Most users computer SystemsAnyway, came across Flash animation. This format made a lot of cartoons, banners on sites or even simple Internet games. But what is the SWF files and how are they created or edited if you need to make any changes in the finished project? About this and many more further and will be discussed.

What are SWF files?

Few thinking about what is actually a SWF format animation file, considering it ordinary video.

In fact, the files themselves are compiled derivatives from the FLA source format, which, in turn, is a project in which you can see and change the original structure. Naturally, for this you need some kind of SWF files. But what? Today, after all, so many programs have been created to create and edit Flash animation that it is easy to get rid of them.

How to open the SWF file?

Returning to the editors later. In the meantime, we consider how to open the SWF file in the simplest situation. Options at least two: either use some kind of software player supporting this format (KMPlayer), or run playback in a web browser.

In the second case for correct reproduction mandatory condition is the presence installed plugin Flash Player. from the company Adobe or its analogue in the form of the expansion of Macromedia Flash, which, in general, the same.

The principle of editing ready Flash-roller

Now a few words about how editing is edited ready project. The editor of the SWF projects of the most primitive type is easy to open the file, since the finished SWF file, as already mentioned, is compiled and contains a minimum of information about the initial structure.

Thus, before using the simplest SWF file editor, first ready File You need to translate, so to speak, in a readable view. In other words, it must be decompiled in the FLA source form. For this apply special utilitieswhich will be said separately.

The best editors to create animation from scratch

However, the simplest applications can be used to create a roller (and not editing) at the initial stage, and entire professional level software packages.

All of them will not be able to describe, but among those intended for this programs can be distinguished by several most popular:

• Alligator Flash Designer.
• Swish Max.
• Adobe Flash. Professional.
• Corel R.A.V.E.
• Sony Vegas Pro.

Alligator Flash Designer.

This SWF editor in Russian from all further presented is the easiest and intended mainly to quickly create animated banners that will be used on the websites on the Internet.

The tools at the disposal of the novice web designer are not so much, nevertheless there are about a hundred thirty different effects, the ability to create an animated text, drawings or inserting sound. The interface is simple and understandable to the limit, so that this application is very well suited for the development of animation this type.

Swish Max

This animation file editor is very similar to the previous utility, although it looks somewhat more complex for the novice.

With it, you can create more professional work. good quality. To deal with it will be able to any user due to the fact that the application itself provides for video lessons explaining the basics of creating animated rollers.

Adobe Flash Professional

Adobe Flash SWF File Editor is software package Not everyone can master the professional level.

In his arsenal there is so many tools that, as many professional web designers and animators consider, with their help you can realize any fantasy. By the way, if you look at world ratings software This direction, the Adobe Flash Applications of the CS and CC series are unconditional leaders.

Corel R.A.V.E.

We have another professional SWF editor with features comparable to the previous package of Adobe.

From the most interesting, you can note the possibility of drawing two-dimensional objects, defining their movement on a predetermined path, binding to the specified path, creating a twin of an animated object to change only size, color or location, after which the program automatically performs the necessary conversion and animates the image. Naturally, this is not all that is capable of this application. Study it and admire everything with new and new features for a very long time.

Sony Vegas Pro.

This package for working with video is certainly in the view does not need. Even those who have never been engaged in work with multimedia this type have not been known about him. Of course, this is not a SWF editor as such, but the tools for creating animation in it are, and very worthy attention.

The program allows you to create and edit animation rollers (in this case The emphasis is placed on them) using more than 200 effects, editing can be made based on an 8-bit mode, and at the finalization stage to improve the quality switch to 32-bit. Immediately, color filters can be used to eliminate differences in different fragments, set the round frequency at the level of 30 FPS and higher, and also establish a variety of image aspect ratios, including even transformations and transitions between them (4: 3, 16: 9, 16: 10), etc. In general, the tools are enough.

Additional Utilities for Work with Flash

Speaking about creating and editing animated rollers, you can not get around the parties and some additional utilities that can be useful in work. In particular, it concerns the conversion of the final SWF file to the source format of the FLA project by decompiling (code formatting), as well as some additional tools used to improve the image quality and reduce the size of the final file without loss of quality.

Among the most required programs The following can be noted:

• Flash Decompiler Trillix.
• Sothink SWF Decompiler.
• Flash Optimizer.
• Sparkle SWF Optimizer.

Flash Decompiler Trillix.

This program will need a novice user to convert the SWF file to FLA format so that the project can be discovered even in the simplest editor and make the necessary changes.

In fact, this is an advanced converter with the capabilities of the editor, in which changes can be made "on the fly". It also can also be batch conversion. And this is all done without the mandatory installation of Adobe and Macromedia plug-ins.

Sothink SWF Decompiler

This program is also a decompiler editor, the truth is paid. Its possibilities are very interesting. It is focused on fast creation Or editing banners, rollers and even Flash games.

For beginners, the appendix provides for the presence of a special "master" based on the choice of the form and structure of the future project from the existing templates. In addition, you can work with the source code, apply all sorts of filters, effects or creating vector images In a special WYSIWYG environment.

Flash Optimizer and Sparkle SWF Optimizer

These two small utilities, as already understandable from the title, are some optimizers that allow you to reduce the size of the finished SWF file to save space without loss of quality. Especially they will use all those who march their work on the Internet or is engaged in creating banners and online games Flash-format.

As stated on the official sites of developers, these utilities allow compression and reduce the size of the source object by as much as 70%. They have several types of optimization using automatic conversion after specifying the required parameters.

What to use?

Finally, the question is the most important: "What to choose from all this?". We think that novice animators and web designers start standing with the simplest utilities. Those who understand the creation and editing of the SWF clips, without a doubt, professional utilities will be suitable. Here is the choice of user. However, if desired and study of reference information, which is available in most submitted applications, you can master work with them very simply. But what editor is better? On the right of Palma Championship belongs to the development of Adobe, although the remaining editors and decompilants are not worth disclingoning.

Free program for creating flash rollers almost any degree of complexity! Includes almost everything required tools For everyday work with Flash and can be used both newcomers and professionals. The main difference and advantage of this program is to support ActionScript 2.0, without which it is simply impossible to submit the creation of professional flash content.

Dima Bilan seems to say that impossible is possible :). More recently, web developers had to either pirate, or pay rather large money for the opportunity to work with flash animation. And finally, it came that hour when the third full-fledged option appeared - use a free flash editor.

Earlier, on our site there was already one such program, but its minus was in some obsoleteness, a limited tool set and the absence of support for the ActionScript programming language, which is so needed to create any functional sites, games, etc.

Today, I will introduce you to a completely modern flash editor, which can virtually equal to compete with the famous Adobe Flash - Vectorian Giotto..

Comparison of Vectorian Giotto with a paid analogue

As you can see, the developers of Vectorian Giotto tried to glory and tried to accommodate the maximum possible set of functions similar to Adobe Flash. In addition, most of the hot keys also coincide, so those who are used to working with the Edobian editor will not be much difficulty Go to the free platform from Vectorian Giotto!

Well, and on the "dessert" in free editor There is also something that is sometimes so lacking "older brother" - a built-in library of animation effects, which will fall to taste especially those who create flash banners.

Preparation for work

To start working with Vectorian Giotto, we will need to download the archive with the installer, which weighs, by the way, is only 8 megabytes! When the archive is loaded, open it and run the file. Vectoriangiotto.exe..

Despite the fact that the installation (and the program itself, no matter how regrettable :)) English, it should not call any difficulty, since it is not necessary to change anything in default settings. Just click the "Next" button several times and wait for the end of the installation process;).

First acquaintance with the interface

At the end of the installation, if we did not change anything in standard settings, we will appear in full screen working window Vectorian Giotto:

As I said, the program interface is English, therefore, in order to avoid misunderstandings and curvators when performing further actions described in the article, I would like to introduce some conceptual apparatus :). Let's start, as usual, from top to bottom and left to right.

Row of menu. This is the panel where all the menu of the program is Vectorian Giotto. When working with the animation, you may need such sections as "File" (to save and export to SWF to your animation), "View" (to configure the parameters of the working area display), "modify" (to control the parameters of the current document and working with the library Effects) and "Window" (to configure the displayed modules and program panels).

Main toolbar. The project actions control buttons are made here and the animation playback panel.

Drawing panel (occupies the entire left part of the program window). Here are all the necessary tools to create any desired objects of your animation, as well as buttons that allow you to configure the parameters of the desired tools.

Stripping (or timeline). Allows you to control frames for frames and created layers.

Color control panel. With it, you can quickly change the color of previously created figures. Also serves to select the type of filling of objects of your animation (solid, gradient, etc.).

Workspace. It is a virtual sheet of "paper", designed to draw your animations :).

ActionScript editor. If you need to create not simple banners, but something more complex, including buttons and all kinds of interactive objects, then without the script editor you can not do.

Clip structure panel. Displays all the shapes that are "in the frame" and allows you to quickly switch between them and manage their sequence.

Property panel. Each object in flush has certain properties. To manage them and serves this panel.

Transformation panel. Allows you to quickly change the size and position of the selected animation item.

Library of elements. It is a list of created or imported objects that may be (and repeatedly!) Inserted into animation.

Probably everyone saw some advertising animation on sites, when you hover the mouse cursor to which something starts to change in it. Or played online in applications / games on sites (social network or others). Even if you go to this site by a non-existent link type you will come about the same page created based on flash animation technology. And they have the file with the extension SWF. Here this article describes what this file is how to open it (for example, to play offline to the toy) and how to change (for lovers).

What is the file.swf?
SWF file - Flash animation created by Adobe Flash. Or another program to develop flash applications. Flash rollers may contain both ordinary text and vector, raster images, 3D graphics (limited), audio, video, scripts in ActionScript.

The Flash platform has gained very widespread in the field of creating interactive applications. It can be flash cartoons, games, videos (format files.flv), Web sites, created in whole or in part using this technology.

Well, then according to the instructions from the site.

To open, run the browser (preferably create new tab In it), "take" LKM for your SWF file and drag it into the browser.

Option 2
Through the program.
There are 2. good programs To open such files - this (of the site did not find) and.

As for the second one - it is free, but the English-speaking and developers have shuddered something stopped to release updates on it and it will take maximum for XP.
If you get lost on the manufacturer's website and you will not find how to download this program:
choose in the top menu tab downloads

→ Sothink SWF Quicker

Sothink SWF Quicker. - Powerful utility to work with flash.. If we consider it for animation, it is better to look in the direction of the ADOBE product line. But to work with Flash applications, it is indispensable. In essence, this is a full-fledged editor for Flash, but its main feature is - convenient work from sWF. format. With it, you can open the SWF file, edit it Action-script. and save. It is very convenient if you need to change MP3 player on your Flash, introducing a couple of your functions into its source.

Here is how it was. On one of the entertainment portals, an MP3 player was introduced for online listening music. Customer requirements were quite realizable. The player was supposed to be able to work with a playlist and have standard set Buttons. The choice fell on DewPlayer. Everything went great, cross browser was at height and work was nearing completion. But suddenly there was no big problem - the player did the French and apparently supporting Cyrillic and did not count on. That is, when playing a track, Russian characters in a running line with the name of the song were "crocated". Throwing done work did not want and the solution was found.

DewPlayer has a wide range of features, JavaScript support including. So, through JS, you can access the player methods. Consequently, if you implement your methods in Action-Script - we will get all the necessary functionality at the output. And it was necessary to create a function that would return the name of the current track.

So download and install Sothink SWF Quicker. Run. In the tab File Choose a position import.

In the window that opens, set the type of file .swf. And click on the "patient".

After selecting the file, the program may warn that the file is protected and asked: still imported? We answer yes. After the SWF file is open, we look at the lower right corner. Click on the tab Action.. Get Action-Script accessible to editing. Lectures on Flash Programming will not read, then for yourself)).

After making changes, we make an inverse procedure - export. On the top panel We find the tab Export. IN context menu Click of PO Export Movie.. Next, save it to a new file or replace the one that is open.

Often the situation occurs when you need to make edits to the finished "creation", without having, with this source flap. It can be anything: change text, pictures, sounds, etc., while in some cases At all, it is not necessary to resort precisely to the tools with which the file was created. The main difficulty lies in the fact that the SWF file is already a compiled FLA file. If you have the latter, the user has the ability to see the entire file structure, SWF contains a minimum of information. After compiling the SWF file, you can import in Flash, but without additional to restore its structure, it is hardly possible. Accordingly, it is necessary to decompile the SWF file for applied.

This situation spawned a lot of programs, such as: Sothink SWF Decompiler, Eltima Flash Decompiler Trillix, Power Flash Decompiler and more great many different utilities. In this article, we will give examples and parameters of some decompilants, as well as consider the decompulation process itself on the example of the Sothink SWF Decompiler program.

Sothink SWF Decompiler is a program for capturing, and decompiling the SWF file in FLA, as well as to extract different resources from it. The program allows you to extract images, fonts, sounds, etc. from ready-made SWF files and is considered one of best programs For decompiling.

For a person familiar with such a system, will not work with the help of the "Disassemble" program, and then anew "collect" the SWF file. For lovers, it can be quite challenging task. So, what does the decompulation process look like in Sothink SWF Decompiler?

Let's start with the interface. Actually, the main window of the program looks like this:

Cost: $ 79.99

Capabilities:

• The ability to search in the source code Action Script - Convert SWF in FLA and Flex
• EXE SWF extraction
• Preview and export of file resources
• Export ActionScript File in AS and HTML Formats
• There is a player to play flash files
• Detailed viewing of the properties of elements in the Flash movie
• IE cache scan and output list of all Flash files you know

Cost: $ 79.95

Capabilities:

• Supports Action Script V. 2.0 and v.3.0.
• The possibility of exporting flash rollers to such formats as AVI, MPEG, etc.
• Ability to detailed configuration of SWF conversion in FLA
• The ability to decompile and convert several flash videos at the same time.
• Ability to edit file objects without converting to FLA
• Extraction of file resources to various formats
• There is a built-in Flash file player
• Ability to save Flash-rollers online
• Convenient interface: Scalable, Toolbar Ribbon

Cost: $ 44.95

• Convert SWF in FLV and EXE
• Ability to export data from the flash file to the FLA file:
  • Export sounds and video from flash file
  • Export text, shapes, buttons, images, fonts and frames from flash file
  • Export scripts from flash file
• Review and preview of resources before exporting
• Support for editing dynamic text in flash file
• Support for moving images in flash file
• View details about each Flash Roller

What do you want to add about flash decompiors? At first glance, it is easy to work with them, and to a certain extent it is. However, when decompiling SWF files, difficulties may occur, since when using such programs, errors may occur in the code that will have to be corrected "manually". And for a user unfamiliar with Action Script, it may be a very difficult task.