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Flash animation

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Flash animation, a technology and methodology for crafting interactive, animated digital content, primarily targets the World Wide Web. It emerged in the late 1990s, reaching its peak popularity by the mid-2000s. The main characteristic of flash animation is its use of vector-based drawings, which contribute to its sleek, graphic look. The technology accommodates the incorporation of bitmaps, raster-based artwork, and video, enabling the production of interactive series or shorts. Nevertheless, substandard flash animations may cause choppy movements and sudden shifts. Originating from the online realm, flash animation has successfully migrated to conventional media platforms like television series and commercials. Globally recognized animation studios widely employ this technology, which has played a pivotal role in generating viral Internet[1] cartoons. The process of creating flash animations has been streamlined with software such as Adobe Animate, which supports output in .swf format and provides tools for character rigging and cartoon creation.

Terms definitions
1. Internet ( Internet ) The Internet, a global network of interconnected computer systems, utilizes standardized communication protocols, predominantly TCP/IP, to connect devices across the globe. The term 'Internet' has its roots in the 1849 term 'internetted' and was later adopted by the US War Department in 1945. The inception of the Internet can be traced back to the 1960s when computer scientists developed time-sharing systems, which eventually led to the creation of ARPANET in 1969. The Internet operates autonomously, without any central control, and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) manages its primary name spaces. It has revolutionized traditional communication methods and has seen an exponential growth, with the number of internet users growing by 20% to 50% every year. In 2019, more than half of the global population was using the Internet. The Internet protocol suite, comprising TCP/IP and four conceptual layers, directs internet packets to their intended destinations. Fundamental services such as email and Internet telephony function on the Internet. The World Wide Web, an extensive network of interconnected documents, serves as a crucial element of the Internet.
Flash animation (Wikipedia)

Adobe Flash animation (formerly Macromedia Flash animation and FutureSplash animation) is an animation that is created with the Adobe Animate (formerly Flash Professional) platform or similar animation software and often distributed in the SWF file format. The term Adobe Flash animation refers to both the file format and the medium in which the animation is produced. Adobe Flash animation has enjoyed mainstream popularity since the mid-2000s, with many Adobe Flash-animated television series, television commercials, and award-winning online shorts being produced since then.

Simple animation in Flash MX: a square moving across the screen in a motion tween, one of the basic functions of Flash. Onion skinning is used to show the apparent motion of the square.

In the late 1990s, when bandwidth was still at 56 kbit/s for most Internet users, many Adobe Flash animation artists employed limited animation or cutout animation when creating projects intended for web distribution. This allowed artists to release shorts and interactive experiences well under 1 MB, which could stream both audio and high-end animation.

Adobe Flash is able to integrate bitmaps and other raster-based art, as well as video, though most Adobe Flash films are created using only vector-based drawings, which often result in a somewhat clean graphic appearance. Some hallmarks of poorly produced Adobe Flash animation are jerky natural movements (seen in walk-cycles and gestures), auto-tweened character movements, lip-sync without interpolation and abrupt changes from front to profile view.

Adobe Flash animations are typically distributed by way of the World Wide Web, in which case they are often referred to as Internet cartoons, online cartoons, or web cartoons. Web Adobe Flash animations may be interactive and are often created in a series. An Adobe Flash animation is distinguished from a Webcomic, which is a comic strip distributed via the Web, rather than an animated cartoon.

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