Introduction to Macromedia Flash

Introduction

With the addition of MacroMedia Flash support to the Aavelin, a designer is now truly limited only by their own creativity. Flash can be used to create a simple attention grabbing banner, integrate audio voice-overs with regular Aavelin pages, play encoded video, or introduce dynamic, web-linked content at regular intervals.

While Flash supports and is sometimes centered around interaction, the Aavelin will not use this as it is a display-only device. A Flash movie or animation that requires user feedback to begin or continue past a certain point (clicking with the mouse or typing something into a field, for example) will be ineffective when played back on the Aavelin.

A Flash animation can be made up of many different elements. Music and sound effects (.WAV and .MP3) can be can used either to play and loop repeatedly, or used to accentuate a certain visual effect. Graphics and images (.BMP, .JPG, .GIF, etc) can be inserted and manipulated using built-in effects. You can also use True-Type fonts to add text, and effects can be applied to these elements as well.

Most Flash authoring tools support both Vector-based and Bitmap-based source material. An example of bitmap artwork is a typical graphic, or photograph. Vector art is based on plotted points, such as fonts, and does not distort as it is stretched or transformed (rotated, flipped, etc) on-screen. Generally speaking, vector-based art is preferred both for visual and performance reasons. (Click for side-by-side sample).

While Flash files are often small, they can be fairly resource-intensive to play back. On a system such as the Aavelin – one that thrives on stability – consuming excessive resources to play back something like a Flash file can be detrimental. There are a few things that can be done to ensure that does not happen:

• Use Vector-based source material, if available.
• Certain visual effects, like blur and dissolve transitions, require more resources than others and should be avoided if possible.
• Avoid using excessively large files as source material when not necessary. For example, using a super high-resolution .JPG image and scaling it down, when a much smaller source file would work just as well. This also applies to audio used in your Flash file.
• The size of the Flash object when placed on an Aavelin page will have an effect as well. Increasing the size of the object will increase the amount of resources consumed. This is especially true of motion video that has been encoded as Flash.

	AV100		AV200		AV400
Flash 6 Playback	Supported		Supported		Supported
Vector Animation (1/2 Screen)	Supported		Supported		Supported
Vector Animation (Full Screen)	Up to 15fps		Up to 15fps		Supported
Bitmap&Vector Animation (1/2 Screen)	Supported		Supported		Supported
Bitmap &Vector Animation (Full Screen)	Up to 20fps		Up to 20fps		Supported
Flash Video (MPEG4 Encoded)	1/4 Screen, 20fps		1/4 Screen, 20fps		1/2 Screen 30fps

Authoring Tools

There are numerous applications that can be used to author Flash files, ranging from specialized freeware utilities, to full-features commercial software packages. Here are some examples of programs used to author Flash content:

• Wildform FX – Create animated text objects simply by typing in text and selecting an effect.
• Macromedia Captivate – Record your PC actions and voice tracks easily. Perfect for creating software training and demonstration videos.
• Swish – Excellent full-featured authoring tools for those just getting started. Timeline and scene-based editing.
• Swift 3D – Powerful 3D modeling application, able to export .SWF files.
• Macromedia Flash MX 2004 – High-end, powerful Flash development environment.

Learning Tools & Resources

The internet contains an almost endless supply of websites devoted to MacroMedia Flash. Tutorials, How-To’s, sample animations, and user forums exist to aid everyone from the complete beginner, to the paid professional.

• MacroMedia Tutorials
• MacroMedia Forums
• W3Schools
• Flash Kit
• BayCon Group
• ActionScript.org

Utilities

PowerCONVERTER XP
Convert PowerPoint presentations to Flash

Sorenson Squeeze
Convert MPEG, Windows Media, QuickTime, and RealMedia video clips into Flash.

About MagicBox

MagicBox, Inc. has been manufacturing Character Generators and Video Messaging Systems, for CATV, CCTV, Satellite and Digital Signage applications since 1992. Customers have expanded from cable to include education, government, hospitality, medical, and corporate applications. Product development is focused on ease of use and integration with other systems. For more information, visit www.magicboxinc.com.

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