Can
I view flash design & animation from my home or business?
"The study by WebSideStory's StatMarket, a company that
analyzes Web traffic and aggregates user behavior patters on
the Internet, said as of April 11, 2001, Flash was installed
on 88.23 percent of all Netscape browsers. The company said
Flash was installed on just 45 percent of Netscape browsers
as of Jan. 8, 1999, and 67.96 percent on Jan. 10, 2000."
[read
more]
"According to third-party surveys, Flash is installed on
more than 77 percent of all browsers and has greater browser
penetration than Java. It's bundled with Netscape 4.0.6 and
higher, Windows 98, IE 4 and higher, AOL 4, Mac OS 8 and higher,
RealPlayer G2, WebTV, and all Liberate Technologies set-top
boxes.
[source: Macromedia
Flash white paper]
So what exactly is Flash?
One of the best ways to add interactivity to a web site is through
Flash. Flash is a dynamic multimedia application used to create
vector-based graphics and animations. Its capabilities range
from creating simple graphics to complex and full featured web
sites.
The beauty of Flash is that graphics created by it can be scaled
to virtually any size with no impact on file size or quality,
something only vector-based graphics allow you to do. Bitmap
(raster technology) images on the other hand aren't scalable
at all and when enlarged, they can look quite different than
what they were intended to look like, like the example below
demonstrates.
The advantages of Flash are:
Fast download times - One of the most common misconceptions
about Flash is its download time. All images and graphics
produced through Flash are vector based. Vector based graphics
are a lot smaller in size, and therefore have a quick download
time. Flash also compresses all sounds and graphics as far
as it can without losing quality.
Dynamic animations and sounds - Flash allows developers
to quickly and easily create dynamic animations and implement
sounds with ease.
One File - Flash based web sites are usually one file.
All images, pages, and sounds are compressed into one simple
(.swf) file.
Integration with online databases and applications - using
Flash's ActionScript language, your interactive pages can
send and display information from an online database.
Flash was specifically designed for the web. One of the main
issues that concern Web Designers is the need to keep image
file sizes small which in turn is related to bandwidth. Most
images on the Web are bitmaps, such as jpegs and gifs, this
means that information about the image must be stored pixel
by pixel. Flash uses another image representation, instead of
bitmaps it uses vector graphics. Vector graphics use mathematical
functions to create the shapes. File sizes are a lot smaller
with vector graphics than with bitmaps because less information
has to be stored. Vector graphics can be zoomed in without any
loss of resolution.
bitmap graphic
vector graphic
With Flash you can deliver to your audience engaging applications,
web interfaces, training courses and more. Whether you are planning
to create a new Web site or remodeling an existing one, Flash
animation will improve your Web site with motion, sound and
interactivity with no cost on bandwidth, because it downloads…
FAST !!!
Flash can make a difference in your Internet presence and, its
not just an added value to your image; it's a powerful interactivity
tool for you, your audience and your company, because you can
communicate your message in a very customizable, unique way
through interactive Flash design.
"...if your site isn't pulling the traffic or generating
the sales you would like it to, it just may not be the poor
performance of classified ads, banner ads or a similar service.
The real reason for lackluster sales could lie with your web
site itself..."
To view some of our clients with interactive Flash sites - please
click here
(continued on next page...)
Granite Web Design offers extensive
services in interactive Flash design & programming.
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