With the high demand for quality Flash content in the market, finding a way to reuse ActionScript and animation styles is key to the success of quicker turnarounds. In my opinion, FlashEff is probably the most mature Flash tool to provide that heavy lifting in Flash projects.
Personally, there is no other tool available that can provide an instant boost in your Flash project work flow than FlashEff when it comes to custom animation/effects. Initially, when FlashEff was first released, I was extremely impressed with the tool. There was a little bit of a performance issue, but FlashEff was still worth every cent and nothing came close to it.
Out goes FlashEff 1, in comes FlashEff 2
Recently, the second version of FlashEff was released and once again my mouth drops in awwh! FlashEff 2 simply improves upon its previous features like speed, usability, effects, and customizability. New features that you can expect with the release of FlashEff 2 include:
Take a quick online tour of FlashEff 2 Panel. Browse patterns and over 3000 effects to see exactly how the user experience got improved.
Overall Impression
When it comes to rapid application of custom,quality Flash animations and effects, FlashEff sets the bar really high. If you haven’t yet given FlashEff a try or are skeptical, download the free version and take it for a test run. You will be amazed on how easy it is to create custom quality Flash animations and effects. Below are links to videos demoing FlashEff and more of its features in depth. Enjoy!
A quick overview of what FlashEff 2 has to offer. Learn how to create show/hide animations, add filters and make flash interactive buttons in just a few clicks.
A complete step by step tutorial that will take you through all the most important features of the product, showing you how to obtain successful results using FlashEff 2.
The guys over at Jumpeye have recently released an update to their exiting flash text effects component, TxEff. This is an update which targets improved performance, quality, and Flash integration. The great thing about TxEff is that it allows you to create quality effects and transitions with little effort and time and saving time is huge when dealing with multiple Flash projects. Learn more about TxEff2 below.
What is TxEff2?
TxEff2 is a Flash CS3/CS4 AS3 component created for easing the text animation process. TxEff2 is also a framework based on patterns, a large collection of classes, which enable cool show/hide and swap transitions on texts.
TxEff2 comes with cool new features
Better architecture (based on the FlashEff engine)
Improved performance (thanks to TweenLite)
Lower file-size
Seamless pattern import
More patterns (100+)
Filters (like reflection, glows, stripes)
Compatible with FlashEff effects and patterns
Cool new visual User Interface
Swap through different texts (not only show & hide)
TxEff2 vs FlashEff
If you’ve ever heard of or used FlashEff before you might be asking yourself what is the difference. Well TxEff is based off of the FlashEff engine which takes advantage of the FlashEff Panel and FlashEff patterns, however, there are some limitations. While FlashEff allows you to apply the effects to MovieClips along with TextFields, TxEff2 is limited to just effects on TextFields. Here is a chart that compares the both TxEff2 and FlashEff.
Note: Be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed as there will be a contest giveaway of TxEff2 very soon. Stay tuned!
The guys over at Jumpeye Components, creators of the FlashEff Animation Tool, has created another incredible Flash component called the JC Panorama Viewer. This new Flash component is filling a void in the market for a robust Panoramic viewer. It is totally customizable and provides a convenient solution to editing the settings of the panorama creation with the use of its desktop AIR app, JC Panorama Editor.
JC Panorama Viewer is a flash component that can be used to display several types of panoramic images: plain, cylindrical, spherical and cubical. This flash panorama component supports hot spots (informative, web link and panorama), horizontal and vertical mouse movement, scroll zoom, transitions and virtual tours.
JC Panorama Editor is a very easy to use AIR application that allows you to create and edit panoramas to be loaded by JC Panorama Viewer as well as virtual tours directly on your desktop.
Free version limitations
The free JC Panorama pack includes a fully working version of JC Panorama Viewer that shows the JC Panorama watermark while preloading. It also includes a free version of JC Panorama Editor limited to plain and cylindrical images. To enable panoramas like spherical/equirectangular (most used) and cubical (best looking) you need to buy JC Panorama.
Have you ever wanted to integrate a rich text editor into your Flash projects? AS3 TextEditor Lite is a SWC based component for rich text editor which can be used in Flash applications to be developed using ActionScript 3.0 and Adobe Flash CS3 IDE.
This component provides features like:
Dynamically attach it to any text field of your application
Complete WYSIWYG Editor
Formatting of characters as Bold, Italic, Underline
The 3D Tunnel Flash component allows you to display images within an interactive 3D tunnel. End users can zoom in and out of the tunnel and rotate it. Clicking on thumbnails loads corresponding large images with a choice of animation styles and easing. Custom actions can also be triggered when clicking on or rolling over images, for example, titles and descriptions can be displayed for the images or a URL can open on click. Powered by PaperVision3D and available for ActionScript 3.0.
Key features include:
Adjustable perspective to show more or less depth of field
Adjustable number of sides and spacing
Customizable animation settings with choice of easing effects
Since the surfacing of Apple’s CoverFlow, many of us have tried to mimic this very sleek effect within our Flash projects. There are many successful attempts at accomplishing this effect of visually viewing of files. However, I have to admit the ever so popular “CoverFlow effect” just isn’t as hot as it used to be. Hopefully, a newly designed Flash component called PhotoFlip 3D CS can ignite that withering flame.
What is PhotoFlip 3D CS?
The guys over at Digicrafts provided a new twist to the “CoverFlow effect” in their new component, PhotoFlip 3D CS. PhotoFlip 3D CS allows you to build a real time 3D coverflow effect without the need of much ActionScripting knowledge. The other sweet thing about PhotoFlip 3D CS is that the “3D” look and feel is created on the fly without the need of a third party 3D application.
Includes a user friendly component inspector interface
Features of PhotoFlip 3D CS Include:
3D cover flow effect
3D popup effect
Fully customize texture for each item (top, bottom, left, right back)
Flashloaded presents a new innovative Flash component called 3D Spiral. The 3D Spiral is a Flash gallery component that displays images on an interactive 3D rotating spiral using the Papervision3D engine.
Features to be expected of 3D Spiral are:
Customizable height, width and spacing
Control what images are loaded via XML or ActionScript
It seems that now a days everyone seems to be selling something whether it is a product or service. There are so many ways one can set up to sell their products through an online shopping cart, however, many of these options don’t offer much room for personalization. Here are over 21 examples of Flash shopping carts that’ll allow for such personalization. Enjoy!
ImageViewer3D is an image viewer with a little hint of the Tiltviewer, a Flickr image gallery created by AirTightInteractive. ImageViewer3D has been created by Arno Manders using Away3D, Tweener, and Adobe Flash. The interactivity and feel for this image viewer is really eye-popping. Its feature set is limited, however, being that this Flash component is free; I’d say it’s pretty impressive.
FlashEff is a Flash CS3 AS3 component (by JumpeyeComponents) created for easing the animation process. It is also a collection of over 100 patterns that enable cool animations and interactive actions on visual objects and texts. FlashEff can be used/customized from both, the visual interface and API.
How does FlashEff Effect Flash Designers?
FlashEff is a great tool for designers who want to get complex and nice looking animations without the hassle of using the Flash timeline or ActionScript. You can build animations using textfields, MovieClips, and images that can be very easily updated and modified.
Is FlashEff Free?
FlashEff comes in a free version and a premium version. FlashEff Free Version includes 30 FlashEff Patterns (from a total of over 100 already available). FlashEff Peremium Version removes most of the restrictions provided with the free version and provides access to . Check out what you get within the FlashEff Free and Premium licenses.
Pattern Showcase Demo
FlashEff 2 Panel Demo
Quick Overview
What’s new in FlashEff 2
Getting started with FlashEff 2
Free Version of FlashEff 2
