| Article Index |
|---|
| Review: Macromedia (Adobe) Studio 8 |
| Flash 8 |
| Fireworks/Contribute/FlashPaper |
| Conclusion |
| All Pages |
Flash 8 Pro
The Adobe influence is clear to see with Flash, with the inclusion of the Flash Video encoder. This puts a clear link between Adobe Premiere and Flash, making it much easier to put video into a web-distributable format. Designers will also breathe a sigh of relief with the inclusion of new graphic controls - you can now manipulate graphics more in line with the way you might in, say, Illustrator or CorelDraw. There are a number of new special effects (such as drop shadow), all of which are rendered by the Flash 8 Player, so file sizes are still super-slim.
The user interface has been honed over previous MX releases, with the library seeing the main makeover. Navigation between open libraries is now easier using the new drop-down list at the top of the library to access any other open library.
Scripting has been made (slightly) easier. What used to be known as 'Normal' mode makes a return as Script Assist, providing a user interface for editing scripts that includes automatic syntax completion as well as descriptions for the parameters of any given action. This will hopefully make Flash a little more accessible to those not so blessed with programming skills, as, since MX you cannot avoid using Actionscript to get the job done.
For many, video will be the killer app for Flash. The new On2VP6 video standard delivers high quality video - I've embedded almost DVD quality/size images into a web page that will stream at reasonable broadband connection speeds. Support for alpha channel video means that certain elements of a video can be made transparent, allowing the Flash animation underneath to show through. Video can also be controlled through Actionscript, allowing video to play alongside timelined items.
Flash mirrors Dreamweavers new XML functionality, allowing for RSS feed data to be dragged and dropped into a Flash movie.
One problem I encountered related to new security features within Flash 8. I use Flash to generate some CD-ROM menus, however when linking to websites it redirects you to a page that shows the local Flash player's security settings, requiring the user to authorise the display of the website - this will really confuse users unless you modify your content to advise them that this is likely to occur, as there is no way (for obvious reasons) for you to do this from within the Flash player.