THE
BROADBAND REVOLUTION
Forget simple animation, high speed broadband now allows full and complex videos
to
be
streamed
over the Internet, in real-time. There are several formats
available
for
presenting
these
movies in a browser window, although
improvements
in
Flash
encoding technology have produced a clear winner. The same Flash plug-in
that
allows
simple animations to be displayed on over 98% of Internet enabled computers,
can
also
display high quality video.
FLASH ANIMATION
Flash was originally designed to produce cartoon
style animation (text, shapes and images)
for inclusion in a website. This offered
designers far more creative freedom
than a
simple animated GIF image. As the capabilities
of Flash grew, so did the applications. Now,
in addition to animated
icons and banners, there
are thousands of Flash cartoons and product
presentations available to view online.
However, despite
the creativity of designers,
Flash
presentations are always recognisable due to
the inherent limitations of the Flash development
tool. Think about it - there's a world of difference
between a Flash animation
on a website and
something you see on TV, DVD or film.
