Best software

[michaelrita]

Hi,

I'm new here...It seems to be a very informative site!

I'm thinking of starting up a site, and I'm trying out various software to make flash animations. So far I've tried the Coffeecup Firestarter (ok, but pretty basic, isn't it?), and I've also downloaded trial versions of Swish 2.0, KoolMoves and 3D Flash Animator. I will try them out tomorrow (it's pretty late now!).

Which one of these programs do you recommend? It would be interesting to hear. I mean, I will probably get my own opinion after trying them, but I'm interested in knowing what people in general thinks. Also, if you know any other software in the same price range (say, $ 50), I would appreciate if you let me know.

Thanks a lot!

Michael

[GMF ™]

I recomend Flash . What more do you need ? Its the best app in the world to make animation with .

Have a nice X-mas

[fabiopao]

swish 2 is the nearest thing to a perfect software you can find on the net: it's easy to understand and to use, very flexible and comes equipped with a bunch of great text effects that you could do with flash in hours of work.
but, if you want to spend hours learning actionscript to make, say some snowflakes, well flash is still the number one...

[GMF ™]

Swish is in general a Text based app with a few other options

[enpstudios]

Flash 5
Swish 2.0

[Xenolith0]

Flash 5.0 (I hear 6.0 might be coming out soon (I Hope))
and Swish is pretty cool

[AmericaOffline]

It seems you have your answer...Flash is the best. Although flash is expensive you can download a trial version of it and use that. That is if you don't have the money to buy an original verision. With regards to fabio's reply swish 2 is a very good program, however you have to consider that it is just a shortcut tool that text is made using flash actionscript coding. This not only goes for you but for everyone else if i were to give you a tip i would tell you not to rely on any shortcut tools but rather invest the time into learing the actionscript behind them since it will be of greater benefit later. You will still use swish however with flash you will be able to understand the actionscrip coding and customize what you have made in swish to meet your needs...hope this helps

[roger_onslow]

Many people mistakenly thing that SWiSH only does text effects (like Flax etc). It is not in that class of programs.. It is an authoring tool in the same class as Flash, LiveMotion etc.

It handles text, vector graphics, image, sound. It has buttons, movie clips, masking. It has events and actions, scenes, timelines. Unlike Flash it also has powerful, user configurable, motion-tweening effects.

So it is NOT just a shortcut tool for text effects !!!

[fabiopao]

i think many people here don't know that swish 2 is a completely different thing from swish 1.5...the only thing you can't do with it is some flash 5 actionscript trick, since it uses flash 4 a/script.
btw, many people using swish overcame some of these problems, so, for example, a smart guy found the way to make a % preloader in swish that you weren't supposed to get: http://digilander.iol.it/fabiopao/straits/records.html
or http://digilander.iol.it/fabiopao/zone/start.htm

[michaelrita]

Hi,

Thanks for the information, guys! I have tried the Swish 2.0, and I like it a lot so I think I will purchase it and start there...Then if I see I need more advanced features, I'll get Flash. Sound like a good idea?

[roger_onslow]

The way SWF files are built are different (especxially since Flash 5).

In Flash, because it is limited in terms of what you can easily do with tweening and keyframe animation (without spending a lot of time moving things around by 'hand'), and because Flash 5 introduced a nicer scripting language and an object model, you'll find most animations done with Flash 5 are action-script based. Action-script requires more of a programmers mentality and as a result often has a high learning curve.

With SWiSH there is a lot of power and flexibility in its effects (which generate tweened/keyframed animation). So you'll find most SWiSHer's use that. However, many of the SWiSHer's are using action-based animation (same concept as actionscript) as SWiSH incorporates more of this. For example, you can do nice smooth scrollers and menus using action-based animation.

So you may well find that learning one will not help a lot when it comes to learning the other (it will help somewhat though .. you'll have some of the basica concepts under your belt). Its a bit like saying I'll start eating with a knife and fork, but if I can't eat all I want, then I'll get chop-sticks .