I'd like to learn Flash and at $400-$500 for Flash 8, it's just out of reach for me.
Don't want a trial version because in 30 days I'm back to square 1.
Are there any alternative applications that you can create .swf animations and embed into my site spinner websites?
Thanks

Take a look here:

http://virtualmechanics.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1...291047991#5291047991

j razz
www.jrazzcreations.com

I use SWF Quicker from http://www.sothink.com/ at $69

Thanks. So I've been reading up on a few apps.
- Swishmax
- MotionArtist
- sothink
- Flash 8

Since I'm new to Flash, I have no ideas how to choose one. Flash is out due to $500 price tag.

I'm wondering if all these apps publish an .swf file that plays in Firefox, IE6/7, Safari, etc. I'm I asking for trouble by adding flash animations to my websites?

Really comes down to if its worth going through this learning curve??? Love to hear some feedback if you all think so.

I have been using flash since 2004 and still don't understand it

Don't get me wrong, I can use it, but it takes me a while and if I get stuck it is like pulling teeth to get help on the Flash forum.

Swishmax I utilize a lot for text in my video work. They have several presets that are great and I can whip something up in no time. It allows for the same type of functionality as Flash but cheaper in cost in my opinion.

MotionArtist is wizard/template driven although you can change things. MotionArtist3 came out last week I think and has even more templates. I have not used it on anything out there on the web and find the templates kind of cheesy but again, they can be modified and you can do things without the templates.

All three of these produce swf files that can be seen on the web just like flash does.

The learning curve for flash/swishmax is steep- motionartist is not so bad if you stick with the templates.

I would strongly urge you to think about why you want to use it and see if it is really necessary. Then I would encourage you to download the trial versions to testrun to ensure that you are not going to get frustrated and just give up on it as that would be a waste of money if you already bought it.

Something else to consider- you do not have to have the most current version of flash out there- go to ebay and find FlashMX 2004pro or older and I would think that it would be way under the 500 dollar mark.

LarryD will have to speak to sothink as I have never used it.

j razz
www.jrazzcreations.com

Thanks j razz,
So why do I think I need flash? For example, take www.spansion.com as an example.
The flash here really conveys a lot of info nicely, and has a clean navigation on the right. Then when you mouseover the right side, it then does another flash deal.
So its seems that you can make a very visually nice looking site with flash and it seems to load much faster than anything that can be done in straight html.
I could probably do a bunch of animated gifs but that would seem to take much longer to load and not have the capabilities that flash has.

So for me, it's really trying to kick up a notch from the websites I can build with site spinner.

From a seemingly static look to a much more colorful and visually pleasing one.

Site Spinner has been that greatest thing for me because I went from Frontpage and Dreamweaver that just was not as intuitive nor easy to use. Now that building website is not that challenging anymore, I felt it was a great time to use the "import foreign object" feature and throw in a .swf file.

I don't mind the $500 for Flash if I felt I really needed it. Like the $1,000 I paid for Photoshop and Illustrator which running on my computer 24/7

Before I settled on sothink, I downloaded every trial I could get and worked through their tutorials. This revealed a lot about what the product can and cannot do. It only took a couple of days to figure out which package gave me the features I was looking for.

For simple, no hassle, absolutely easy, 1 or 2 click conversions, then only 2 files to load to your web site (!), I found this one:

http://www.easywebvideo.com/

Its only downside is that it is not able to create clips with preloaders. For clips of a minute or less, it is great.

Tom

Easy to use and costs $45,95


http://www.flash-video-mx.com/video_to_flash_web/

I use a program called firestarter from www.coffeecup.com, they have alot of cool little web development programs, and they are pretty easy to learn.

I too am a fan of firestarter by coffeecup. It is very easy to use and they have excellent customer service that will talk you through anything. Its great especially for creating flash intros and it works well with site spinner

I found a site www.DVDVideosoft.com that has a free video to swf converter that works very well. I create my video using Uleads Video Studio then create an MPG file. I then convert the file to swf using DVDVideosoft's free utility. I also creates the HTML code you can use to paste into your site.

I too have been using CoffeeCup products. They are easy to use and reasonable. In less than 10 minutes I was able to create the animated menu nav buttons I had been painstakingly trying to build from scratch. CoffeeCup Flash Menu Builder was easy and fun to play with!