Re: FLASH: Are the developers of the Flash 4 aliens? :)

[John Croteau]

Hi Catherine,


> First of all: I'm beginner in flash. And I'm in troubles with it. :((((

> The last 3 days and nights I'm trying to learn how to work with Flash 4...

> (I've learn all lessons, of course.) But Flash drives me crazy :( All of my 3-year web-designing experience is absolutely inapplicability for it. The interface and the logic of Flash is stupid and tangled in my view.

> I can't understand it.

> And I have a question. Ganeral question.

> Are the developers of the Flash 4 aliens? :) Or may be they never see other designing programs? And never delight with simplicity and power of Photoshop, or HomeSite? I suppose, the most part of "flashers" is people working with such programs as Corel, ImageReady, etc. But Flash is originality in everything. Why?..


> For example:

> 1. Why I can't resize simple object relative to its center? (with shift, or alt?)

Maybe in Flash 5 but you can resize on center with 

Modify > Transform > Scale and Rotate


> 2. Why when I jump between two different .fla files the library window don't update?

Because a major reason to open another file often involves moving files

so automatically replacing the library would upset people (like me).


> 3. Why when I select any frame, contents of frame became "selected" and I can't see the real color of it until press ESC? Is it convenient?

I like the idea of being able to highlight items on a layer but agree

having this forced upon us at a layer change is the wriong method. If

you habve mouse in hand just click an open spot to deselect the items.


> 4. Why everytime I need to edit color pallete or gradient I must go to the menu?

> Why this window takes so much place that's imposible to keep it on the desktop? (Compare it with Corel of Photoshop color pallete.)

Maybe its too big but I like it better than photoshop except I would

like to have a minmize feature for it and other palletes.


> Please, answer, how much time you spent before can work with this strange program quick and productive?

Drawing wise quite quickly.


> In my opinion originality of Flash brake the expansion of this nice technology.

> I'd like to impove my sites with flash, but it takes a lot of time to learn. :(

> Maybe the huge number of posts here shows that flash interface and logic is

> far from perfection (and generally accepted standarts in design programs).

To expect different programs to work the same is especially when they

are totally different. There have been a lot of changes in Flash from

version 2 to 3 and now again from 3 to 4 to make things more compatible

with other graphic programs. 


This is good for new users but slows down productivity for those who

spend most of their time with Flash. 


To expect Flash, a program that allows you to create highly interactive

animations primarily in vectors, to work like a bitmap program that main

purpose is to make still images for print (like Photoshop) is kind of

naive. Flash as an interactive animation program has different

priorities than standard graphic programs.


Learning any animation program will take time, but you can start

creating sofisticated animations in Flash that are suitable for the Web

in a very short period of time, but you have to be open to new ways of

doing things.


Hopefully, the user interface of Flash 5 will be better.


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John Croteau

croteauerols [dot] com (mailto:croteauerols [dot] com)

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