What is Adobe Flash?

If you've ever visited a website that was full of animation, music, and some overall "cool" effects, chances are it was created with Flash. Adobe Flash CS3 is the latest incarnation of the popular motion graphics software, the latest upgrade from Flash 8.0. No matter which version you use however, the uses for the software remain the same. It's a professional graphics program that allows you to create full fledged "mini-programs" for use on the web, on CD's or DVD's, and even in digital videos.

Flash 8.0 is not an amateur program, it's a high-end professional software program used by the best web designers and programmers this world over. It's seamless integration with Vector Illustrations from programs such as Illustrator and bitmap images from photoshop make Flash the web tool of choice by graphic designers. The programing language that Flash uses is called Actionscript and is a powerful scripting language allowing coders to manipulate the graphics in flash with precise and often complex results. Flash also supports the direct importing of digital video and sound, allowing those that wish to build dynamic video applications for the web a program that can handle it all.

Training for Flash can be time consuming and complex. A general understanding of graphics programs and their uses will go a long way in determining how efficient you are in Flash (see my other articles on Associated Content for tips). Learning actionscript for creating dynamic motion and complex applications takes a lot of time and having previous coding experience in a language such as javascript will go a long way in helping you along. It is recommended you seek out professional training as the average home user will struggle through flash. A solid understanding of HTML is also key to getting your flash applications online.

To summarize, whether you use Macromedia Flash 8.0 or the new Adobe Flash CS3 (Adobe bought Macromedia) one can control graphics, sound, video, motion, and complex algorithms all in one. As a graphics creation program it is limited, but as mentioned before, it's integration with other graphics programs allows for easy importing of Illustrator and Photoshop files. For use as a dynamic website creation tool, there is no equal to Flash.