CoffeCup Firestarter - SWiSH lookalike software

[sm_sg]

Here y'all,

One of my mates over at http://www.swishspot.com got this through his e-mail today....

http://www.coffeecup.com/firestarter/screen/

Anybody tried it? How close is it to SWiSH??? the interface doesn't look too much different from swish v1.5 anyway....

Ora best,
Scotty....

[jofta]

A toy in comparison...after a very quick look.
jofta

[aap]

I don't think lots of peole will have tried it, giving the fact that is only dowloadable as off today...

[wolfgross]

hey, did you see they want $49 for that crap!

[aap]

If the guy gives me his Mercedes, I'll pay $ 49
;o)

[gjkillam]

Hmmmm? Toy & Crap without even looking at it!
I'll be sure to hold your guys opinions in high regards in the future!
I DL'ed this thing this morning & thought I better check it out after seeeing your posts!
Better look again!
Its a pretty cool proggy & has lots of stuff that I wish v1.5 had!
Lots of FX & tweak settings Cool GUI,
Imports images in
.jpg/.bmp/.gif/.png/.emf/.wmf/.tiff/.ico/.cur/.pcx
Comes with a huge MP3 Library (soundclip/soundtrack option I wonder if it syncs???
My only complaint is no preview window, it launches the preview in your browser!
Other than that it looks pretty cool! This could of given SWiSH 1.5 a run for its money 6-8 months ago!
TRY before you TRASH next time!...ziggy

[aabirnisar]

but man they got all the software and ideas from the forums and other sources , i think i m regular to this forum i know what the people here really need if i would hav been to that calibre (programmer) i must hav made something better than that . means wait for swish 2 it will be more better than that , than again u will c some next version of some new progarm and u will say that they r better , i think its a chance every new comer gets froma market for a lil time , so no comparing here , just post a wishlist for the upcoming they will try to make it even more better .
so in the end even i salute that software with those outstanding features , hope to c some good 1 from swish 2 also .
peace
db
no mean to hurt some1
also welcome back ziggy

[gjkillam]

Hey aabirnisar!
Yeah, Its NOWHERE near SWiSH 2.0...but it IS the closest I've seen anyone come to SWiSH 1.5x
I also just noticed that it automatically adds a preloader!...nice touch for SWiSH 2.0 (hint hint there Ramjet!)
Newbies would love it!
& a "Add Frames" button, Man I would of loved that in SWiSH 1.5
Still playing...Hav'in fun!...ziggy

[craig3281]

Originally posted by sm_sg
Here y'all,


http://www.coffeecup.com/firestarter/screen/

Anybody tried it? How close is it to SWiSH??? the interface doesn't look too much different from swish v1.5 anyway....

This is a nice program, don't judge it by looking at the Interface. Coffeecup has placed a lot of thought into this product. After downloading a rather smalll 2.3ishMB file, surprising since it comes with a library of sound files built in I've been playing with the program for about an hour. The effects interface is well planned along with the ability of inserting shapes, outlines, gradients, opacity, etc. This would have blown Swish 1.52 right out of the water and candidly is a competitor for version 2.0 when released. At $49 it looks like Coffeecup has a winning product targeted towards casual Flash authors. Agreed the one thing I disliked was the lack of a preview window as noted in a previous post.

[wcoleman]

I played with Firestarter for about an hour last night after downloading it. My $0.02 (U.S.) is that it is a nice little program that is not a strong competitor for Swish 2. I found the interface less intuitive that the Swish one, but more importantly I missed the lack of detailed control over the effects that is in 1.52 to some extent and in 2 (alpha, beta and presumably gamma, delta etc.) to a very large degree. I was also not pleased with the lack of a preview window, as noted above, and found the quality of the output to be less than I wanted. There is the capability of adding shapes, but what is described as a circle is in fact quite squared off, and when resizing the circle, there is apparantly no way to ensure that the x/y ratio is maintained at a constant value (for example, holding down Shift, ot Ctrl while resizing, the Windows standards, doesn't help). All in all, if I was only going to buy one such tool it would not be Firestarter, but would continue to be Swish.

Cheers,

Flick
[Edited by wcoleman on 06-01-2001 at 04:06 PM]

[almark]

Here's another swf proggie
http://www.goldshell.com/mix-fx/main.htm

[almark]

Good to hear from you again.

Are you still trucking?

I think MIXFX produces flash 5 swf's - which means they are very small in size and the speed is great. Clearly it also means that people must have the flash 5 player and I still haven't been able to get into Swish yet. (There again I never really used load movie much!)

Some more info:

There are a number of text effects programs out there. For example, Wildform SWFX has its own forum here at Flashkit. http://www.flashkit.com/board/forumd...php?forumid=31

There is another FREE program called TextFX, or flashtyper, see the link at the top of the page. It also has a support forum here. http://www.flashkit.com/board/forumd...php?forumid=28

Unlike Swish, these programs cannot import sound, images or swf's.

There are two other programs worth mentioning. The first is Koolmoves which has a support forum here http://www.flashkit.com/board/forumd...php?forumid=24 and the only is called MoHO. Both of these programs can produce very effective cartoons. There is also MIXFX at http://www.goldshell.com/mix-fx/main.htm and Firestarter at http://www.coffeecup.com/firestarter/screen/ There is also PoserV4 that can producce 3d swf files.

So visit support forums and see what they offer (note the number of posts for each) or visit the relevant web sites. I hope this helps you make up your mind.

It would be very wrong for me as a moderator to say which is best. Clearly they all have their good and bad points.

[Edited by almark on 06-01-2001 at 05:24 PM]

[David Michie]

Every time a new SWF authoring tool comes out I get
worried. I nervously download the program thinking:
"Is this one going to be any good?"

I was much relieved when I ran Firestarter for the first time.

Cheers, David.

[gjkillam]

Hey everybody!
That Mix-FX looks pretty cool!...DLing it right now!
Ditto for what Ivanopulo said about Firestarter!
Some cool goodies for sure, but its still not quite SWiSH!
I love all of coffeecups software though! They have a great html editor in my opinion...It reminds me of Homesite w/out the cfm/jsp integration? It was my first html editor & I just started using it again after working my way thru dozens of others!
They don't have 1 piece of "Bad" software...& they have alot! check'em out! http://www.coffeecup.com
Good to see you Ivanopulo!...Cheers...ziggy

[josephp]

Hey,what gives here,I asked the same thing about a week or so ago,and I was stepped on by that moderator guy moving to Montana to sell stuff to clean your teeth.

He locked the thread and made my day miserable.

showthread.php?threadid=146499

"I would suggest that discussions about this software remain off-forum as it is not swish related.
You can go to the link in question and make up your mind about this product but further discussion here is inappropriate unless it relates to swish support.
david p."


"So what will be the good,the bad,and ugly of this new swf program.
How will it compare to Swish v2?
$50.00 for all free updates?

In Todays email...
Some Answers about our New Program - CoffeeCup Firestarter 3.0

Yes it makes Flash files (.swf), and it will only be $49.
It will be the easiest program under $300 to make awesome
pages like the one found at http://www.coffeecup.com/car/
and ALL upgrades will be FREE for life, it will also be ready
around June 1st even if I have to kill everyone in the office !
Thanks for downloading,
PS. I will be commmenting about TUCOWS and
their proposed take over of the NASDAQ Ticker Symbol (INFO)
in my next e-mail. *you might want to check it out before I do

Nicholas Longo
Founder|CEO
CoffeeCup Software Inc.
-------------------------------
http://www.coffeecup.com
http://www.bluedomino.com "
[Edited by josephp on 06-01-2001 at 08:13 PM]

[David Michie]

Nicholas,

I don't really mind other companies promoting their products
on our support forum -- I'm pretty confident Swish can withstand
the competition. I'm not sure why David Petley killed your thread.

In answer to this question:
"So what will be the good,the bad,and ugly of this new swf
program. How will it compare to Swish 2.0?"

It doesn't.

Cheers, David.

[gjkillam]

Hey David M!...Its not even close to SWiSH 2.0
That "preview image" window is really cool though!...hint hint
That loaded sound library is a nice touch too!...Cheers...ziggy

[roger_onslow]

Reading the users feedback comments on the Firststarter page is interesting:

Looks to me like there's four types of responses.

1) Those that have never seen anything but Flash and think Firestarter is a wonderful idea (an under $US50 program for making SWF files .. why didn't anyone think of that before?). Wonder what they'd thnk if they saw SWiSH in action?

2) Those that have tried SWiSH and don't think Firestarter is any good in comparison.

3) Those that just don't like it anyway.

4) Flash fanatics (not fans .. fanatics) who think anything that isn't Flash is a load of rubbish (by definition). They are the same ones who bag SWiSH because it isn't Flash.

But ... I don't think I saw any responses that have said anything like "I've tried lots of other programs like SWiSH, and Firestarter is the best of the bunch".

[David Michie]

Hey David M!...Its not even close to SWiSH 2.0
That "preview image" window is really cool though!...hint hint
That loaded sound library is a nice touch too!...Cheers...ziggy

Yes, we could put an image preview on the open dialog.
Yes, we could throw some sounds into the install file.

Should we do it, or do we have time is another matter.

Cheers, David.

[gjkillam]

Disregard my last post!
I'm not gonna be the one to blame for delaying the final release!
I'm picturing Tar, Chook Feathers & Baseball bats!
Stick it on the v2.5 wishlist!
[Edited by gjkillam on 06-01-2001 at 10:12 PM]