FlashEff 2: Still The Most Innovative Flash Animation Tool
Posted on 26 August 2009.
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:
- Live Preview
- Improved filter effects
- Flash Player 10 features
- Advanced Copy/Paste
- Advanced Commands
- FlashEff 2 Code Component
- Better TweenLite performance
- New Button mode
- Save custom effects
Take it for a test drive
Pattern Showcase Demo
Here you can see a little bit of all Symbol, Text and Filter patterns that come with FlashEff 2.
FlashEff 2 Panel Demo
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!
New videos demoing FlashEff 2
Quick Overview
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.
What’s new in FlashEff 2
Find out what’s new in FlashEff 2. The basic new features and overall experience delivered by FlashEff 2.
Getting started with FlashEff 2
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.
Free Version of FlashEff 2
Find out what you can do with the FlashEff 2.0 free non-commercial license.
I originally owned TexEff2 and it was great but needed quick development capabilities for movieclips in addition to textfields. So I purchased FlashEff2 only to discover that you couldn’t tweak or save custom effects without upgrading to the Plus version. You could just use the “canned” versions that came with the extension. I was disappointed and saw that it was a clever marketing ploy. Even those who had these capabilities in FlashEff1 were miffed that they didn’t get a break.
Needing to tweak parameters without having the valuable production time to hack out AS3 code I had to cough up the extra bucks to upgrade.
Don’t get me wrong, I agree with this review that it’s a great extension but after being a customer from earlier versions I felt like I didn’t need to pay a whole lot extra for tweaking the individual parameters.
When using this component in Flash CS4 I have instances of the Flash app crashing without warning but I think it has to do with the issues Adobe is aware of with extensions and Flash CS4.
If you’re interested in purchasing, just make sure you’re aware that the premium version comes with a limited number (although high quality) of effects and you’ll have to pay a bunch more for the “Plus” version which lets you tweak and save your custom effects. If money is not an issue I highly recommend getting the “Plus” version for Flash your tool box.