As more and more options become available for those wishing to
add Flash to their Web sites,
there are more and more products on the market to produce those
effects. One of the best for text animation is FlaX.
A comparatively small program from Goldshell Digital Media that
packs a lot of punch, FlaX is inexpensive, and produces Flash
that is both professional looking and easy to implement.
The two samples shown here took a total of about two minutes to
produce, save, and place on the page. The circle on the right is
91K; the single line is 12K. FlaX comes with a total of 24 text
effects, with most having a few preset alternatives, and most
providing the user with the ability to inject their own options.
Making a movie begins with the selection of properties for the
show, including dimensions, direction, background color, and
frames per second (fps). Once the movie is built, the overall
dimensions can be changed by simply dragging the window to
the desired size.
At all times, the movie can be previewed in the main screen
(shown below), showing the effects when the user clicks on the
"Play" arrow at the top of the program screen. A movie can be
previewed either in the program's own player or in an external
browser. It is from that main screen (under the "File" menu) that
users can save their project in the program's native file, export
an .SWF file, publish it for the Web in an HTML page, or set the
project as the screensaver for your computer.
The next step is setting the desired text properties, including
the input of the actual content. It is here that users choose the
font (it will use any on your system), size, color, kerning,
positioning in the movie, and style of type to be used. The three
styles available are complete fill, outline, and gradient fill
(including the ability to set the colors to be used in the
gradient). Text can be made to move right, left, up, or down. If
moved up or down, the text actually turns in that direction and
moves.
The only slowdown here is if the user selects a type size too
large to fit into the movie, as defined in the movie properties
at the beginning of the process. If that happens, the user simply
decides which is to be adjusted and makes the changes.
FlaX does not really have a unified interface as tools are
accessible from windows that float on the desktop and can be
arranged as the user wishes.
The final step in production is choosing
the desired rotation, including type, direction, overlap, and fade.
Possible types of rotation are: breakout, bullet, circle, come in, curl,
fade, flag, flatten, gravity, kinetic, kerning, quad, quiver, rainbow,
recycle, roll in, rotate, snake, spin, tube, wave, whirlpool, wind, and
zipper.
Then, users can simply save the file as desired. Files with the
.SWF format created in FlaX can be imported into
Macromedia Flash, and files created can be embedded
into
Microsoft Power Point presentations.
The only negatives about the program are features that it doesn't
offer — it will not allow the use of graphics, and it does not
offer a preloader. However, unless a number of entries are
included, most movies are not large enough to require a
preloader.
For those wishing to active text on the Web sites, FlaX is an
effective and reasonable solution — not to mention that it's fun
to play with in the process.
Making a movie begins with the selection of properties for the
show, including dimensions, direction, background color, and
frames per second (fps). Once the movie is built, the overall
dimensions can be changed by simply dragging the window to
the desired size.
The next step is setting the desired text properties, including
the input of the actual content. It is here that users choose the
font (it will use any on your system), size, color, kerning,
positioning in the movie, and style of type to be used. The three
styles available are complete fill, outline, and gradient fill
(including the ability to set the colors to be used in the
gradient). Text can be made to move right, left, up, or down. If
moved up or down, the text actually turns in that direction and
moves.
The final step in production is choosing
the desired rotation, including type, direction, overlap, and fade.
Possible types of rotation are: breakout, bullet, circle, come in, curl,
fade, flag, flatten, gravity, kinetic, kerning, quad, quiver, rainbow,
recycle, roll in, rotate, snake, spin, tube, wave, whirlpool, wind, and
zipper.