Flash Tutorial - Why Use Flash
What is Flash and when you should use it?
The Flash technology allows you to create entire websites, animations and separate navigation items. It can be used in various parts of your design. Although Flash`s vector images are compact and files are compressed when published, it may take some time to load. Therefore, minimizing the size of your Flash videos will signifficantly reduce the loading time for your website.
In general, a good guideline is that you should use Flash only when it does not violate two basic principles:
- the Flash files load fast
- the Flash tools are easy to use
Flash is most commonly used to create vector graphics-based animation programs with full-screen navigation interfaces, graphic illustrations, and simple interactivity in an antialiased, resizable file format that is small enough to stream across a normal modem connection.
How does Flash work
If you were to plot a bitmap on a grid, each pixel is detailed. Essentially, this is what your computer does when it displays bitmaps.
Vector images do not plot images on a pixel-by-pixel basis. Instead, vector files contain a description of the image expressed mathematically. Essentially, the file tells the computer about the image and the computer draws it.
Formats and Support
Macromedia/Adobe has released the specifications of the Flash file format (excluding specifications of related formats such as AMF), and compatible third-party tools exist. However, Macromedia/Adobe retains control of the format. Since Flash files do not depend on a truly open standard, this reduces the incentive for non-commercial software to support the format, although there are several third party tools which utilize and generate the SWF file format.
In addition to a vector rendering engine, the Flash Player includes a virtual machine called the ActionScript Virtual Machine (AVM) for scripting interactivity at run-time, support for video, mp3-based audio, and bitmap graphics.
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