“No Fouls About It!”
If you’re like a lot of webbies, about now you’re rolling your eyes and shaking your head just at the thought of *trying* to create a page of Flash. But, with SWiSH you don’t need to know anything about Flash at all! SWiSH has all the “right stuff” to help you start creating Flash pages in no time (and, it won’t leave your computer screaming “FOUL”)!

So, what exactly *is* this magical program which seems to answer the prayers of many webbies with dusty boxes of Flash? Simply put, SWiSH is a standalone program which creates animated text and graphic effects quick and easy. Your SWiSH work can be put in a web page, imported into Macromedia’s Flash program, or even used in banner ads!

Better still, though you know SWiSH helps you create a Flash movie, it does NOT require you have Macromedia’s Flash installed at all! SWiSH uses the very same Flash Player to preview .swf files without needing an external player or browser!

“First Things First”
So that we can get a full appreciation of what SWiSH does, let’s make sure we are clear on this whole SWiSH movie thing.

There are different parts which go into making your movie. First, you have scenes and in those scenes you place your objects (images and text). For each of those objects, there are frames which you apply the special effects and actions. Depending on how your movie goes, you might even add effects and actions to entire scenes or the movie itself!

On to more fun stuff, here’s a quick list of the actual effects included in SWiSH v1.5 and the upcoming v2:

Explode Squeeze Typewriter Wave Slide In/Out Fade In/Out Show/Hide Transform Blur Alternate Snake 3D Spin Vortex Revert

“The Game Plan”
You know the drill. Get your “dribbling shorts” because it’s time to give SWiSH a workout! Follow along as we reveal the secrets to SWiSH success!

We aren’t going to get into SWiSH’s installation since it’s clean and quick (it will remind you of one of those “don’t blink” towns when you’re on the road). So, moving on, let’s look at the tools.

The current full version of SWiSH (1.51) has a workspace that is simple yet completely functional. You have just two components to deal with. The viewing screen (top) and the main window (bottom).

SWiSH Workspace....from top to bottom

This main window is the crux of your movie making. You set parameters for your movie in this one window at the tabs:

SWiSH Main Window and Parameter Tabs

• General: The movie width and height - yep! You can size your movie to your audience’s screen res
• Content: Manage content - extra image compression to further save on load times
• Timeline: Frame by frame what you pick is what will stick
• Scene: Scene management - link an entire scene anywhere
• Actions: Mouse events
• Export: Options right down to the html alignment

The toolbar of SWiSH is straight and to the point. Icons are self-explanatory:

Easy to use SWiSH Toolbar and best part is,
you already know what most of them are!

That’s it! From that one toolbar, you’ll create entire movies, complete with cool text effects, graphics, actions and more! The two most common buttons you’ll use are the “Insert Text” and the “Insert Image” buttons (circled above).

“Tricks Aren’t Just For Kids”
Placing objects in your scene is just the beginning of the show. Now you can start adding effects and actions. Effects and actions are of course, what make your movie interesting! Without these, your movie would be little more than a static web page!

Let’s take a look inside to see how you assign an effect to an object. You decide you want the SWiSH logo to *grow*, so you choose the “Scale” effect and the following menu pops up:

SWiSH Scale Effect Settings

Through each of the settings, you customize just exactly how your logo will act on the page. Taking that even one step further, you decide not only do you want the logo to scale larger, but you also want it to be *brighter* at its largest size, so you select “Transform” and set the options there:

SWiSH Transform Effect

When you’re done setting your options, your logo in the movie looks like this:

Pretty snazzy with just a couple clicks of the mouse, eh? Well, don’t stop now! We’ve got more cool stuff to do. So, let’s move on........

go to page 3