Flash

What is Flash Animation, When and why to use it ? ?

Flash is a vector animation software which facilitates multimedia operation. Thanks to Flash, animation in websites is so common today. Browsing the internet was never so lively. The software which was launched as Adobe Flash in 1996 has come a long way. While 'Flash' has been retained, the prefix has undergone changes from time to time. Nevertheless, Flash has emerged as the most popular software for web based animation till date.

The compatibility factor of Flash and HTML is questionable. This is because the former is vector based. Programming related to operations like selecting text, scrolling, right-clicking etc are fashioned in a completely different system and is no way similar to HTML webpages.

Advocates of Flash promote the software over HTML for the following reasons:

Flash movies load faster and save on download time because Flash is vector based where as HTML is not.
Flash intelligently 'caches' it's movies so they don't have to be reloaded.
Flash gives the viewers a more responsive 'rich-client' like experience.

A Flash animation or Flash cartoon is an animated film which is created using Adobe Flash or similar animation software and often distributed in the .swf file format. The term Flash animation not only refers to the file format but to a certain kind of movement and visual style which, in many circles, is seen as simplistic or unpolished. However, with dozens of Flash animated television series, countless more Flash animated television commercials, and award-winning online shorts in circulation, Flash animation is enjoying a renaissance.

In the late 1990s, when for most Internet users, bandwidth was still at 56 kbit/s, many Flash animation artists employed limited animation or cutout animation when creating projects intended for web distribution. This allowed artists to release shorts and interactive experiences well under 1 MB, which could stream both audio and high-end animation. One example is the first episode of The Goddamn George Liquor Program released in 1999, rendered at only 628kB.