| OVERVIEW OF FLASH |
| By Brendan Horverson |
Published
07/20/2006
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Flash MX
| This tutorial viewed 822 times
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Flash Intro
Since its introduction in 1996, Flash has grown in popularity to become widely regarded as a standard for high-end multimedia Web sites and presentations. Flash was derived from other Macromedia applications, particularly FutureSplash and Director. Macromedia Director has a longer history, but is primarily used for multimedia development for CD-ROMs, movies and television. However, the files created by Director are too large to port effectively over the Web.
Flash offers many of the dynamic features that Director offers, yet Flash compresses file sizes, making it possible to offer media-rich content and fast download times.
How does Flash work?
Flash combines four elements that define its functionality: vector graphics, streaming capability, a timeline, and layers.
Concepts and issues relevant to Flash
Vector graphics
Flash uses vector graphics, rather than bitmapped graphics such as GIF, JPG or PNG. Vector graphics perform more efficiently on the Web because they are based on mathematical computations, rather than the pixel-by-pixel information used by bitmaps.
As such, Flash graphics are scalable without affecting file size. For example, suppose that the two circles in Figure 23-l are separate vector graphics being displayed in a browser. Both images would have the same file size. The only difference between the two circles is the radius, which can be adjusted by a mathematical calculation. Vector graphics use mathematics in this way to manipulate images.
By contrast, if these images were bitmaps, the larger circle would have a significantly larger file size than the smaller one.
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