Information

[jaidi]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone knows where I can find some information about SWF file format. I have to do a paper about it, so some background information like history of (open)swf, maybe information of Flash the programm, anything.... would be nice.

Thanks

[johnie]

http://www.openswf.org
http://www.macromedia.com

those are the two best sources of info right now. You can also type open source SWF into a good search engine or Flash history or Future Splash macromedia and get some interesting info from the news services.

[johnie]

Paul Haeberli (PH), Jon Wadelton (JW), Florent Bertholon (FB), Olivier Debon (OD), Lennart Steinke (LS), Mike Schrag (MS), Robert Hartzell (RH), Dennis Chen (DC), Craig Graham (CG)


Interestibgly enough this is a list of people who helped correct the SWF Spec on the Open SWF page. This is what some of the peple listed at the bottom of the page have done. Also search their names in a good searvh engine to find out more of what they have developed.

David Michie (the mod of this forum and the author of the open SWF page has developed Swish)

Oliver Debon (created the SWF Player for Linnux among other things)

Robert Hartzell (created Kool Moves)

Mike Schrag (created the Java2D SWF player) which seems to be no longer avaialble.

[johnie]

Read this also it is a hoot...

http://www.egroups.com/messages/swiff-info/48?expand=1

[johnie]

Oliver Debon is also the creator of Swift Generator.

Dohhh!!! how could I miss that one.


http://www.swift-tools.com/

Oh Yeah I'm kinda hacked off that people are swallowing the garbage about Wildform Flix being the only Vid to SWF encoder. Not only have they printed that garbage but Fla**** has given them their own board while another product Vid2SWF was actually out (In Public Alpha) before FLIX was.

[johnie]

Heres a piece of Triva for you...

(Oh yeah the SWF Format was opened in 1998)

Morph Ink- See Link http://animation.miningco.com/librar...y/aa031398.htm

was one of the first 3'rd party tools to go to market that generated SWF's. They luanched MorphInk 99 in early 1999 (Their support Forum dates to Feb). Morph Ink 2000 has been delayed but they claim they will realese the product soon.

There is another tool like Morph Ink called Kool Moves which was realesed sometime this year (I Think in May or something) that does the same thing as Morph Ink but has matured and developed much faster than Morph Ink.

Both Kool Moves 1.75 and Swish 2.0 are suitable replacements for Flash 3.


(The Live Motion Public beta was going on in Feb of 2000)

Currently there are several tools that can generate Full SWF movies and 2 or 3 libraries that I know of (I'm sure there are more).

The tools that can generate SWf's- that I know of are;

Corel R.A.V.E. ( http://www.corel.com ) , Insane Flash Animator ( http://www.insanetools.com ), Swish ( http://www.swishzone.com ), Live Motion ( http://www.Adobe.com ) , Kool Moves ( http://www.koolmoves.com )

4 Librairies that I know off

Ming- http://www.opaque.net/ming/
Lib SWF- http://reality.sgi.com/grafica/flash/
Java SWF- http://www.anotherbigidea.com/javaswf/javaswf.html
XML to SWF- http://195.14.236.181/wave/

There are also at least 2 companies that have Generator Like Tools.

Swift Generator- http://www.swift-tools.com
Jgenerator- http://home.earthlink.net/~skavish

Okay there are also at least 2 SWF drawing tools that I know of that do nothing but Draw in the SWF format.

Swift 3d- http://www.swift3d.com/
Morph-Ink 99 (I already talked about them)- http://www.morphink.com

Okay Many products have been adding SWF export to theuir drawing engines:

Both Corel And Adobe have as has Ulead and Moho and Poser and 3-D Studio Max - ETC ETC...

Now the wierdest developement of all is the 3'rd Party Stand alone enhancement packages like the ones offered at http://www.***********.com and http://www.ashzfall.com/products/afsaver and http://theemaster.webjump.com/flashtools4.zip.

The stand alone and 3'rd party projector extension market is the wierdest of all the developements from the Open SWF format. There are literally thousands of small apps and programs to enhance the SWF Standalone projector abilities.

And then an even odder Thing is the developemnt of Flash Plug-Ins:

Their are several but these are the most noteable

http://www.wildform.com (A text effects generator SWFX and a video encoder called FLIX)
http://www.goldshell.com/ (They Make Flax among other things)
and http://www.geocities.com/vid2swf (A video Encoder) - and what is going on here (At Flash Kit) between this product and Flix (A wildform Product) is very interesting if you want to know more about it give me an E-mail.
Check the Open SWF or clones of that page for more plug-in products they are to numourous to list here.

Now this is where it gets weird. Several companies have developed and

[johnie]

This is great, Jason over at Swish Forum has just realeased some info on the history of Swish and of Insane Flash Animator. This is some good stuff manered...

http://board.flashkit.com/board/show...threadid=82116

Bob Hartzel also has writen some stuff about the history of Kool Moves...

I'll Try to find it.

[jaidi]

Wow thanks, When I posted my Question I didn't expect so many replies but I'm glad I got them cos now I can make a start at least...

Thanks again

[johnie]

This is from Bob Hartzell:

A bit on the history of Kool Moves.

http://board.flashkit.com/board/show...threadid=82250

[johnie]

THis is kinda fun also http://www.buttontool.com/ this is the tool that David Michie worked on before Swish.


Also if you look at the simularties between this tool and Insane Flash animator- they are have some of the same samples.

Fantavision tryout can be downloaded here I think? http://www.textbooksoftware.com/samples.htm

This was one of the programs that inspired Kool Moves.

[TPhilipDolce]

yeah Johnie,..

I know what you mean about being taken aback by the "BOLD and Unfounded" statements made by Wildform regarding Flix and vid2swf. As you know by my postings at wildform,..I just backed off because I wasn't going to let myself get emotional on that subject. As the Wildform moderator "attempted" to correct me about the demo or trial versions, I just left it there so that all could see the ignorance for themselves. He also would not flat out admit his being off base on his unsubstantiated remarks about another product "before knowing the facts." I believe you did repsond also to correct him on his incorrect facts about demos and I appreciated that too.

On another note,..I also believe that David Michie was very involved with a wonderfully powerful graphics (raster/vector) program called "Wright Design" in the early to mid 90's. I think it was much more popular in Australia than in the states and just didn't catch on here.