Streaming Media World: Anim-FX: Flash Text Effects

Last September, Streaming Media World carried a story about Mix-FX, (a tool created by Triple W Communications) that allowed users to create animated text effects without having to learn Flash. Recently, they came out with a new product named Anim-FX, which is a multiline Flash splash screen creator.

With Anim-FX you can create animated text effects, such as intros, splash screens and banners, quickly and easily. Anim-FX offers the following features: Up to 5 lines of animated text, an unlimited number of characters, 30 templates, background and text animations, sound effects, jump to ULR on click, small file sizes, compatibility with HTML, Dreamweaver, Frontpage and more.

If you need to change anything in your animation, you can do so through an external text file. However, this rule doesn’t apply to standard SWF files. If you need to update an SWF file, you need to open it, modify the information, resave the file and upload it again.

However, there is one issue with the software, according to a company official. “It is a bit more difficult to implement the effects if you create animations that are smaller than the full screen. An example of this is a banner. This requires you to insert the ‘scale no border’ tag. Customer support and sample designs are provided to resolve this issue.”

To see Anim-FX in action, visit the Samples page. Here, you will see banner and introductory animations, including different sizes of the effects. This is done to show you how the results of modifying the dimensions of the effect in the HTML file. What is seen here is only a small number of the available effects.

Here some answers to Frequently Asked Questions Anim-FX is a software tool that allows users to quickly generate text effects without the need for programming or special skills. When working with the software, you’ll notice that there is a separate text file combined with a Flash file. Having two files instead of one may appear to be inconvenient, but in reality, it's a simple way of updating your effects. If you need to make any changes to your animation, simply make the changes to the text file and it’s done.

If you want to save SWF files without a text file, you would need to use Mix-FX, which allows you to create Flash text and button effects (on the average, Mix-FX file sizes are only 4 KB).

To import Anim-FX files into Frontpage, go to Advanced>Plug-In, then click on the Browse button. Select the Anim-FX file that you wish to use, enter the size and click on OK. Next, save and then preview your file. You will need to save the file first before you preview it, otherwise you won’t see anything. And if you create a banner in applications such as Dreamweaver, you need to set the scale option to “no border,” as mentioned above. And to code in HTML, you can use the templates that are included with the software.

When coding HTML to run an SWF file, that is automatically done when using an application such as Dreamweaver or Frontpage, but if you’re hand coding, you need to add some lines of code. See below:

When using different sizes, such as banners, you need to add the line: <param name="SCALE" value="noborder">. To make this code function properly, you need to update the name of the SWF file twice (it is currently blinds.swf) and you will need to set the desired height and width (currently 468x60 pixels).

To import Anim-FX files into PowerPoint, go to View>Toolbars>Control Toolbox, then click on the icon that looks like a little hammer. From the resulting list, click on “Shockwave Flash Object.” Next, drag out a square where you want to place the Anim-FX file, right-click on the box and select Properties from the menu. In the Properties menu, click on the word “Custom,” and click on the “Build” icon (3 dots at the end of the line). Now, enter the movie URL, making sure that the path is correct and check the “Embed Movie” box. Save and run your slideshow in Presentation View.

To make Anim-FX effects jump to HTML pages at the end of an animation, enter “1” in the loop field, then enter http://www.yourdomainame.com in the "URL at end" field.

To open different windows when the user clicks on an animation, enter the URL you wish to use in the URL Input Field and set “blank” in the target frame.

To use these files in your website, copy the text file and the effect to your webpage directory. Next, you need to import the Flash files into your webpage, modifying the height and width settings until you are satisfied with the results. This is how Triple W placed the files into their website. A detailed description of how do to do this is available on their website. When modifying the text file, there are certain rules that you need to follow:

Use Notepad on your operating system. If you use another text editor, it might add hard returns. If you save the file at that point, some of the text might disappear.
Do not change the text file structure. Each variable is referred to as: "&variablename=details". The only thing you need to update in your file is the details section.
Finally, don’t change the file name into something that is different from the SWF file.

You can download the Anim-FX application to get a feeling for the software, but if you want to save your files, will have to purchase it. Once you have purchased Anim-FX, you will receive a licensed version of the software by email, which you will have to install in order to save your files. The cost of Anim-FX is on $27.00 for a single user license.

For more information, visit the Anim-FX web site. Questions about this product can be sent to Menno Berndsen. Their address is: Triple W Communications, 05 Bukit Batok Street 25, Parkview Tower 3 #06 06 658880 Singapore Tel. (65) 5648520.