites, you will fall in love
with the attractive Flash Technology and want to get more information about Flash.
Leslie Chung was
born in South Korea. After graduating from university in Korea with a bachelor's
degree in art, she moved to Calgary to take the two year mulitmedia program at SAIT.
She is excited about exploring the new media world.
Sample Flash sites
http://www.nagafigi.com
http://www.rayoflight.net/
http://www.indig.com/home.html
http://www.macromedia.com/shockzone
http://www.spumco.com
http://www.monkeymedia.com
http://www.manoone.com/
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