Create a swf application. Best Practices - A Guide to Creating SWF Applications

This is the flash drive I received in the SWF Text program

Wait until the download is complete. Don't forget to turn on the sound!!!

To create this flash drive I used the SWF Text program. I learned about the program itself and how to work in it from the message
(Thanks for the link *NIKA*)

SWF Text is a program for creating animated Flash text. You can use more than 150 text effects and more than 20 background effects, and you can change all text properties at your discretion, including font, color, format, etc.
With SWF Text, without any experience with Flash, you can easily create a beautiful banner or introductory page in a few minutes. All you need to do is enter text, select a font and adjust effects.

Therefore, in blogs we usually place a picture, when you click on it, we get to the Address of the flash drive itself.

Therefore, the sequence of actions is as follows...
1. Save the flash drive in SWF format
2. In addition, we need a picture
(this means we’ll save our flash drive to the computer in additional GIF format)

Now we need to locate our flash drive somewhere on the Internet so that it has a legitimate Address.
For this purpose I used my diary on Lyra.

Let's do it like this...
In the diary on LiRu, open a new entry and attach a flash drive (SWF) as an image:
... (in the full form, under the entry on the right side there is a window “Attach file”,
open the “Browse” window, find your flash drive, click on it),
and save it to Draft.
Then we go to Draft - our flash drive is already there, only small... and plays
We open it for editing, increase the size, and publish it in the diary.
From here we also take the address of the flash drive on the Internet, so that later in blogs we can refer there when making a banner.

Now about the second part - the GIF image.
For me it turned out to be very heavy - (more than 5 MB) and approximately 80 layers.

The goal is to make the picture easier.

For this I
1) reduced the number of layers to 20 (i.e. 4 times), and the time of each frame needed to be increased accordingly by 4 times.
2) reduced the size of the image itself (although this could not have been done).

As a result, the weight of the image decreased by 10 times and became equal to 586 KB
(for comparison, almiria the image weighs 3.22 MB, i.e. 6 times larger - but it is both more beautiful and larger in size).
There must be a reasonable compromise here.

In principle, using the AVI video format, you can upload a flash drive to Video.Mey.ru like this. how I did it in

Most users of computer systems have, one way or another, encountered Flash animation. Many cartoons, banners on websites, or even simple Internet games are made in this format. But what are SWF files and how are they created or edited if some changes need to be made to the finished project? This and much more will be discussed further.

What are SWF files?

Few people think about what a SWF animation file actually is, considering it an ordinary video.

In fact, the files themselves are compiled derivatives of the original FLA format, which in turn is a project in which the original structure can be seen and modified. Naturally, this requires some kind of SWF file editor. But which one? Today, so many programs have been created for creating and editing Flash animation that it is quite easy to get confused in them.

How to open a SWF file?

We'll get back to the editors a little later. For now, let's look at how to open a SWF file in the simplest situation. There are at least two options: either use some software player that supports this format (KMPlayer), or start playback in a web browser.

In the second case, for correct playback, a prerequisite is the presence of the installed Flash Player plugin from Adobe or its equivalent in the form of a Macromedia Flash extension, which is, in general, the same thing.

The principle of editing a finished Flash video

Now a few words about how the finished project is edited in general terms. An editor for SWF projects of the most primitive type will not be able to simply open a file, since the finished SWF file, as already mentioned, is compiled and contains a minimum of information about the initial structure.

Thus, before using the simplest SWF file editor, the finished file must first be converted, so to speak, into readable form. In other words, it needs to be decompiled into its original FLA form. For this purpose, special utilities are used, which will be discussed separately.

The best editors for creating animation from scratch

Nevertheless, to create a video (and not edit it) at the initial stage, both the simplest applications and entire professional-level software packages can be used.

It will not be possible to describe them all, but among the programs designed for this purpose, several of the most popular can be identified:

• Alligator Flash Designer.
• SWiSH Max.
• Adobe Flash Professional.
• Corel R.A.V.E.
• Sony Vegas Pro.

Alligator Flash Designer

This SWF editor in Russian is the simplest of all those presented below and is intended mainly for quickly creating animated banners that will be used on websites on the Internet.

There are not so many tools at the disposal of a novice web designer, however, there are about one hundred and thirty different effects, the ability to create animated text, drawings or insert sound. The interface is extremely simple and clear, so this application is very well suited for mastering the basics of creating this type of animation.

SWiSH Max

This animation file editor is very similar to the previous utility, although it looks a little more complex for a beginner.

With its help you can create more professional works of good quality. Any user can figure it out thanks to the fact that the application itself includes video tutorials that explain the basics of creating animated videos.

Adobe Flash Professional

The Adobe Flash SWF file editor is a professional-level software package that not everyone can master the first time.

He has so many tools in his arsenal that, according to many professional web designers and animators, you can use them to realize any fantasy. By the way, if you look at the world rankings of software in this area, it is the Adobe Flash CS and CC series applications that are the undisputed leaders.

Corel R.A.V.E.

Here we have another professional SWF editor with capabilities comparable to the previous package from Adobe.

The most interesting thing is the ability to draw two-dimensional objects, determine their movement along a predetermined path, snap to the specified path, create a double of the animated object to change only the size, color or location, after which the program automatically performs the necessary transformations and animates the image. Naturally, this is not all that this application is capable of. You can study it and admire more and more new possibilities for a very long time.

Sony Vegas Pro

This video processing package certainly needs no introduction. Even those who have never worked with this type of multimedia know about it. Of course, this is not a SWF editor as such, but it does have tools for creating animation, and they are very worthy of attention.

The program allows you to create and edit animation videos (in this case the emphasis is on them) using more than 200 effects, editing can be done based on 8-bit mode, and at the finalization stage you can switch to 32-bit to improve quality. You can also apply color filters to eliminate differences in different fragments, set the storyboard frequency at 30 fps or higher, and also set a variety of image aspect ratios, including even transformations and transitions between them (4:3, 16:9, 16: 10), etc. In general, there are enough tools.

Additional utilities for working with Flash

Speaking about creating and editing animated videos, we cannot ignore some additional utilities that may be useful in your work. This includes converting the final SWF file to the original FLA project format through decompilation (formatting the code), as well as some additional tools used to improve image quality and reduce the size of the final file without losing quality.

Among the most necessary programs are the following:

• Flash Decompiler Trillix.
• Sothink SWF Decompiler.
• Flash Optimizer.
• Sparkle SWF Optimizer.

Flash Decompiler Trillix

A novice user will need this program to convert a SWF file to FLA format so that the project can be opened even in the simplest editor and make the necessary changes to it.

Essentially, this is an advanced converter with editor capabilities in which changes can be made on the fly. You can also use it to perform batch conversions. And all this is done without the mandatory installation of Adobe and Macromedia plugins.

Sothink SWF Decompiler

This program is also a decompiler-editor, albeit a paid one. Its capabilities are very interesting. It is aimed at quickly creating or editing banners, videos and even Flash games.

For beginners, the application provides a special “Wizard” based on the choice of the type and structure of the future project from the available templates. In addition, you can work with the source code, apply all kinds of filters, effects, or create vector images in a special WYSIWYG environment.

Flash Optimizer and Sparkle SWF Optimizer

These two small utilities, as the name suggests, are some kind of optimizers that allow you to reduce the size of the finished SWF file to save space without losing quality. They will be especially useful to all those who post their work on the Internet or create banners and online games in Flash format.

As stated on the official websites of the developers, these utilities allow you to perform compression and reduce the size of the original object by as much as 70%. They have several types of optimization using automatic conversion after setting the necessary parameters.

What to use?

Finally, the most important question: “What to choose from all this?” We think that novice animators and web designers should start with the simplest utilities. For those who have at least a little knowledge of creating and editing SWF videos, professional utilities will undoubtedly be suitable. Here the choice is up to the user. However, if you wish and study the reference information that is available in most of the applications presented, you can master working with them very simply. But which editor is better? The palm rightfully belongs to the developments of Adobe, although other editors and decompilers should not be discounted.

Have you ever wondered what lies behind the beautiful animation of banners on the Internet? Or the newfangled cartoons created with the help of computer technology? Most often they are based on “flesh”, or more precisely, this is how the name of the Flash technology is translated from English. Today we will talk about flash animation for the website:

Flash technology

The multimedia framework was developed by Macromedia. But after its absorption (merger), all rights to the technology were transferred to the new owner - Adobe Systems.

Area of ​​modern application of Adobe Flash:

• Creating web applications is a fairly new direction. Implies full or partial use of Flash to create websites. When partially applied, this technology creates individual design elements: various interactive menus, animated buttons, etc.

Compared to conventional HTML-based resources, Flash sites have some features that limit their use. These include the high cost of development, demands on server resources, long loading times with a slow Internet connection, and some other aspects:

• Implementation of multimedia capabilities - to listen to audio and play video on websites, media players created based on Flash are often used. Their development includes the use of one of the scripting languages ​​(usually JavaScript):

• In online advertising, technology is most often used to create animated banners. They imply not only the playing of multimedia advertising, but also some kind of interaction with the user on a game basis.

Flash Development Basics and Tools

To create flash animation, traditional tools from Adobe are most often used:

• Adobe Flash Professional – a program for creating interactive animation (animator);
• Adobe Flash Builder – an environment for creating web application interfaces;
• Adobe Flash Player is a browser-integrated player for playing Flash.

In addition to it, a number of third-party applications can play multimedia content of this type. The most popular ones are Gnash, QuickTime and some others:

This technology allows you to display any type of graphics ( raster, vector, 3D). It also supports streaming relay of audio and video data. A lightweight version of Flash Lite was developed specifically for mobile devices.

The main standard for Flash files is the SWF extension. The abbreviation stands for Small Web Format. Video recorded in Flash has the file extensions FLV, F4V.

The development of interactive animation in Flash is based on vector graphics. It is thanks to this that it was possible to implement support for a multimedia platform and independence of animation quality from screen resolution.

The flash application file size is the same for all users, regardless of screen technical characteristics (resolution).

Interactive animation in Flash is based on morphing (vector type), in which there is a slow flow between key frames. To play back the data, a Flash player is used, the operation of which is in many ways similar to the operation of the JavaScript virtual machine. The software component of the technology is implemented using the ActionScript language.

The disadvantages of the technology include the following points:

• Heavy load on the central processor of the client machine. This is due to the low efficiency of the Flash virtual machine, which is built into the user’s browser along with the player;
• High probability of errors - playing Flash animation may occur with a high probability of errors. Moreover, failures in Flash playback negatively affect the operation of the entire client application (browser). This is due to insufficient control over the fault tolerance of the program code when creating Flash applications;
• Failure to index - All text content displayed in Flash content is not indexed. This limitation is especially problematic for those resources that are created on the basis of this technology.

Review of third-party Flash creation software

Sothink SWF Quicker was taken as a prototype application on which we will demonstrate the basics of creating Flash. According to many professionals, the program is the most understandable and easiest to learn.

In addition to creating and editing, the flash editor “can” work with all other types of web animation (GIF, HTML and other standards):

After installation, go to the user-friendly interface of the program. Unfortunately, after wandering through all the nooks and crannies, we did not find an interface language switch.

In order to understand how to make flash animation in this application, we will use the built-in templates. The “New From Template” dialog box appears immediately after starting the program. In addition, it can be called through the main menu item “File". Among the offered options, we chose to create a banner:

In the next wizard window, from the drop-down list you need to select a template according to which the animation will be created. Below it is a small frame in which the selected template is played:

In the next steps, you need to set the dimensions of the banner and enter 5 phrases of text that will be played in the animation. In addition, you must specify the address of the resource to which the user will be led by clicking on the banner:

After compiling the project and closing the wizard window, you can view the resulting video in the built-in player. To do this, click on the green arrow at the top:

After closing the player, let's take a closer look at the application interface. Please note that it consists of two main windows: the top one is for editing the time period of the video, and the bottom one is a regular graphic editor. Each of the elements is located on a separate layer, which can be modified using standard tools located on the sidebar:

The created flash animation for the site can be published. You can select the publication method by clicking on the “ Publish” button at the top. There are three options to choose from, including inserting into html code. Detailed settings for this process are available in a separate “Publish Settings” window.

In today's lesson you will learn how to create a flash banner online for a beginner without knowledge of flash animation and without special programs (read). It should be mentioned that there are a large number of generators on the Internet that allow you to create banners, including in flash (swf) format, but most of them are in English without support for Russian fonts. I was specifically looking for a service where I could create a banner with Russian text.

Let me remind you that banners are graphic advertising of a website, blog or any other web page. Animated banners can be in flash (swf) format and in the form of gif animation (read - this service will help you create a gif banner). Banner advertising on the Internet is widespread and quite effective.

To create a flash banner online, follow the link.

In the Banner Now generator, click on the “Create Banner Now” button.

On the new page, select the dimensions of the future banner.

You can choose one of the standard banner sizes or specify your own settings. Here you can choose a banner background and clipart or upload your own. To do this, put a tick next to the item Custom background , select a category of pictures from those offered (animals, food, backgrounds, animals, buttons, etc.) or upload using the button upload files .

Click the “create banner” button again.

Here we are in the flash banner editor. If you are not satisfied with the choice of your background, then you can choose a new one. Under the document workspace you will find an Image Gallery and an Upload files button (upload your photo to the editor). After adding the background, edit its position and size by dragging the edges of the image with the mouse.

Use Preview Banner to monitor work at intermediate stages.

To the right of the work area we see layers. You can adjust transparency (the alpha property), change the sequence of layers and delete unnecessary ones.

To the left of the work area you see a slide track. By default, a banner has 1 slide. You can add slides, duplicate, delete, change slide duration. To remove or add a slide, click on the settings icon in the lower right corner of the slide:

We change the duration of the slide by changing the time next to the clock icon (also found under the slide).

At the top of the working area you can see the effects for the text. They are divided into categories:

• appear (appearance),
• stay (static),
• disappear (disappearance).

If you click on the button next to effects, you can select an effect for the image.

After adding text, you select its color, size, font, location in the settings to the left of the work area.

When you have created a flash banner online, you need to download it. Click on the download banner (swf) button.

Here we set the settings:

• autoplay (autoplay),
• repeat (repeat),
• button mode
• banner hyperlink (page to which the banner will link),
• open url in new page (open the page in a new window),
• use preload (use page loading image),
• send cope of banner to my e-mail (send a copy of the banner to my e-mail).

This is the banner we got:

I offer you several more flash banner generators with support for the Russian language:

• www.animationonline.com
• www.lact.ru/banner/en
• www.flash-banner-maker-online.com/customsizebanner3.php

These services are easier to use, so instructions for use are not required.

If you have any questions, you can ask them in the comments.
Video lesson on working with the service

A couple of times we already have to work on a not entirely standard task: there is a flash banner (file in .swf format) that needs to be made a link... In general, according to Feng Shui, such things are done in the flash itself even during the development of the banner, and the banner itself acts as a link without any wrapping it in a tag . But, apparently, flashers often forget to ask the customer where the banner should lead, and this matter is transferred to the shoulders of the layout designer. And this is where the problem arises.