Back when Macromedia owned the web designer/developer tools (Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks, etc) I got the whole suite and started creating web sites for people.  Soon it became my business.  Flash was always a pretty advanced software package and was essentially a frame-based animation program (which it still is) that created cool intros for web sited, banner ads, etc.  The file sizes were quite large if you really did anything major, and this was also a time when broadband web access was relatively new and a great many people were still using dial-up.  Between the two, Flash was kind of an innovation that hadn’t landed as a really useful tool.  You ran the risk of having people have to wait a long time for your Flash movie to load – I remember that back then, the rule was that your ENTIRE web page was supposed to be no more than about 50kbytes, includingimages!  For me at that time, Flash just wasn’t anything I felt like I should work at learning.  Dreamweaver and a good dictionary were what I used to learn the ropes of HTML, which led to CSS, which led to PHP/MYSWL and dynamic web design (a mainstay of everything I do today for clients) and years went by.

Well, now, several versions of Flash later, (now ADOBE Flash CS3) and with the vast majority of web users having some form of broadband access, Flash is everywhere just like cell phones.  The Flash of today allows VERY powerful animated presentation content with small file sizes and, due to the advances of Actionscript, the programming language “under the hood” of Flash, we can now enjoy complete web sites and web applications that are fully animated and interactive.  AMAZING!! Presentations that were only possible through major production studios at six figure budgets can now be created for any individual or business, and are VERY cost effective. 

YouTube of course, as well as MySpace and a host of other online networking and distribution communities depend on Flash for deployment of music and video.  The video player technology of YouTube is simply a nicely designed video player created with Flash using Actionscript to interface with a highly sophisticated database system.  Really cool.

For what I do, the full range of aesthetically driven design materials can be integrated into a Flash web site, or a “hybrid” site that is created using HTML along with Flash elements.

One key point I’ve found really vital in building online presentations for people is that whatever type of web site it is, it HAS to navigate well.  The visitor has to be able to experience whatever the owner wants to present, with an aesthetic package that is “transparent” to the visitor and helps show exactly how to find whatever the owner of the site wants to get accross. Navigation of a web site is probably the single most important area in creating any kind of web site.  With Flash, I’ve often found that designers make these really esoteric and “hip” design schemes that actually confuse (read piss off) the viewer because he has to play some kind of “mystery game” with whatever the designer thought was a “cool” idea. It’s sort of like super virtuoso music – it may sound cool for a little while, but after a fashion the listener just wants to feel or experience something from the music and the virtuoso aspect starts to become a distraction.  Flash definitely has that danger – there are SOOOOO many things you can do with Flash!!!!  The foolish designer with “pure art” in his veins does things “because he can” and he may fail to embody the actual presentation “message” that the design is suppost to get across.

One area I’ve noticed where Flash gets utilized really well is advertising banners.  Barring the really annoying “popup” style adverts or “strobe” effects that assume the only way to get someone’s attention is to assault them with complete visual noise, Flash gets used to create really nicely presented advertisements.  Skillful commercial Flash artists are routinely utilizing the advantages of Actionscript to keep things animated and interesting without creating a huge file size.

But I digress a bit.  The earlier point had to do with this idea of “transparent” presentation of something using the medium of Flash.  An entire web site can now be created in Flash, with excellent and engaging animated navigation, transitions between pages, moving pictures, slide shows, video, music, etc.  It’s quite similar to what one sees on network television, only the “flow” is actually better to the eye.

One thing I always look for in creating Flash artwork or web sites for my clients is that the actual “vision” or “message” the client wants to present actually makes it across.  Another really important aspect of this is the idea of “creating reach.”  Flash seems to really help by putting “aliveness” into presentation as well as interactivity.  You don’t have to rely on just images along with text, or static graphics either. You can animate your text, put in graphics that accent the communication of the text, and utilize a much smaller visual “footprint” to get a lot of presentation done.

I suppose it won’t be long before I’ll be doing a lot of content for smart phones  – it’s certainly coming up more and more, and the issue with smart phones is that it’s really a pain to sit there scrolling down a long page of text – but with Flash, you can animate transitions between sections of text, show animated examples of things, or just at that “glitz” factor to whatever you’re presenting.

As a sort of “tag end” to this post, I always liked the idea of learning video, videography, edigin and post-production, but I never really thought it would be any part of my career until I got into building a lot of Flash stuff.  Video has become such a part of Flash, that they are almost the same thing now.  Flash kind of mirrors what someone might do with video and Adobe After Effects.  The video contains animated graphics, titles, etc.  With Flash, the video is part of a presentation that contains animated graphics, titles, text. etc.  So one kind of mimics the other. Flash really shines as a medium of presentation for the web, and now for smart phones and other types of “micro-computer” based electronic communication devices.

Flash is, in my opinion, one of the most innovative and powerful software inventions ever created.  Adobe was VERY smart for buying out Macromedia.  I hope that Adobe continues to add to and develop what already is one of my most powerful deisgn/development tools.