Adobe once had a program, but that is discontinued. I have a notion, though, that it won't be the last time Adobe will try to underminde Macromedia here.. it must irk them to no end that in THIS design area, another company holds a semi-monopol.

Corel, as far as I know, has a tool, but that is rather miserable, from what I hear.

Freehand can do very simple swfs, but these are only okay for simple animations (which is what some illustrators use it for, as the layer-technique s very similar to Photoshop and traditional animatoion, so they're used to it... also the editing tools are better than in Flash).

And finally, there is Swish, which started as a simple text-animationtool but has pretty much evolved and nowadays can do some stuff. It's nowhere near as powerful as Flash is, especially when it comes to scripting (which is the key to making solid Flash-websites, without Action Script you don't get anywhere). However, I really like SwishMax as a simple presentation tool or for online banners and all that, as the interface is simpler and the everyday stuff, like fades and so on), is quicker done. It's not a professional tool, at only 99 $ it doesn't have to be, but simpler stuff is quickly done here and the new version actually offers pretty solid typography, alas nowhere near the real typo capabilities of flash (which still are lightyears behind Photoshop or InDesign or even Freehand). you can download a demo at www.swishzone.com

You can also make simple animated GIFs with Fireworks, which may be more your style, because it is "frame by frame" rather than "timelines" (I'm talking about v.3, which is what I use, so I hope it hasn't changed hugely). Also the final files are really small, and don't need plug-ins to play back, so ideal for banners.

Thanks for the suggestions. I did look into Adobe's LiveMotion, but since they discontinued it, I'd rather not trot down that path.

There are several reasons I've grown to dislike Flash (in my limited time using it). One "for instance" is it's inability to properly display imported (bitmap) images. I cannot find a way to make it NOT compress them. If I have a 1px white line on a black background, imported into Flash, I want that 1px white line to look like a 1px white line. Flash always seems to want to compress it and make it look antialiased.

That is, perhaps, a clumsy example, since I could just make a line in Flash itself... but what if I don't want to?

Another reason I'd like to find an alternative, is because I've grown used to Adobe AfterEffect's interpolations techniques (since I have a background in video). The way Flash "tweens" between keyframes is really clunky. Maybe I just don't know enough, but I've spent hours in this program trying to learn it... you'd think I'da figured it out by now.

Anyway... I appreciate the suggestions. I'll have a look. (I have a feeling I'll be waiting for another program to be introduced.)

SVG baby!

Flash can be off-putting. But you just have to understand how it works with Vectors and Bitmaps. Each image CAN have its own compression (in library > symbol properties). Because flash is a scalable format, like Fredrik said, your pixel line was not snapped to a pixel.

Overall it's quite a sensible application. These aren't bugs in the program, just misunderstandings, don't treat it like a graphics app.

>The way Flash "tweens" between keyframes is really clunky.

Don't tween in Flash.

>Maybe I just don't know enough, but I've spent hours in this program trying to learn it... you'd think I'da figured it out by now.

Don't make me laugh. I've spent 5 years in this program and still don't understand a lot of it. Just stick with it, and in a few weeks you'll be flying. I think it would be a waste of time trying other applications, cos you'll reach a stage where you can't go any further, then you'll be forced to start learning Flash from the beginning. There are plenty of websites and tutorials for learning.

Yes, Director's great. Unfortunately it doesn't do the vector tricks that Flash can. Although, I've read that you can drop Flash stuff into Director. Soon, my company's getting us Director MX and Flash MX and I'll be able to say for sure.

Oh, it's not really an optimal web development platform, but it can output Shockwave.

> http://www.phantomresearchfoundation.com

I only checked out the navigation, which I thought was pretty nice.

hhp

If you're going to the trouble of learning Flash, why not go a little further, to After Effects, and be able to generate broadcast-quality output suitable for movie titles even.

It's possible to run flash through Director and output it to broadcast quality video for titles. I think dixonbaxi.com used flash for MTV2 screen identity.

Nic, that is a nice site you made there. I haven't really checked it out too much. The navigation is what I really liked, it keeps the parent & sibling navigation available while also provides a breadcrumb trail. Good thinking.

But after briefly looking at your personal site I have to say who needs flash? ;) You've got your external content loading without a page refresh and alpha fades between images. That's nice, but of course for the really fancy stuff flash is still handy. Anyway, that looks like some nice work you have on your site, I'll probably take a little time to look through it more.

Hey Mr Mulvaney, quick thing on your site. If you navigate to online>demanifest postcard, then click on paintings, the number doesn't behave correctly, FYI.

I'm fairly experienced (though self taught and piecemeal) with flash, and I'm stumped by your site. If you would humor me and tell me how the background, foreground, and middleground animations can interact, I'd be honored. It's astounding.
I also like the work I see, well done.

Aaron

Nic:

You know that pause you tend to give website "intro" animations? I did that with your site... only to be left hanging. I totally expected the drum and bass, flashy, catchy-line, intro that I'm used to.

It's kind of nice to not have to look for that "skip intro" button. Good job.

I just have one question... why in the world would impotence be bliss?

This is getting a bit off topic, but i suppose it's flash promoting over other apps.

macromedia.com is a great resource for learning and you can't beat the help files for scripting. I also reccommend this forum for learning tricks.

You need something like this to resize your movie. In them brackets { ... } you can tell it what to do when resized, for instance, recalculate and redraw the background elements.

The bug should be fixed now. Thanks

Look, flash *can* do whatever you want in a SWF file, although it has lots of quircks (sp?) you have to get used to, lots of tricks that doesn't make sense to make things work (the image bug is one of them). You can actually paste and use your image the way you want it (I don't know what exactly your

http://www.loslogos.org/

some nifty navigation in the virtual logo city.

Most of MX 2004 is difficult to use on slower machines (well, it even struggles on good machines), probably because of their new window/tab system and their heavy shaded graphics on the interface.

Macromedia have released an online survey to help fix the problem.