The Art Of Flash Animation
By: John Vinson
What could Snapple, Nike, and Sony all have in common? No, they aren’t all endorsed by Michael Jordan, but if you’re looking for a fruit beverage, a pair of shoes, and a HDTV then these three businesses have some pretty cool sites for you to visit. The next question you should be asking yourself is what makes these sites so amazing.
Flash animation is the short response, but it’s how effective they use the animation that’s the key . Flash can be one of the hardest programs to learn for web design. But once you’ve mastered the intricacies of Flash then you’ve taken one of the final steps to being a great webmaster.
Here are a few tips to remember when you dive into the Flash experience.
-First, more isn’t always necessarily better. The content of your site should dictate the amount of flash you should use, not vice versa. If your client is wanting a professional site with not alot of “flash” (pun somewhat intended), then maybe just a few simple flash menus would suffice.
- Second, you aren’t going for the academy awards. Leave the epic and long movies to Peter Jackson. Your flash animations, especially your intros should be kept as short as possible while still being effective (no one said it was going to be easy).
- Lastly, don’t be afraid to draw inspiration from others. If you come across an idea while surfing around that looks cool, dont be afraid to use it in your design. I’m not saying to right-click your mouse and save the entire thing as your own. Sometimes though an idea has already been used that fits with what you’re wanting, than to create something totally original.
So have fun tweening and actionscripting out there. Just be sure to hang in there as you’re learning Flash, because the object of web design is to put yourself out there. Then once you’ve mastered it, you’d have put yourself one step ahead of the competition.
