[Note: If you're using Flash 5, then hop on over to the Flash 5 Tutorial, and if you're using Flash 4, check out our Flash 4 tutorial. This baby is for Flash 3 users only.]
So you want to add snappy interactivity and animations to your Web pages, but don't want to create huge "click here and go get a sandwich" files? Flash 3 may be for you. It doesn't require the scripting savvy of DHTML. And if you've ever used Macromedia's Director, you already have a head start. Even if you haven't, I'm here to help you catch up.
The only way to create Flash content is with the Flash application. The
process of making a Flash movie is easy to learn, but mastering it takes time
and sweat. Here and in Part 2
of this tutorial, I'll show you the basics of making a Flash movie. Then
I'll point you toward what you need to learn to become a Flash grandmaster.
Flash was originally called FutureSplash. Last year, Macromedia acquired the small company that developed FutureSplash as a way to complement their flagship product Director. Director, which has been around longer than the Web, is a highly scriptable program built to create interactive presentations and games. Chances are your favorite CD-ROM game was created with Director.
Way back when Netscape Navigator 2 was the latest, greatest browser - toward the end of 1995 - Macromedia introduced Shockwave as a way to port Director movies to the Web. Users downloaded and installed a free plug-in, and the movies played in the browser whenever users hit a page that contained Shockwave.
Which was - and is - pretty great. However, since Director wasn't developed with the Web in mind, the most effective Director movies tend to be big bandwidth hogs, and they do much, much more than necessary for the Web. On the other hand, there has been a growing need to create an alternative to standard GIFs and JPEGs, which lack versatility and can also be file-size challenged.
PostScript has been around since the dawn of desktop publishing. Patented by Adobe Systems, PostScript is a vector-graphics language that creates graphics via instructions, instead of mapping out images 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 larger file size - and often results in a poorly rendered circle. Also, a vector-based image can be scaled to virtually any size with no impact on file size or quality.
Here is a simulation of the differences between bitmap and vector graphics. The left circle demonstrates how a bitmap image is defined by a finite set of pixels. Enlarge it, and you can really see the pixels. However, up the resolution to lose that "pixel-y look," and you run into vile file-size issues. The image on the right could be enlarged 10 times and still look just as sharp - if it were a vector graphic.
Because of bandwidth
concerns on the Web, there has long been an urgent need for vector graphic
standards. Slowly but surely, these standards are emerging. But with Flash, the future is now.
While not as scriptable as Director (e.g., you can't create complex CD-ROM games with it), Flash is quite versatile. It allows you to create animations, build interactivity, and add sound to your pages. And you can create some dazzling graphics and interfaces for your Web pages that eat up an amazingly petite 5 to 50K.
Another big advantage of Flash is that it's virtually browser-independent. Since it's only viewable with a plug-in, everyone with a version 3 browser or better will see the movies almost identically (Netscape 2 pops open a window for Shockwave movies). The down side to this is the plug-in itself: Users need to download and install it before they can see anything. But this is becoming less of a hurdle as browsers begin to bundle the plug-in.
So, all in all, Flash is looking like quite the solution.
All right, enough talk.
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