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MACROMEDIA FLASH
In Brief: An interactive content and animation web authoring tool, Macromedia's Flash--the Macintosh and Windows resolution-independent version-is covered in the review. At first glance, Flash appears to be a reasonably simple paint and vector tool. Though thankfully, it can be an accessible program to learn and grow with, in fact it is anything but simple. The design and thought processes behind this package are expansive and deeply thought out. Flash is the reigning and undisputed heavyweight of animation web programs.
Price: $299
Info: www.macromedia.com
As most web designers know, Flash is the reigning and undisputed heavyweight of animation web programs and has been for several years. Macromedia continues to defend the Flash franchise bundling its Flash Player-required to view Flash animations-with the Mac OS as well as Windows and its Internet Explorer. Flash Player is also included with copies of Netscape Navigator. Causes for the huge lead Macromedia enjoys with its flagship product are subtle to obvious. I'll attempt to explore reasons for its market dominion within the limits of this article's length and its context.
The Flash Interface
At first glance, Flash appears to be a reasonably simple paint and vector tool. Though thankfully, it can be an accessible program to learn and grow with, in fact it is anything but simple. The design and thought processes behind this package are expansive and deeply thought out.
Very broadly speaking, there are four main elements to the Flash UI. They are: the TOOLBAR, the STAGE, the TIMELINE and the LIBRARY. The Toolbar resembles paint and graphics toolbars of well known draw and animation programs, though its functionality is unlike any of them in several areas. The Stage is where art and content is placed for viewing, editing and manipulation. As in other animations programs, the Timeline represents changes and edits to content and art over time. The Library is essentially the Flash "asset manager" and stores bit-mapped or vector art in an easy to implement and organized palette.
Before I go into details about the art creation powers of Flash, I should mention that although it has many unique attributes, it was not meant to replace dedicated vector tools such as Macromedia Freehand or Adobe Illustrator. In the hands of...