Cool Flash Websites

Browsing the Internet today without encountering Web pages that contain some form of animation, sound, video, or a combination of all three is almost impossible. From simple animated GIFs, to Flash movies (or cool Flash websites), and even full-screen interactive images with sound and motion, adding animations to Web pages has the potential to enliven your designs. Unfortunately, the overuse of animation and sound can be annoying and a distraction to your visitors. Two opposing goals drive advances on the Internet:

• Web authors trying to please visitors want to transmit increasingly elaborate types of content (sound, animation, and video) over the Web.
• To reach Web site visitors, the file size for content must be small enough to load quickly, or the visitors grow impatient and move on to other sites.

When you work with animation on the Web, you incorporate one or more technologies (Flash, Shockwave, GIF animation, or video and sound applications) with the ultimate goal of creating an eye-catching Web page.

An animation is actually a series of still images displayed quickly one after another. The illusion of motion is created as your eye retains one image (persistence of vision) as the program "playing" the animation displays the next image onscreen. To create a smooth motion effect, the program must display each new image (or frame) within a fraction of a second of removing the last, so that the eye sees the new image just as the previous image fades.

The primary role of Web animation is to draw the attention of visitors to your Web site. However, Web animation can also entertain and inform. Young children (especially those that are just beginning to read) love movement and tend to focus on it. Therefore, you can use animation to grab and focus a young child's attention for an extended period on a concept you are trying to convey. In addition, a Web page can use animation and sound to explain the steps in a complicated procedure or process. For example, an animated sequence (or perhaps a video) displaying the steps necessary to program a VCR to record a movie, accompanied by a narrator explaining the steps, is far more effective than a plain text document explaining the same procedure. The specific intent of the Web page you design will influence the type of animation and software required to create it. Animation is important to the design of a Web site, and as a Web designer, you can choose from several methods to achieve your specific goals.

If you were impressed by the cool Flash websites that you have seen all over the internet and you want to know more about it, then you should definitely read the followings.

Flash is a multimedia development tool created by the Macromedia Corporation (and taken over by the Adobe Corporation later) that lets you create full-screen animations, incorporating sound and interactivity using very small file sizes. Flash keeps the file sizes small through the use of vector images. Vector images are smaller than traditional bitmap images because they use math to describe the graphics instead of pixels. When you save a traditional bitmap image (GIF or JPEG), the file has to record and store information within the graphics file that describes each and every pixel, which creates large files. In contrast, when you save a vector graphic, the image uses mathematical formulas to save the image information. For example, assume that you use a graphics program to draw a picture of a line. If you store the image within a raster (bitmap) format, the file must store all the pixels that comprise the line, as well as those that make up the image background. In contrast, if you store the image in a vector format, the file will store an equation (such as the slope of the line) as well as the line's start and end points.

Because files saved as vectors are small, the images download to the browser faster than traditional JPEG or GIF images. Vector images saved for use in Flash animation are defined as SVG image files, or Scalable Vector Graphics. SVG images can be resized (made larger or smaller) while the animation is playing, without loss of image quality. This means that you can create complicated Flash animation files, which load and play quickly on a visitor's computer. Using Flash over traditional GIF animation offers several advantages:

• Flash uses small image file sizes - Smaller file sizes for vector images translates into fast-loading animations.
• Flash enjoys cross-platform browser support - Whether you use Microsoft Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, or the Macintosh or Windows platform, does not matter. The plug-in that runs Flash animation is free and is available for most Web browsers.
• Flash lets you resize images during animation - Vector images resize with ease, creating images that look great at any size you decide to use.
• Flash uses streaming technology - When a visitor downloads a Flash animation, they do not have to wait for the entire file to download. The animation will start as soon as the visitor's Web browser receives enough of the Flash data to begin the animation.
• Flash is interactive - Flash lets you create interactive menus and navigation bars without prior experience in programming languages.
• Flash incorporates JavaScript - Flash is fully compatible with JavaScript. Because all browsers universally accept the JavaScript language, you can create even more complicated interaction between your page and its visitors.
• Flash incorporates sound - Flash works seamlessly with sound files, letting you create movement and audio in the same animation.

If you visit the Adobe Web site, you can download a trial version of Flash, which you can use for 30 days to create your own Flash animations.

Although Flash is a popular way to create animation, it is not without competition. In 1999, Adobe released LiveMotion. Adobe LiveMotion creates full-screen animation with vector graphics similar to those used in Macromedia Flash (Adobe Flash later).

When you work with Flash, you are, in a sense, a movie director. Say, for example, that Hollywood decides to create a new movie. One of the first things they will do is hire a director. The director, in turn, works with actors, sound production crews, set designers, and camera operators to create the movie. In Flash, you are the director, and the actors are the elements within the Flash movie. Actors (or elements) can be text, clip art, photographic images, as well as sound and video. If you do not have Flash, you can download a 30-day trial version of the software from the Adobe Web site at http://www.adobe.com/downloads. When you open Flash for the first time, you see a stage, surrounded by a work area. The stage and work area are where you place the separate pieces (elements) of the animation. In fact, think of the stage as the screen that projects your movie. When elements are on stage, they are visible within the movie; when they are in the work area, they are off-stage and therefore not visible.

Directly above the stage is the Flash timeline. Each element in a Flash movie has a timeline that tells the program when the element appears on the stage and when it disappears, or leaves the stage. You can add key frames to the timeline to move the element from one position on the stage to another.

Remember, using animation is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, animation attracts attention and keeps visitors on your Web site. However, too much animation can detract from your primary message by distracting the site visitor. (if your website is specialized on Flash games, there is no problem with a lot of animation; and you can find online a huge variety of game websites, like funny dumb flash games, funny flash games or you can even play free online inuyasha games)Create a balance between animation and the goal of the Web page. Ask yourself if the animation contributes to what you are trying to say, or is it animation for animation's sake?