Creating Flash Animation / Flash Graphics. 

Flash is a very powerful tool for creating flash animation, flash graphics  in websites. What is less known is hat it can also be utilized offline to create thrilling  effect.

Today, most Web design studios compete relentlessly for offline projects. This transition from the internet to traditional media helps them survive in the absence of online projects. Chef d'oeuvres created in Macromedia Flash can be exported to a variety of file formats, including JPEG, bitmap, QuickTime, RealPlayer and AVI among others. Subsequently, cutting-edge software has blown open the gates to endless opportunities for the previously anxious Flash artist. Now, Flash is poised to influence design in offline media.

The ability of Flash to flow from the internet to television is aiding a convergence between mainstream and internet media. While Hollywood grows increasingly enamoured of Web aesthetics in mini-movies and web-based film projects, Flash designers are beginning to create graphics for commercials, music videos and TV shows. Even though Flash as a program was never designed for broadcast TV, its affordability and user friendliness has encouraged and enabled traditional animators to produce and show their own films. Most renowned designers and animators believe that within the next few years, Macromedia Flash will be a standard medium for broadcast television. Digital artists have used Flash in professional animation productions for some time. The software enables the artist to streamline the entire process of producing a TV show. It ensures a more efficient and creative way of producing animations as the whole show- is in the computer from the animated stage to the final product. Flash supports audio files that can be directly animated to perfectly synchronize with the visuals without the need for voice tracks to be broken down into sequential segments.

Moreover, the artist can create libraries of drawn elements that can be reused throughout a TV series. This ensures standardization and uniformity of characters and cuts back on redrawing time. In addition, the animation can be tweaked and modified up until the last minute and reviewed instantly. Finally, yet importantly, Flash allows producing quality animations in less time (there is practically no rendering time) and with a smaller crew. The end product is vector-based and capable of being scaled and formatted for different platforms without any loss of quality.

Flash also comes equipped with excellent vector drawing tools. The sophisticated Bezier drawing tools mean that much of the original artwork can be generated within Flash. However, the practicality of mixing Flash with other techniques depends on the mood and style the artist desires to convey. For a cut-out type of a look, such. as that of South Park, Flash is a great tool to use as it is. In this case, the walk cycles and the flat background elements are easy to create and the artist can store the body and mouth charts in the library. In contrast, the Japanese animation, Ray of Light, lends itself to tweening tools and has more of a traditional Flash look to it. The same is true for Chin and Mort's, Mucha Lucha, the first Flash series on American television, aired in 2001. To get a traditional animated squash-and-stretch show with a full range of motion, the artist needs to incorporate hand drawings. To simulate painted backgrounds, programs such as Photoshop or Photo Impact can be used.

The software also allows for the creation of rich thematic environments ranging from enchanting forest-scapes to mystic uncharted territories and alien space stations. Exclusive flash gradients allow the artist to add perspective and shading to the various objects in the scene. Character design in Flash opens up a completely new realm of creativity. Cute characters based on Japanese anime have long dominated the design market, but today many other characters are being created such as Ron Crown's Mr. Dink, Larry Schwartz's Princess Natasha and Robin Lyons' characters in the Bobinogs series on CBeebies (BBC's channel for preschoolers).

With the help of Flash, various kinds of graphics are being designed for television. Examples of such designs can be seen on any of the local cable channels. Since there are no issues related to download time with offline media, raster graphics can also be used to break the monotony of vector graphics in the creation of cutting-edge promos. In addition, fancy text effects generated through third party software can also be imported in Flash for edginess, thrill and fun. Though pass’e as far as the Web is concerned, these text effects still look nice if used in a distinctive manner for television.

Flash graphics can also be used in digital compositing. To use this technique, actors perform their scenes against a solid background of bright blue or green rather than a conventional movie or TV studio set. The blue or green background creates a clear field around the actor, allowing for clean outlines of his or her body and motions. When the film of the actor against the blue screen is taken into a digital editing medium, the blue or green background can be edited out using a transparency filter that causes all things in each frame in that particular shade of blue' or green to appear invisible. With the blue screen edited out, nothing is left but the actor(s) seemingly floating in empty space. By using layered compositing, they can then be laid over the static or animated Flash background intended for the scene. Lighting effects to match the scene can be added, so that they seem to blend in better rather than being wholly displaced as they were filmed in a different lighting environment. These backgrounds demonstrate the flash artist's joie de vivre. Such creative interpretations work well for video jockeys (VJs).

The overused and rather square station promos consisting of dancing silhouettes or models "doing their moves" are also created using the blue screen technique. To achieve this compositing effect, software such as Adobe After Effects can be used in conjunction with Flash.

Depending upon the theme, digital compositing offers Flash artists innumerable opportunities to produce nonconformist backgrounds. From trance to conventional eye4U-styled graphics, this "illusion of reality" based technique is used in creating the graphics for various titles, public service messages and promotions. The Flash masking technique can also be effectively used to create stunning station IDs, break bumpers, TV logos, et cetera. Masking is a simple technique, but it can really work wonders for the Flash artist.

Masking stylised lettering with video clips or exclusive flash animations can add a much-desired element of intrigue to programme titles and credit screens. Music videos are also being developed in Flash. Los Angeles-based Fullerene Productions has already produced animated music videos in Flash for Beck, Duran Duran, Sting and The Queens of the Stone Age. Duran Duran's Flash-based video for "Someone Else, Not Me" was shown on MTV and VH-1 . MCA Records have developed an animated music video to promote one of its rap bands, Dice Raw. Madonna's videoclip, "Music", features some brilliant Flash animation. Artists such as Linkin Park and Gorillaz have also extensively used Flash in their music videos. However, for the new animated video industry to gain popularity, each new animated video needs to maintain a high level of creativity and production quality. Suga Babes' Flash-based video for "Angels With Dirty Faces" (featuring the Power Puff Girls) aired on the Cartoon Network is a prime example of creativity in the Flash music video genre.

Flash MX is the universal solution for rich, multimedia-driven interactive offline applications. It can be used to develop interactive CDs, ranging from educational to company brochures and artist portfolios. The software allows for a huge number of graphic formats to be imported directly into it. So, designers working in InPage, Photoshop, Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw or Fireworks can keep working with the tools they are most comfortable with, without being concerned about any compatibility issues. Flash-based magazines on CD are the current fad these days. These magazines have intuitive interfaces, stylised layouts, and video clips.

Nevertheless, they can be made more interesting by embedding animated advertisements or featuring animated profiles of various artists and their picture galleries. From a marketing standpoint, this can be a very attractive and cost-effective alternative depending upon the target audience. Different artists and design houses are also developing Flash-based portfolios on CD to promote their expertise. There are other offline applications that Flash can be very easily adapted to. In the print media, Flash can be used to develop diagrams and exhibits such as organisational charts, process diagrams. Even company logos, clip art, backgrounds, stylised text and illustrations are created with the greatest of ease.

Last but not least a wide variety of educational games for children are also being developed in Flash MX. These games can be used in schools and are usually simplistic along the. lines of memory association, matching objects, easy vocabulary flash cards, word webs, scrambled words, crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, pronunciation practice, spelling quizzes, proverbs and random sentence generation.

_{source Spider Mag.}