<<< your input on next version of swish please >>>

[praitie]

May I just say...............WOW!

The new version is going to command serious attention from webdesigners across all platforms. I am certainly sold and eagerly anticipating its release.

Questions: Is it/will it be possible to apply gradient fills to the background color of a movie. Or a feature to add tiled background image, much like in HTML editors where you can add a background color (tho not with gradient), or image.

This would reduce the need to chuck a shape/image over your background - thus a tid bit smaller file.

Cheers,
Praitie

[roger_onslow]

Originally posted by praitie
May I just say...............WOW!

You ceratinly may .. its always nice to have people who are impressed by one's balls

Questions: Is it/will it be possible to apply gradient fills to the background color of a movie. Or a feature to add tiled background image, much like in HTML editors where you can add a background color (tho not with gradient), or image.

You can do that in nextswish by placing a rectangle the size of the stage area (as in v2) and then locking that layer, so that it won't get in the way of your editing. Eg. in the balls sample, I locked the blue/green background rect while working on the balls.

This would reduce the need to chuck a shape/image over your background - thus a tid bit smaller file.

won't make any difference to file size .. still have to do it in the swf by placing a rect

[Swisher1115]

First off, I absolutely love Swish! It's an answer to my prayers and I'm grateful to everyone who worked on it and provided it at such a reasonable price. I'm still relatively new to Swish, so I'm not sure if all the suggestions below are even possible (or whether they exist and I just haven't discovered them yet), but here are my top tens:

Top Ten Things I'd like to see in the next version:

1. A wider variety of built in text formatting controls (drop shadows, all caps, small caps, 3d, etc.)

2. The ability to import Bink, MPEG, WMA, and AVI movies directly.

3. A wider variety of image editing tools from within Swish (recoloring capability, paint tools, etc.)

4. A way to move multiple effects/events at once (say, for example, ten different text animation effects).

5. A wider collection of included templates, pre-loaders, sound effects, and buttons (such as web site templates, popup menus, transform menus, etc.) These are helpful to learn from, even if we don't use them as is.

6. A quick and easy way of aligning recurring elements such as buttons and text (I know you can type in the value or use the grid, but I find both of those methods a bit cumbersome).

7. A way to generate a projector file directly from Swish.

8. The ability to create animated lighting effects such as in 3d modeling programs.

9. A wider variety of effects (that's probably an obvious one!)

Top Two Annoyances with Swish (although annoyances is too strong a word)

1. The tiled image function is awesome, but I can't choose which part of the image shows up in the tile--it seems to be preset.

2. I don't like the bottom to top organization of elements. When I add new elements, I'd like them to fall underneath previous elements on the timeline.

Sorry--that's all I can think of. As I said, the program is great. As I gain more experience, I might think of other things. For now, keep up the great work and you have my support and gratitude.

[dbd]

Originally posted by roger_onslow
And you'll note that I have not two .. but THREE balls .. that the bounce and that they come in different colors

Finally, Carrie has something to sing about!
Dawn

[CELERYHART]

3 "colorful" bouncing balls....no less....!!!! What a guy....!!! I wonder if thats all the kids will see this year..."mamma kissing santa claus"....Anyone for a game of ping pong...????
How the heck are ya....???
How soon do you suppose it will take before they "cut" this thread....?? lol

[david petley]

Originally posted by CELERYHART

How soon do you suppose it will take before they "cut" this thread....?? lol

you behave yourself or I will change your title to "Xmas Grinch"

[marsman]

Roger:
"Great Balls of fire" that's pretty cool Why not make them something else? pigs, cows, ducks hahahaha.

Keep up the good work, WAITING (sorry to say not very patiently ) for that next version to come out. Ya the one that will keep me up at night, talking at the water cooler and basically ignoring family and friends.

Marsman

[Dead Rabbit]

Swisher1115:
Some instant answers:

4. A way to move multiple effects/events at once (say, for example, ten different text animation effects).

As long as the effects are for the same object, click the first effect to highlight it, then click the last effect while holding the <shift> key. Both effects and all in between are selected. Holding the <ctrl> key will select the effects you click without selecting all in between. (Similar to selecting files in Windows Explorer). Once selected, they can be cut, copied, pasted or dragged.

9. A wider variety of effects (that's probably an obvious one!)
Here's quite a few. You can make your own and save them as well.

http://www.swishspot.com/cgi-bin/ss-...ish+V2&start=0

Top Two Annoyances with Swish (although annoyances is too strong a word)

2. I don't like the bottom to top organization of elements. When I add new elements, I'd like them to fall underneath previous elements on the timeline.

Any animation software uses a logical approach to layering "cells". As they are stacked, the top item is visible in front of (or on top of) the previous item. How else would you represent this? ALL software that uses layers represents them from bottom to top. nothing else makes any sense.

Hope this at least solves these difficulties for you. please feel free to ask about any other needs/wants in a new thread. you knever know if the solution exists or if someone else has already tackled it...

[dbd]

Originally posted by CELERYHART
3 "colorful" bouncing balls....no less....!!!! What a guy....!!! I wonder if thats all the kids will see this year..."mamma kissing santa claus"....Anyone for a game of ping pong...????
How the heck are ya....???
How soon do you suppose it will take before they "cut" this thread....?? lol

Hi CELERYHART! Been a LONG time ...how are you? Happy Holidays. Dawn

[CELERYHART]

I'm fine....hope you are too...!!! I"m back up in Canada now..not entirely by choice...lol. Yes...you have a wonderful holiday season too....do you make a christmas card in Swish to send out to friends..?? If you do...I"d like to see it as I can imagine it is wonderful....
Can't wait till the new version comes out...!!! Course I'm still struggling with the last one...
Take care and be safe.....!!!

[ChrisNYC]

Oh wow. I'm really psyched about the new Swish now. Now I know why they call them teasers... I know what I want for Christmas.

[flyingbuddha]

err.. can ya add a few predefined shapes ..eg. rounded rectangle.. polygon.. etc etc .... not that i cant draw it.. but hey i chose swish cos its faster to get to the final movie.

[roger_onslow]

Originally posted by flyingbuddha
err.. can ya add a few predefined shapes ..eg. rounded rectangle.. polygon.. etc etc .... not that i cant draw it.. but hey i chose swish cos its faster to get to the final movie.

You'll be very happy with what we've done then

[marching crazy]

Hi All,

I have read most of the postings and would just like to add my wishes...(sorry if any have already been said)

1.Please dont make the next SWiSH to complicated
2.More easier/simple tutorials to follow for beginners
3.An F key to view in browser


A little question -
Will it be possible to edit SWiSH 2 swi's in the SWiSH ?

[iwd44]

Before i say what I'd like I must agree with one of the posts I read...Swish 2.0 is the best $50 I have ever spent in my computing life! It is an EXCELLENT PROGRAM!!!

A few things I'd like to see...most already mentioned, couple I dont think have been:

1. Remove function automatic on fade out (check box in the fade out function?)
2. Place doesn't pop up panel but is clickable.
3. Undo menu feature similar to Paint Shop pro (pull down list that names the undos and allows you to click back 4 undo's)
4. Remember your choice on loop/no loop for preview and movie
5. Tags in the timeline....ever seen Acid Music where you can drop "markers" in across the top of a time line? That would be helpful if you have several ungrouped things happening at once.
6. Maybe you can do this but reshape a shape as it moves via the move command...like a morph.
7. I really am looking forward to the use of those commands that are in the help files but not in the program! :-)
8. Predefined functions like snake that but more that return to their original position.
9. Predefined Javascripts
10.A menu for "plugin" events...like Dreamweaver has....if you have a function you do all the time you can create a swish save it to a button or menu command and it will place that common thing in the current swish. For example if you have a certain style of button you like to use, you create it, save the swish, assign it to a menu place and you can just click it to get that button thrown into your swish where you can edit it. Make sense? Hope so!

Also, and it may be me, but the most annoying thing are the color pallets...I don't like the colors changing with just a mouse over...should be clickable before they 'stick' to the new color. I am forever messing up that "perfect" color combo I just put in. :-)

Again, wonderful, wonderful program!!!

Chris

[roger_onslow]

Originally posted by iwd44

Also, and it may be me, but the most annoying thing are the color pallets...I don't like the colors changing with just a mouse over...should be clickable before they 'stick' to the new color. I am forever messing up that "perfect" color combo I just put in. :-)

If you're in the process of getting the right color, and you need an alpha setting .. it is easiest at present to first select the color with a click, and then reopen the selector and change the alpha. That way your color won't get changed.

The color selector won't change the color of something already in your movie, unless you click on a new color. If you do move over the selector and the color changes, you don't have to accept it. You can press escape or mouse-click on the LHS of the big color button at the top of the selector to restore the original color.

[flyingbuddha]

not sure if this is mentioned.. but one of the problems i face is moving the the stuff around when i have like zoomed in 800%... i mean yeah i can click on the hand tool (or whatever its called) but i am more used to just pressing the spacebar for the hand to show up.. and go away as soon as i release the space bar.. yanno.. like photoshop flash etc etc.. would be gr8 if ya can make that happen too.

damn.. wish i will be able to afford the swish 3 after making all these demands.

[elfmuse]

1. To be able to open and save *.fla files.
2. Export a projector, *.exe, file.

[roger_onslow]

Originally posted by elfmuse
1. To be able to open and save *.fla files.
2. Export a projector, *.exe, file.

No way for FLA files .. they are proprietary Macromedia format and no other app can read/write them

Creating projector is ok though.

[puppetman]

This is a looooonnnng thread. I might have missed it on one of the thread's pages, but the most important suggestions would be:

1) An ETA for version 3. It would be nice to tease us with an estimated date, even knowing the the first few releases could possibly be creeping with (adorable) little buggies.

2) A manual in Word or PDF format would have been REALLY great when I was first learning (even though this software was pretty darn easy to learn).

3) Some sort of IF/THEN to help sound. IF sound is done playing THEN continue to next scene/frame (or whatever). ELSE go back one frame (loop until it is done playing) to help get sounds in sync.