Adobe Flash, formerly known as Macromedia Flash, is a software program used to create and manipulate graphics and animation. It is one of the most common programs used for creating animated web pages, video players, and audio streaming applications. Flash files are traditionally in the SWF format, or ShockWave Flash, though many other types of files can be viewed or manipulated with this software.
Now a days Adobe Flash can be used for a number of different things, animation, websites and flash games are just a few of them. One animation that was made in Flash was the bobinogs, this was a popular kid’s show not long ago and was broadcasted on the BBC, this proves how big Flash is if a huge corporate company such as the BBC are broadcasting animations made in Flash.
More and more websites are being made in flash now as well pure and simply because of how easy it is, if you know what you’re doing of course, arguably one of the best websites of the year was made in flash, http://www.wechoosethemoon.org/, the website is ingenious, it’s so easy to use and looks amazing.
As well as websites and animations, a lot of games now a days are being made in Flash, my favourite Flash game, http://www.tankionline.com/en/, has quite good graphics but addictive gameplay and now has over 5 million users, which is astonishing considering the game hasn’t been out all that long.
But Flash hasn’t always been this good, so far we know what can be made in Flash now but where did the idea originally come from? Who made it? And how did it become as successful as it is now?
More and more websites are being made in flash now as well pure and simply because of how easy it is, if you know what you’re doing of course, arguably one of the best websites of the year was made in flash, http://www.wechoosethemoon.org/, the website is ingenious, it’s so easy to use and looks amazing.
As well as websites and animations, a lot of games now a days are being made in Flash, my favourite Flash game, http://www.tankionline.com/en/, has quite good graphics but addictive gameplay and now has over 5 million users, which is astonishing considering the game hasn’t been out all that long.
But Flash hasn’t always been this good, so far we know what can be made in Flash now but where did the idea originally come from? Who made it? And how did it become as successful as it is now?
It is said that Flash started life as an idea that came from playing with Lego, this might sound bizarre, but is it really? Yes I’ll admit I thought it was when I first discovered this but when I sat down and thought about it, the two do surprising have a lot in common seeing as one is physical and the other is virtual, with Lego you can start with the vision and work out the details of the design as you progress. With patience and persistence, John Gay developed the following LEGO-based design process. It's more or less the same process Macromedia ultimately used to develop Flash.
- Choose a problem: Build a LEGO ship.
- Develop a vision: What sort of ship will it be? How big will it be? What will it carry?
- Build: Build the framework of the ship.
- Fill in the details: Design and build the details of the ship, ramps, doors, etc.
- Test: Drive the cars around the ship and sail the ship while exploring the house.
- Refine: Take parts of the ship apart and make them better.
- Learn: Take what you learned from building this ship and use it to build a better one next time.
- Choose a problem: Build a LEGO ship.
- Develop a vision: What sort of ship will it be? How big will it be? What will it carry?
- Build: Build the framework of the ship.
- Fill in the details: Design and build the details of the ship, ramps, doors, etc.
- Test: Drive the cars around the ship and sail the ship while exploring the house.
- Refine: Take parts of the ship apart and make them better.
- Learn: Take what you learned from building this ship and use it to build a better one next time.
It’s insane to even think that such a hugely successful piece of software was developed from such a simple looking method as the Lego-based design process. But this was all triggered by the creator, John Gay, wanting to be an architect as a young teenager, but soon after he realised that there wouldn’t be much opportunity to build the houses that he had designed, not long after John got an Apple II computer and started programming near enough straight away, he quickly discovered that with computer software you can design something, build it, and see it work and respond to you. Although bits of Apple II Basic were not as impressive as building houses, he could complete a project and see how it worked. To cut a long story short after he got the Apple II and programmed his first piece of software and entered it into his school science fair which it did pretty well in, short after that his dad took him to a Macintosh users-group meeting where he bragged about his sons programming ability to the group organiser, Charlie Jackson, Jackson wanted to start a Macintosh software company, owned the necessary $10,000 Lisa computer, and didn't have much money to spend paying programmers. John wanted access to a Lisa computer and, as a high school student, didn't need a pay check until after the software started selling. It was a perfect fit, and part of the beginning of Silicon Beach Software. After the summer of 1995 John and Charlie Jackson wrote a simple animation player that used Java but was also horribly slow. The duo stubbornly kept at it and in the autumn, Netscape came out with their plug-in API. Finally, they had a way to extend the Web browser with decent performance, this was the ancestor of Macromedia Flash Player. As it grew close to shipping time, John and Charlie Jackson changed the name of their software to FutureSplash Animator to focus more on its animation capabilities. Not long after they grew tired of running a company that didn't have much money to spend, and began trying to sell their technology. After an unsuccessful pitch to Adobe and turning down a bid from Fractal Design, they shipped FutureSplash Animator in May 1996. The pairs success then came just 3 months later, luckily for then Microsoft started developing MSN where they wanted to create the most television like experience on the net, Microsoft then became huge fans of FutureSplash and adopted its technology. They also struck success with the corporate giant Disney, who used their FutureSplash software to build animations and user interface for their Disney Dailey Blast, luckily for John and Jackson Macromedia had a very good relationship with Disney, who also used Macromedia’s Shockwave, which lead to the pair selling FutureSplash to Macromedia. FutureSplash Animator then became Macromedia Flash 1.0.
After being bored to death by that huge chunk of technological genius later on after a little more research, rather ironically actually, I found out that Flash is now used by Lego to sell their rather creativity inspiring pieces of plastic.
