This area of our web site will give you a feel for what we can do with Flash.

Flash is a graphics media ideally suited to the Internet. It can be used for static cartoons or illustrations, but it really comes into it's own when presenting moving animation.

Above is an ideal example. That is, animation in this context can mean not just what you may traditionally call animation i.e. television cartoons, but also moving text or other illustrations.

Early animation, like the TV cartoons was drawn and saved frame-by-frame. Each fame then had to be replayed to see the 'moving picture'. Thus, each frame had to be downloaded to your computer. Flash however tries t make life easier. Only the important frames, or objects, of an illustration are drawn. Only they are downloaded to your computer. We can then send instructions (compared to a complete frame they take up virtually no space) to your computer, telling it to move, spin or rotate the original object. Hence, in simple terms, only one frame plus lots of instructions need to be sent rather than every single frame.

Off course your borwser typically Internet Explorer or Netscape (there are others) does need to know how to carry out these instructions. Most modern browsers will know how to do this (built in) however older browser will need some additional software. This software is call a 'plug-in' and hence you may have heard of the term 'Flash plug-in'.