History of Flash

History of Flash

(This history is quoted from the Macromedia Website).

"How FutureSplash Animator was Born
In the summer of 1995, we were at SIGGRAPH and got lots of feedback from people that we should turn SmartSketch into an animation product. We were starting to hear about the Internet and the Web, and it seemed possible that the Internet would become popular enough that people would want to send graphics and animation over it. So we began to add animation to SmartSketch.

At the time, the only way to extend a Web browser to play back animation was through Java. So we wrote a simple animation player that used Java and was horribly slow. We stubbornly kept at it though, and in the fall, Netscape came out with their plug-in API. Finally, we had a way to extend the Web browser with decent performance (this was the ancestor of Macromedia Flash Player).

As it grew close to shipping time, we changed the name of our software to FutureSplash Animator to focus more on its animation capabilities. We also were growing tired of running a company that didn't have much money to spend, and began trying to sell our technology. After an unsuccessful pitch to Adobe and turning down a bid from Fractal Design, we shipped FutureSplash Animator in the summer (May) of 1996.

Microsoft, Disney and Macromedia Flash 1.0
Our big success came in August of 1996. Microsoft was working on MSN and wanted to create the most TV-like experience on the Internet. They became big fans of FutureSplash and adopted the technology. I'm still amazed that they made their launch of MSN dependent on a new animation technology from a six-person company!

Our other high-profile client was Disney Online. They were using FutureSplash to build animation and the user interface for the Disney Daily Blast. Disney was also working with Macromedia Shockwave.

In November of 1996, Macromedia had heard enough about us through their relationship with Disney and approached us about working together. We had been running FutureWave for four years with a total investment of $500,000. The idea of having a larger company's resources to help us get FutureSplash established seemed like a good one. So in December 1996, we sold FutureWave Software to Macromedia, and FutureSplash Animator became Macromedia Flash 1.0.

Macromedia Flash Today
In 2001, Flash has been through five versions at Macromedia-and it still has much of the code that was written for pen computers. There are now 50 people building Flash instead of 3 when we started FutureWave. It's evolved from a simple Web drawing and animation package to a complete multimedia development environment with 500,000 developers and over 787 million Web users of the Flash Player. Flash has become synonymous with animation on the Internet. It's even possible that Flash Player is now the most widely distributed piece of software on the Internet-ahead of Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, and Real Player."

Macromedia was bought by Adobe Software
in the fall of 2005. Flash continues to be the most widely used mulitmedia format on the internet.

The current Flash software is called: Flash CS3. This software is capable of saving animations in earlier formats so that website visitors will not have to download the newest (free) flash plug-in (the free plugin plays the animation on the end users computer).

Most basic animations can be saved in Flash version 7 or 8 format which more than 97% to 98% of all website visitors already have installed.

What is Flash?

What is Flash?

Flash movies and animations are a means by which dynamic animations and other interesting effects can be added to your webpages.

Flash began as a product called "FutureSplash" in 1997. Macromedia has upgraded and updated various aspects of Flash over the years.  Today, all major browsers come with the flash plug-in allready (the plug-in allows the animation to play on the Users computer).  98% of website visitors have the flash plugin installed. For those that don't, the plugin is free. Adobe purchased Macromedia in 2005 and has continued to produce Flash.

Flash currently is in its 9th edition (Flash 9) from the Adobe website and now Flash CS3 is the professional tool used to design flash.

Flash allows fantastic animations to be produced, while keeping the required download for the website visitor very small compared to other formats.

Depending upon the animation you want me to produce, I can save the flash in an older Flash format so that very few of you website visitors would need to download the plug-in.