Flash Animation -Research.

Adobe Flash Professional is used to create presentations, applications and other ways that you can respond to user interactions.

Projects created in Flash are known as SWF applications even if they only contain minimal animation. SWF stands for Shockwave Flash.

Vector graphics use less memory and storage then others like Bitmap. They come up smaller as they are represented by mathematical formulas.

Vector Graphics are used to created Geometric shapes like lines, curves and shapes. These are based on mathematical equations which represent graphics on the monitor.

A Symbol is a graphic, button or movie clip that you create manually. A symbol can include artwork that you import from another applications. Any symbol that is created will then become part of the Library.

To build an application in Flash professional you have to start by creating graphics or elements then adding media elements like audio or video to your document. then by using the Timeline you position the elements to define when and how they appear.

The first of the five parts that build up the user interface is 'The Stage'. The stage is like a canvas that shows you the area that you can play with when placing on your graphics. The second is 'The Timeline'. The timeline controls the timing of which element will appear for. The third is 'The Tools panel' this contains the tools used to select the objects you place on the Stage as well as creating text elements and Vector graphics. The forth is 'The Property inspector' this displays contextual information about each selected objects. The final is 'The Library Panel' this contains media elements and symbols that have been stored. You can use this panel to manage and organize the projects elements.

Actionscript code allows you to add interactivity to the elements you have already added to your documents. This will allow you to add code to a button so when clicked on a new image will appear.

To publish you FLA file you select File> Publish. This will then compress your version of your file with the extensions.

When finishing your SWF file you then need to publish it. To do so the program Adobe Flash Player is used to play your SWF file on the web.