How to Build a Flash Shockwave Website Intro
Flash Shockwave provides a means to add interactive animation and movies for Websites for authors without having to program complex graphics. With the explosion of broadband Internet over the past several years, the usage of Flash has become commonplace on the Web. There are a number of disadvantages and advantages for using Flash Shockwave to create Website intros. Two major disadvantages are an increase in the download time of a Website due to an increase in file size, and adverse effects on search engine optimization (SEO) because of the inability of search engines to index text or comments tags embedded in Shockwave. The major advantages include Flash intros' viewing appeal and the ability to build interactive menus in the Flash intro.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Insert the primary image for use in the Flash Website intro by selecting the image from the editing software menu system.
-
2
Insert the text to use for animation during the flash animation for the Website introduction.
-
-
3
Choose a special effect to apply to the flash intro baseline image. A common special effect for site intros is to "fade in" the baseline intro image over a time frame of 5-12 seconds. The time of the animation is set on the animation time-line toolbar located at the top of the flash editor.
-
4
Select additional special effects to apply to the flash text such as the wave effect.
-
5
Modify the animation time line for the flash text to the desired length of time.
-
6
Stop the flash movie in the flash editor.
-
7
Export as a .swf file (Shockwave flash) and select the option to create a Web page to embed the flash intro along with the final flash file.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
To improve site usability provide the following features on the web page that contains the flash website introduction: a skip intro button in case the user does not wish to view the flash intro, HTML links above the flash animation to allow the user to skip the introduction, a status bar to show how long the flash intro will take to load, a mute button for embedded music (if included) in the event the user does not wish to listen, and auto-detection javascript in the main Web page to detect if the user needs to download flash or update the version on the client computer.
Keep Website flash introductions to less than 60 seconds in run-time length to prevent losing potential site viewers. Include HTML text on the Web page containing the flash animation to optimize the site for SEO.
Resources
- Photo Credit WIkipedia Commons by EmpMac .
