Unit 65 – Uses and Principles of Web Animation for Interactive Media (Task 5-Investigate Web Animation Software and Web

Player Plugins)

Software (Flash)

Is an animated software in which uses different ways of producing an hallucination of movement within the scenes of the animation. The 3 main ways in which you can produce basic or simple animation are : Classic, Shape and Motion tweening in which these represent the type of techniques that are used within the software which is now known as, Adobe Flash Professional CS4. The main advantages of Flash is that it can produce from very simple animation to even more sophisticated ones. You can also implement your own ways of putting together an animation which relates to a particular theme. The main disadvantages of Flash is that content could corrupt unwittingly for example, integrating audio into the animation. They is also security disadvantage with Flash because it is not password protected or encrypted so it is prone to viruses. Also flash cookies can be used to collect data on a user’s PC without their permission.

These methods used can be integrated as well within the animation in order to make a more efficient output of the movement within the animation for example, Classic and Motion tweening use similar techniques in order to make the characters or features move in a straight line.

These graphics demonstrate the way in which basic and simple animation is put together and how these kind of techniques are implemented into more unique looking animation. The description was based upon personal experience and the illustrations were found from the following sites: http://www.cultofmac.com/flash-fixed-in-os-x-10-6-1-snow-leopard-update/15702; http://www.communitymx.com/content/article.cfm?cid=65760 and http://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/flash-intro/tween/

Software (Swish)

Is a software package that benefits from the usage of Flash Technology in order to produce cross-platform presentations. Even though this software application has the similar features to Flash, these effects have been integrated within Swish, therefore the majority of people do tend to find the software a lot more easier to use and it becomes less time consuming and inexpensive. The file output is also a .swf Format just like Flash where this allows you to incorporate the following:

• ASP (Active Server Page is a file extension that is used by HTML in which contains a Microsoft server-processed script)• SOL (Is where it reads and writes the solution files for XML)• PHP (Is a Hyper-text Preprocessor which is initially designed for the development of the webpages)

The main advantages of the Swish software is that it works similarly to Adobe Flash but its much cheaper to run. It is very easy to use for any non-professional users. It is good for creating banners on any scale whether it is simple or complex including the development of the website in general.

A disadvantage is that it lacks a few of the features Flash has and also can not open or save .fla file formats which puts a stop to exchanges between the two programs. Download Time and File Size could be seen as a disadvantage depending on the amount of content. Flash can interact with databases but swish cannot. Most search engines cannot pick up data from swish websites.

Software (Amara)Amara is known to be more of a standardised software package for website animations. Although it is not as powerful as the Flash software it is more easily affordable. Just like Flash it exports the file as a .swf format and it is not necessarily needed for any Flash experience. Nevertheless, it is made up of separate applications which are used to carry out particular animations such as, Banner and Photo animations. In addition to this, it also supports the .fla files that makes it compatible with Flash.

The main advantages of the Amara software application is that it is affordable, quick and easy to use, it is an alternative for people who don’t own or use Flash, you can trial software for free and it can be saved in a .swf format so it can be used on Flash Players.

The main disadvantage of swish is that same as Flash where the uploading process of the files can be very time-consuming. Another disadvantage is that it does not have the same powerful features as the Adobe Flash software package.

Software (Director)

Is a multimedia software platform which is known as, “Adobe Director” which was initially produced by Macromedia and currently now represents the Adobe Systems. It enables users to establish applications that are built around movie or 3D games comparison where the user is actually the “Director” of the movie. The scripting language used is ‘Lingo’, which may motivate some to use this application over others. It is initially designed to produce sequences of different kind of movement within animation. The main advantages of Director is that you can integrate the same interactivity as Flash and it supports many media features such as, RealMedia, Macromedia Flash, MP3, Shockwave and QuickTime. The main disadvantages of Director is that is was difficult to transfer and to view it on the web. Within Director it gives you different colours or colour palettes but you have to use a separate code for each colour which makes the task last longer.

The director programme using a script language called “Lingo” in which is unrelated to several programming languages that was developed by John .H Thompson for use in Adobe Director.

These images show the similarities in the way in which director is produced physically and technically. The text and graphics were found on the following sites: http://www.en.wikipedia.org ; http://www.lingoworkshop.com/Articles/history.php; http://www.skyscanner.net/news/articles/2009/02/000981-oscar-nominee-film-locations-already-winners.html and http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://fc00.deviantart.com/fs50/f/2009/277/5/6/Adobe_Director_11_5_animation_by_PIUwolf.png&imgrefurl=http://www.pchelka-stitch.ru/catalog/images/soft/adobe%2Bdirector%2B11.5.html&usg=__CPyfdx4G3TrX4tDP56H7NCjmwWc=&h=470&w=800&sz=298&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=VmE_ZFEVZBtdCM:&tbnh=101&tbnw=172&ei=jNORTdjtNs6ChQf5sI2UDw&prev=/images%3Fq%3DAdobe%2BDirector%2BAnimation%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26biw%3D1020%26bih%3D559%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=106&vpy=84&dur=63&hovh=172&hovw=293&tx=204&ty=70&oei=jNORTdjtNs6ChQf5sI2UDw&page=1&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0

Web Player Plugins (Flash Player)

The Adobe Flash Player is distributed by Macromedia in which it is an important piece of software kit in order to run any .swf files within a web browser. The name ‘Player’ defines it already where it plays the files that are created by the authoring application. The Flash Player was initially designed to display 2 dimensional vector animations, but has also become popular for producing ‐Rich Internet Applications and streaming audio and video.

The main advantages of the Adobe Flash Player is that with new upgraded software enables more greater security and privacy control and allow the delivery of richer apps to a broader spectrum of devices.

There is no actual disadvantages for the Adobe Flash Player although additional software applications does mean an extra possibly of security risk.

Web Player Plugins (Shockwave)

Shockwave was initiated by Macromedia and became the first and most prospective multimedia player before the Adobe Flash Player came along. It was used for a wide range of creations for online movies and animations yet it is mainly used within the establishment of gaming. The main reason is because it normally has a much more quicker rendering engine in comparison to Flash which comes along with hardware-accelerated 3D.

The main advantage of the Adobe Shockwave Flash Player is that it supports all of the Flash movies that are produced within the authoring application itself.

The main disadvantage of the Adobe Shockwave Flash Player is that the web browser plugin is not available for Linux and Solaris, even though it can be installed if you install a program which enables Windows based applications to run, for example ‘Codeweavers Crossover Office’.

Web Player Plugins (Real Player)

Real Player is a cross-platform media player which can be used for many different computer systems that was originated by Real Networks. It supports and plays a range of multimedia formats such as, MP3, MPEG-4, QuickTime, Windows Media and even through multiple versions of Real Audio and Video formats as well.

The main advantages of Real Player is that plays flawlessly on the RM (Real Media) and the RMVB (Real Media Variable Bitrate).

However, the main disadvantages of the Real Player is that Loads useless junk on first start which are mostly impossible to get rid of, requires a powerful computer and it takes ages to upload the video content.

Web Player Plugins (QuickTime)

QuickTime is an extended multimedia video application which is established by Apple Incorporated. It is capable of managing a variety of formats such as, digital video, media clips, animation, text, music and interactivity are among the number of multimedia video elements that are included within the QuickTime software application. It can also available for the operating systems of Mac and Windows.

The main advantages of the QuickTime software package is that it operates on a diverse scale with multimedia video and editing features where QuickTime Pro 7 allows users to cut, copy and paste functions, merging separate audio and video tracks, and freely placing the video tracks on a virtual canvas with the options of cropping and rotation. Saving and exporting (encoding) to any of the codecs supported by QuickTime. QuickTime 7 includes presets for exporting video to a video-capable iPod, Apple TV, and the iPhone.

The main disadvantage of the QuickTime software application is that it involves high memory utilisation of the video content.