What is Flash Animation, When and why to use it ?

Flash is a vector animation software which facilitates multimedia operation. Thanks to Flash, animation in websites is so common today. Browsing the internet was never so lively. The software which was launched as Adobe Flash in 1996 has come a long way. While 'Flash' has been retained, the prefix has undergone changes from time to time. Nevertheless, Flash has emerged as the most popular software for web based animation till date.

The compatibility factor of Flash and HTML is questionable. This is because the former is vector based. Programming related to operations like selecting text, scrolling, right-clicking etc are fashioned in a completely different system and is no way similar to HTML webpages.

Advocates of Flash promote the software over HTML for the following reasons:

• Flash movies load faster and save on download time because Flash is vector based where as HTML is not.
• Flash intelligently 'caches' it's movies so they don't have to be reloaded.
• Flash gives the viewers a more responsive 'rich-client' like experience.

Whatever be it, both Flash and HTML have their respective advantages. However, for creating a presentation similar to a television commercial, Flash is a better option. This type of presentation is something where the user sits back and enjoys the show as the Flash movie delivers the message to the clients with animation, sound and possibly video. It is hoped that this is not confused with those ever-present 'intro' animations that still plague many Flash sites. Rather it's about informative movies that the user can decide to view to learn about something like a product or a service. It is also advised to the Flash developers not to go overboard with their fantasy, for heavy Flash movies take more time to load.