Flash 8: a first look
Published: 09 Aug 2005
Macromedia's Flash 8 aims to beef up its video skills, expanding the scope of this de facto Web animation tool. In our tests of the Flash 8 beta, it delivered a real boost in muscle, along with upgrade-worthy work-flow and design tool improvements. Interactive designers will be excited by Flash 8's alpha channel support, which allows you to superimpose, say, video of a spacecraft flying in front of a moving city for your own Star Wars knockoff.
Flash 8 also pushes the boundaries of runtime animation, with support for pixel-based graphics. You can apply new filters and effects, such as drop shadows, blurs, colour adjustments, glows and bevelling with minimal coding. The rendering engine generates such effects dynamically, allowing for smoother downloads.
The new FlashType engine aspires to deliver sharper text, similar to that of ClearType. Flash 8 also promises to make its source code visible. One bugbear of Flash-based Web sites is their relative invisibility to search engines, but Flash 8 plans to include metadata descriptions within SWF files.
Sorely needed improvements to Flash 8 Professional include one-size-fits-all video importing and a standalone encoder for batch operations. The Pro version supports mobile content authoring and lets you preview your work on interactive interfaces that represent the latest smartphones.
Macromedia rebuilt its video codec, and our first look at the rough draft of the new, free Flash 8 player found that it performed as quickly as or better than Flash 7, QuickTime, RealPlayer and Windows Media Player. Older Flash players won't be able to play content created by Flash 8.0. You can download Maelstrom, the Flash 8 player beta, on your Windows 98, ME, 2000, or XP or Mac OS X 10.1 machine here.
Flash Professional 8 will cost £499, or £299 to upgrade from any version. How will Flash 8 measure up to its publicity? Check back soon for our full review once its maker releases the gold code.
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