Underscore:

ActionScript2.0 and ActionScript3.0 are different. For those designers who need to adjust the shift, some mistakes were made by habit. The most common one is to remove the underscore (._x, ._alpha, etc). ActionScript2.0 uses a lot of attributes that start with the “_”, whereas in ActionScript3.0, you have to remove the underscore from all properties.

Different Percentages:

Percentage is another difference between ActionScript2.0 and ActionScript3.0 which causes common mistake by beginners. For example, you set 50 to an alpha property, but it’s still 100% opaque in ActionScript3.0. That’s because the valid percentage range is different between ActionScript2.0 and ActionScript3.0. The valid range of ActionScript2.0 is 0 to 100; whereas in ActionScript3.0, it’s 0 to 1. So you need to change the value to 0.5 to achieve the 50% result.

Mixing Up Property with Variable:

When trying to create several of the same items, you may mix up the “name” property with the variable name. For instance:

for (var i:int = 0; i < numMCs; i++)
{
var mc:MovieClip = new MovieClip();
mc.name = "mc" + i;<br/>
mc.x = i * 40;
}
mc0.y = 50; //Error

It is a common mistake made by beginners which often works anyway.

Forgetting to Embed the Fonts:

Font is an indispensable part of flash. Very often you add a particular font to make flash special; but sometimes the problem occurs that it doesn’t play the way you want. It is usually noticed when you test your SWF. So if you are testing a SWF, don’t just testing on your own computer, but other’s as well. Because non-standard font may not probably installed on users computer. The fonts will display correctly if they exist on the machine running the SWF, but will revert back to standard system fonts when not. To avoid such mistake, you need to embed any fonts you are using in your SWF.

Variables and Constants are Case Sensitive:

For example: yourdrivinglicence and yourDrivingLicence. In ActionScript3.0, they are different variables. The single-word variables should be named with a lowercased first letter; the multi-word variables should begin with a lowercased character and subsequent words capitalized.

On the other hand, constants should be entirely uppercase. Designers need to realize the difference; it is helpful to differentiate your variables and constants.

Using Flash to Imitate HTML and CSS:

First of all, check this website, and what is your feel? At the very beginning, I feel it’s cool, but after I make a deeper view, I close this site within 10 seconds. Cause I can’t even open links in a new tab or can’t copy any selected text.

It is another common mistake of inappropriate use of flash – imitate anything by flash. Flash is used to make attractive visual effects, such as graphic motion, video and audio; but don’t try to imitate HTML or CSS, that’s totally unnecessary. Long texts shouldn’t be embedded in flash, because it’s difficult to work with the embedded text once you need to. So make use of flash when you really want to do so.

Using Flash as the Only Way for Animation:

Flash is a great tool for creating web animation and it has achieved large popularity among designers. But using flash as the only way is a big mistake which many designers haven’t realized. First of all, flash is not text, but animation, so it is not search engine friendly, that’s why web is tortured with those ubiquitous animation type intros. Secondly, flash is slow to load. Don’t expect every visitor has a 10M bandwidth. Think about that, if your visitor waiting for the flash landing page with their fingers knocking on the table, you are actually killing their user experience of your website. The consequence is you are probably losing your visitors.

To avoid such a mistake, you can use HTML5 animation instead. HTML5 animation is search engine optimized. So here comes another question: you are not expertise in HTML5, so how to make that possible? Well, as a matter of fact, you don’t have to be expertise in HTML5; there are tools out there for flash to HTML5 conversion, such as SWF Decompiler or Google Swiffy and etc. hey help you to convert SWF to HTML5 within several minutes.

The mistake is one of the best teachers in our designing career; it helps us in the way of promotion. If you encounter with the similar situation, don’t forget to avoid those mistakes. Besides if you ever be tripped up by other mistakes, leave us a comment to share. Because the more we learn, the better designer we are.

1. Build a Striking Breakout Game in Flash

Using the Flash drawing tools we’ll create a great looking graphic interface that will be powered by several straightforward ActionScript 3 classes. The user will be able to play through a series of levels and you, the developer, can easily add as many levels as you like!

2. Awesome Flash BlackJack Game

In this Premium Tutorial, you’ll be building an amazing BlackJack game, from scratch, using Flash and AS3.

3. Create a Slot Machine Game in Flash Using AS3

Let’s have a crack at building an entertaining Slot Machine game in Flash and AS3 . Spin the wheels and see what you could win!

4. Create a Space Shooter Game in Flash Using AS3

Follow the straight-forward steps of this Premium Tutorial to create an entertaining shoot-’em-up with Flash and AS3 .

5. Hangman Game in Flash Using ActionScript 3.0

Developing a game is must-have skill if you are a Flash Developer, it makes use of many different ActionScript methods and properties, plus you will have plenty of fun in the process! In this tutorial, I will show you how to create an advanced Hangman game using ActionScript 3.0.

6. Design and Develop a Flash Shooting Gallery Game

In this Tutorial, I’ll teach you how to combine several ActionScript 3 classes and skills to create a fantastic shooting gallery game.

7. Create an Epic War Game in Flash

Creating a game is definitely one of the most involved tasks in the world of programming. Even a small platformer can take a lot of time and effort to build.

8. Build an AS3 Tetris Game From the Ground Up

In this Active Premium tutorial we’ll be creating a variant of the classic Tetris game, explaining general game concepts as well as some specific to this genre.

9. Customizing Game Characters with Palette Mapping

In this flash tutorial author will show you how to use AS3 ‘s PaletteMap feature to create a character customization interface for your next game.

So, being in such conditions, I couldn’t refuse an offer from one of my permanent clients who needed to make Flash website for his company in a matter of a couple of days. Frankly speaking, I didn’t hope to much for the extensive functionality of the website we were to build, but still why not to take a chance?!

I had to create a corporate website for the distributor of art paintings. According to the target audience interests, there was a need to mention the info about the firm and its existing partners, as well as to deliver the info proving the company’s credibility on the market. The task was more than clear, but the time was not on my side and all I had left to do was to ask Google: "What should I do?" And the reply came over: "MotoCMS is an advanced Flash CMS aimed at Flash developers, design studios or freelancers, which allows them to create professional Flash websites." (this is an actual quote from the Google search). It sounded promisingly, so I didn’t want to lose another minute.

Among the variety of Flash templates in the MotoCMS store, I chose a business template designed in minimalist style with original bubbled menu buttons moving randomly at the Splash page. That was exactly what I needed, there was no doubt.

This Flash template is designed in a calm color scheme, but it’s ok, because, as it is said, I can change all the settings into whatever I want.

First of all, I registered the demo version of MotoCMS to try it free in action for 30 days. In order to do it I just needed to type my email at the proper field and to click on the theme I’d like to test.

As soon as the registration was successfully completed, I’ve got an e-mail with my permanent demo URL plus login and password for entering the control panel. The template with all changes is available for 30 days and is saved on the MotoCMS hosting. Due to this feature, you can show your work to the customer from wherever you want, and then buy the template with all customizations already in it. That’s why I didn’t pay for the template before the client approved the results of my work.

So, I started the customization…

The first thing I’ve seen after entering my demo account was the Splash Page with a toolbar.

This Flash CMS is equipped with WYSIWYG editor, which helps you to edit the layout elements without any specific software and complex programming knowledge. So, even an end-user with no experience in Flash can build a website on this CMS. Just double click on the element you’d like to correct and do what you have to do. For example, I tried to edit the company name and its slogan.

And the thing I’d recommend you to pay attention at is the toolbar at the right side of the window – there are all functions you may need while formatting the text.

Next I changed the menu colors. The double click on one of the "navigation bubbles" opens the Main Menu window which allows me to add or delete menu labels, edit titles, colors and click actions. In addition, I changed one of menu titles from Solutions to Testimonials. It didn’t take me too long and my customer was glad.

But it’s not enough to make my small changes work correctly. This Flash CMS template contains 2 types of menu: the main one located on the Splash Page and the page menu which is displayed on every page through the website. Both of these components had to be edited. And of course, it was necessary to rename the page itself. It can be easily done through the Content settings section. On the same screenshot you can see some results of my work.

After all, I was ready to start managing the content. For that, I had to choose the page I wanted to work with. (if you don’t know how to do it, the previous screenshot will help you). Let’s test the new Testimonials page.

Ok, it’s a big moment! Fanciful designs with any images, videos and colors are entirely at your disposal! Just note: while adding new content to the web pages, don’t forget to select the placement of your element. Otherwise you’ll observe them on every page. You must admit that it’s not the best way to decorate your website.

After all, I was really glad to know that every page of the Flash template is separately indexed by search engines. To customize these settings I opened Preferences – Website – SEO & Analytics.

There are Site Map, Google Analytics and Web Master tools. Frankly speaking, it was the first time I saw that each Flash page has its own unique URL.

There is one thing that should be pointed out: after saving your precious customized template, please take a minute to compress the website – it will speed up its loading by compressing XML files.

After browsing through the web for a while I’ve found a company which already uses this particular Flash CMS template. For me as a developer, it was interesting to see other design solutions of the same initial materials.

Google says that this website is really well indexed. For me, Google is an incontestable authority, so I’m inclined to believe it. Here is the confirmation of this statement:

Well, the website is ready. Surely, it needs to be filled with the company info, but due to the MotoCMS control panel, the client doesn’t need me for this.And now I can proudly offer you to look at my Flash website created in two hours only! Don’t judge me strictly, and thank you for the attention and patience!

At the very end, I’d like to thank the MotoCMS team for their feature-rich Flash CMS. For quite a reasonable price, you get almost unlimited opportunities. As for me, it is a good chance to try your best in quick and quality Flash website creation.

1. Create a Flash Login System Using PHP and MySQL

This tutorial will demonstrate how to create simple but professional Flash login system using three different programming languages; AS3, PHP and MYSQL.

2. Get User IP Address Using PHP and ActionScript 3

An Internet Protocol Address (IP Address), is a unique number assigned to every device connected to the Internet. For different reasons, it can be useful to get the user IP address, like blocking a spammer user in a chat application for example. In this tutorial, I will show you how to get and display the user’s IP address using PHP and ActionScript.

3. Using Actionscript 3.0 With PHP : Loading External Variables

Creating dynamic websites which combine the power of Flash or Flex with PHP is easier than ever with ActionScript 3.0.

4. Connect to PHP with Actionscript 3 and Post variables to PHP

This is the simplest way to communicate with PHP and Actionscript 3 and it’s extremely fast and efficient as well.

5. Flash Contact Form in ActionScript 3 and PHP

This flash contact form is simply made in Adobe Flash CS3 ActionScript 3. Email validation is better than previous version in ActionScript 2. It sends the form field variables to PHP and loads the response variables back to Flash using URLVariables, URLLoader, and URLRequest classes. It will be very useful for you to use or adapt it for your Flash projects.

6. Introduction to Flash and PHP

This is the first part of a series of tutorials looking at using PHP and Flash. In this first tutorial we’re going to take things relatively easy.

7. Actionscript 3.0 Tutorial PHP MySQL Bar Graph Dynamic Basics [video]

Learn the very basics of creating dynamic bar graphs using Flash Actionscript 3.0 for CS3 CS4 and CS5. We use PHP and MySQL for dynamics.

8. Creating an Email Form with Actionscript 3.0 and PHP

Developer will explain then describes step by step how to create a basic form of sending email using Actionscript 3.0 and PHP.

9. Hit Counter Flash + PHP for full Flash website pages

With this tutorial you will learn how to create Flash hit counter using Actionscript and PHP.

10. Flash Website Voting Poll Tutorial: Actionscript 3.0 PHP MySQL [video]

Learn how to build more creative polling and voting applications for all of your website projects. We are using Flash Actionscript 3.0, PHP, and MySQL.

11. PHP Session Variables + ActionScript 3

This is a forum post which will help you in using Session Variables with PHP/AS3/MySQL.

12. Object Oriented ActionScript 3, using PHP & SQL

This tutorial explores one of many methods, which could be used to allow an ActionScript 3 swf file to communicate back and forth to an SQL database, storing and retrieving values in a table.

13. Build a Dynamic Gallery with ActionScipt 3.0 and PHP

In this tutorial, we’ll create a gallery which displays all image files in a given directory. A slider is used to browse easily through the images.

14. Create a Comment Form with Flash, PHP, XML and MySQL

In this tutorial, developer will show you how to use Flash, PHP and MySQL together. We’ll build a simple comment form that takes entries and stores them in a database. We’ll use PHP to retrieve the entries and format the comments into XML form.

15. PHP/Flash Score List [video]

This tutorial explains how to make a asy and simple PHP/Flash/MySQL high score list for your website and flash game.

16. Creating a Reusable Flash Uploader with ActionScript 3.0 and PHP

In this tutorial developer will show you how to build a Flash uploader for uploading files from the user’s computer.

17. Flash guestbook with PHP

Learn how to create flash guestbook using PHP and Actionscript.

18. Developing Flash based applications with PHP

Here is a simple tutorial with step-by-step learning on how to connect make Flash based applications to interact with PHP programming- helping you to start and explore backend database driven Flash.

We will mostly be covering basic ActionScript techniques, thus it is not required to be an exceptional whiz at programming. For this tutorial I’ll be using Adobe Flash CS3 with ActionScript 3.0 as the default language.

Building our .FLA File

Each flash project you create should be saved to disk as .fla inside a root directory. I’ve created a new document 630×575 and saved as YouTube.fla.

Getting familiar with the Flash interface may take a little bit of time. Most of the work we’ll be doing is integrated in the lowermost panels. More specifically we’ll be dealing with properties and actions.

Properties will allow you to update the current document width/height and other advanced settings. Actions is where all the real fun happens and where our code is stored. Each layer as a series of keyframes which store ActionScript to manipulate transitions and effects.

You’ll notice a layers panel towards the top above the project stage. The first layer should be named “Layer1″. Change that to Actions and tick the small lock symbol off to the right side. This sets a single layer in our file dedicated to ActionScript code, which means we don’t need to go searching around for anything. Locking just ensures we don’t accidently place elements in that layer.

Designing Page Views

The next step is to create our physical layout. I’ve created a new layer titled “views” which is going to house 6 MovieClips. These will actually become placeholders for the dynamic thumbnail shot YouTube generates with each video.

To create these check insert->new symbol or simply tap F8. Here a new menu comes up asking what type of symbol you are creating. Movie Clip is perfect set along 120px width and 90px height. Once the symbol is made alter the clip’s instance name to “ytThumb” + 0-5 for each clip. So for example the first would be labeled ytThum0, the next ytThumb1 and so forth.

Now we can move back into our actions panel to start really developing. If you are having trouble with creating each movie clip don’t fret. They are not truly necessary at this point, but it does save time to create each instance beforehand.

Beginning the ActionScript Code

Click back on the first keyframe in the Actions layer. From here check the bottom panel and move from properties into actions. The panel will expand much higher and include a text box – this is where our code will go.

To start off we will define a few variables to hold namespace references. These ensure that when pulling data from Google and YouTube’s servers we can interpret the return properly. Also we include a Security.allowDomain call to let Flash know we can trust data downloaded through YouTube.

Security.allowDomain("youtube.com","http://youtube.com","www.youtube.com");
var atom:Namespace = new Namespace("http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom");
var gd:Namespace = new Namespace("http://schemas.google.com/g/2005");
var yt:Namespace = new Namespace("http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007");

default xml namespace = atom; // very important!!

var vidCount:int = 6;
var dataArray:Array = new Array();

As an example above we have 3 new namespaces defined as atom, gt, and yt. These correspond with atom RSS feeds and two primary namespaces relating to the YouTube API. By the last line we are setting the default namespace for all XML code to atom.

Without these lines ActionScript will try parsing the return XML from YouTube’s API as plain XML instead of an atom feed. This results in bugs and errors flying around, so it’s much easier to clear this up first.

We are also creating two simple variables towards the very end. vidCount is used to define how many videos we will pull from each feed. dataArray is currently set to an empty array. A future function will pull this data and feed instances of videos into an array list.

var xmlUrlReq:String = "http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/-/Tech/";
var xmlLoader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
var xmlData:XML = new XML();

// loader event listener
xmlLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, LoadXml);
xmlLoader.load(new URLRequest(xmlUrlReq));

We now have the defining principles for connecting to an XML page. The XML url we are using is defined outright which contains the standard API call. It is malleable in that you can change Tech to any variable returning video results.

For example http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/-/Gaming/ is a possibility for all gaming-related videos. Our xmlLoader will store the functions needed to load this API URL and xmlData is used to store the returning XML code.

After variables are set we need to call our event listener which checks to see when the API has finished loading. At this point we call a new function LoadXml() which is defined next.

Event Handler Calls

Once the loader eventListener has cleared our LoadXml function is called. This will parse all of the data we need out of the YouTube API response and store simple variables for access later. Below is the entire function code.

function LoadXml(e:Event):void {
	xmlData = XML(e.target.data);
	var media:Namespace = xmlData.namespace("media");
	var gd1:Namespace = xmlData.namespace("gd");
	var elms:XMLList = xmlData.entry;

	for(var i:int = 0; i < vidCount; i++) {
		dataArray.push({});
		dataArray[i]["title"] = elms[i].title;
		dataArray[i]["coreThumb"] = elms[i].media::group.media::thumbnail[0].@url;
		dataArray[i]["vidURL"] = elms[i].media::group.media::player.@url;
		dataArray[i]["duration"] = elms[i].media::group.yt::duration.@seconds;
		dataArray[i]["viewCount"] = elms[i].yt::statistics.@viewCount;
		dataArray[i]["commentCount"] = elms[i].gd::comments.gd::feedLink.@countHint;
		dataArray[i]["favoriteCount"] = elms[i].yt::statistics.@favoriteCount;

		loadThumbs(dataArray[i]["coreThumb"], i);
		loadText(i, dataArray);
	}
}

You can see an initial for loop which pulls out elements from each XML file and stores them into an array. This is referenced with each variable call underneath dataArray.push({}).

Setting dataArray[i] would create 6 individual arrays valued dataArray[0-5]. Within each of these we have sub-arrays containing video information.

This includes the core thumbnail, video URL, duration, number of comments, etc. This function is used to pump through all 6 videos inside a loop and extract bits of data from the response. With this data we then create a new array to house all the values we need and pass these into two more functions to display our finished product.

loadThumbs is the first call which requires two parameters. The first param URL is looking for the external jpg thumbnail file while the second holds the index for which video ID we’re on (valued 0-5).

function loadThumbs(url:String, index:int):void {
	var imgURLRequest:URLRequest = new URLRequest(url);
	var myImgLoader:Loader = new Loader();
	myImgLoader.load(imgURLRequest);

	myImgLoader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, thumbLoaded);

	function thumbLoaded(e:Event):void {
		var myBitmapData:BitmapData = new BitmapData(myImgLoader.width, myImgLoader.height);
		myBitmapData.draw(myImgLoader);

		var myBitmap:Bitmap = new Bitmap();
		myBitmap.bitmapData = myBitmapData;
		switch(index) {
			case 0:
				ytThumb0.addChild(myBitmap);
				break;
			case 1:
				ytThumb1.addChild(myBitmap);
				break;
			case 2:
				ytThumb2.addChild(myBitmap);
				break;
			case 3:
				ytThumb3.addChild(myBitmap);
				break;
			case 4:
				ytThumb4.addChild(myBitmap);
				break;
			case 5:
				ytThumb5.addChild(myBitmap);
				break;
		}
	}
}

We are pulling in another URL Loader to download each video thumbnail. From here we are actually creating a brand new bitmap file inside of Flash to re-create each image.

The benefit here is we can cache each image and store the contents for another query. This would be useful if you were offering access to multiple YouTube feeds and didn’t want to call a new request every time a new visitor came to the page.

We have another event listener which calls thumbLoaded once the image is finished. Then we create a new bitmap image variable named myBitmap and store the thumbnail data inside. Afterwards there’s a small switch clause breaking down 0-5 for each video ID. The code inside simply targets each Movie Clip and appends addChild() holding each thumbnail image.

Loading Video Text Data

The last step required is pulling video data from our array and adding this onto our stage. For this we’ve written a function loadText which takes the current video ID and also the matching data array.

function loadText(id:int, vidDataArray:Array):void {
	var myFormat:TextFormat = new TextFormat();
	myFormat.size = 13;
	myFormat.font = "Arial";
	myFormat.color = 0x0066FF;
	myFormat.underline = true;	

	var myDescFormat:TextFormat = new TextFormat();
	myDescFormat.size = 11;
	myDescFormat.bold = true;

	var mytext = this['ytTitle'+id];
	var mydesc = this['ytDesc'+id];

	var vidTitle:String = vidDataArray[id]["title"];
	var vidUrl:String = vidDataArray[id]["vidURL"];
	var vidDur:int = vidDataArray[id]["duration"]; // duration in seconds
	var vidDurMin:String = Math.floor(vidDur/60) + ":" + vidDur%60; //duration in minutes
	var vidViews:String = splitNumber(vidDataArray[id]["viewCount"]);
	var vidComms:int = vidDataArray[id]["commentCount"];
	var vidFav:int = vidDataArray[id]["favoriteCount"];

	mytext.wordWrap = true;
	mytext.defaultTextFormat = myFormat;

	mydesc.defaultTextFormat = myDescFormat;
	mydesc.textColor = 0x333333;
	mydesc.text = "Time: " + vidDurMin + "\r";
	mydesc.text += "Views: " + vidViews + "\r";
	mydesc.text += "Comments: " + vidComms + "\r";
	mydesc.text += "Favorites: " + vidFav + "\r";

	var htmlstring:String = '<a href="' + vidUrl + '" target="_blank">' + vidTitle + '</a>';
	mytext.htmlText = htmlstring;

}

The beginning lines use a variable myFormat to create a new text formatting. This is a dynamic way to create text input data and import the settings into a project without physically adding any onto the stage. There is no real benefit of this way other than saving file space. However it is good practice to introduce yourself to both methods and choose whichever works best!

We are creating new variables to hold the video data. More specifically we will be accessing the video’s title, URL, duration (and convert this from seconds to minutes), total views, total comments, and total favorites.

Using myText as a new text area we can append these elements with htmlText. From this each video ID will loop through the XML event handler and add all the images and text onto stage.

With this should complete our code! You can test your movie from control->test movie or ctrl+enter on Windows. If you’d like to reference my project code you can download the archive here. Included are both the .fla file and the .swf finished movie product.

This has been an introduction into developing over YouTube’s API. The project was created for the purpose of writing in many different structures and testing different programming styles. ActionScript is very robust and provides an excellent platform for API data manipulation.

We have a total of 3 winners and each one will get the Wix’s Premium Combo Package ($99 Value!)

All the winners are randomly selected, you can see the name of lucky ones below:

TAHITITI
psysci
KAYLA

All winners will be emailed with details as to how to claim their prizes. Thanks again to everyone for participating.

Here are some little things you have to do to activate your coupon!

- On Wix homepage click Premium
- Click GO
- log in and choose website you want to upgrade
- put mouse on website draft and when the Menu ” View edit upgrade” appears click on upgrade
- choose Combo and click on Buy Now
- make choice regarding domain and Continue
- put promotional code and Submit Purchase.

Here is the code: -code will be emailed to winners-

What’s Included in this Premium Combo Package?

The premium Combo package gives you the following features:

• a possibility to use your own domain (instead of a domain that starts with wix.com/your website’s name.
• Wix ads free – removes the Wix ads from your site’s footer and sidebar.
• Remove Wix logo – removes the wix logo from your site including favicon and loader.
• Google Analytics – Google Analytics is a powerful tool for analyzing traffic to your Wix website. You can track site visitors, where they come from, how long they stay, what keywords they
  use to find your site and more.
• 1GB storage – Increasing your storage space will enable you to upload large files and high-resolution content with ease.
• 1GB Bandwidth – Increasing your bandwidth will allow more data to be transmitted at a faster and smoother speed.
• Premium support.
• 125$ voucher – $75 Google AdWords voucher + $50 Facebook voucher + free domain coupon + tips on how to use your vouchers & info on connecting your Wix site.

How to Win?

This will be a twitter exclusive contest. Very simple to participate. Just tweet:

Win @wix Premium Combo Package from @pelfusion – http://bit.ly/aGzoZj (RT to Enter)

After tweeting, simply come back to this post and comment with a link to your tweet and your username.

or

Simply leave a comment below with valid email address for us to contact you.

It’s very important that you are following @pelfusion on twitter, so we can send a Direct Message to notify the winners.

When will the Contest End?

Winners will be chosen randomly, and the contest shall end on 26th November 2010.

About Wix

Wix is a free website builder tool, for quick and easy creation of quality Flash websites. Wix’s advantage is that it’s search engines friendly, allowing you to create a website that looks great without knowledge in coding or programing. the welcoming editor is a simple drag n’ drop tool that makes life easy and fun.

The online community certainly has their favorites and this debate has played heavily on those personal preferences to pit developer vs. developer, designer vs. designer, and developer vs. designer as this argument continues to unnecessarily divide the masses. The web is a dynamic and evolving playing field whose scope and capacity change near annually, so naturally these kinds of tech battles are going to be present, but what we have to remember is that these battles do not settle the issue. They do not declare the winner, they simply split the community into arguable factions who rant and rave, push and pull, to get the brand that holds their loyalty to rise the victor.

The Crux of the Situation

The situation seems to be a volatile one, all stemming from the fact that these two technologies have some overlap. This has many on both sides of the fence decrying that the other is useless and no longer has a role to play in the future of the web. Both sides have their reasons, however, most of those reasons are minor contextual instances of the app not fully functioning properly or as effortlessly as they would like, rather than an evaluation of the entire scope and functionality of either participant in this fight for dominance. When this full evaluation is made, we see a different narrative begin to surface.

But still the battle rages between those standing on either side of this fence, and we have to wonder if much of this comes down to posturing. Because while the debate between individuals carries on, those looking at the testing and performance evaluations have a different take on which one will prevail as the web continues its evolution. So it does not seem the like the proverbial jury is still out on this subject as much as they are just wondering why they are even here in the first place. Below are a several links gathered from around the web to show how this battle is really playing out.

HTML5

From across the vast sea of cyberspace, I went in search of those who have evaluated HTML5 and from these experiments have concluded that the winner of this fight will be HTML5. After reading Mashable’s Web Faceoff between Flash and HTML5, I honestly believed that HTML5 would come out on top. Or at least that is what the poll was indicating with over 60% of the participants came down on the HTML5 side. With its capabilities of easily embedding video and audio into your web applications, HTML5 has been hailed as the ‘Flash Killer’, but the results show things differently. In fact, there were not many articles that held to this assassination assumption once the testing began, below are a couple of the ones I came across.

Thoughts on Flash

Steve Jobs list of ‘reasons’ why Flash no longer has a place in the future of the web.

HTML5 vs Flash: An Open Letter to Adobe

Flash

Now that we have looked at a couple of the articles hailing HTML5 as the eventual victor of this battle for market dominance, we have a few that landed on the other side when the testing began. And while Flash seems to have had more supporters writing about their expected success once the dust has settled, it is important to point out that Flash has been filling this role for longer than HTML5 and so naturally one would expect more people to come out in favor of Flash. With so many already dedicated to this app and so many who have devoted their time and energy to learning how to master it, it is easy to understand the push for its victory. But that does not always translate to what is best, as much as it does translate to what is easiest. And this should be a debate about functionality not familiarity.

Does HTML5 Really Beat Flash? Surprising Results of New Tests

HTML5 vs Flash: What You Haven’t Heard

Speed Test: Flash vs HTML5 on the Nexus One

Flashlab’s Look at HTML5

Both Have their Place

Somewhat surprisingly (especially if you follow the fervor of the debate), what most of the articles that have been published on this fight for the future have deduced, is that when the dust settles, both HTML5 and Flash will be left standing. Perhaps they will be holding smaller shares of the online video and audio markets than were initially projected, but the consensus seems to be that they will both have roles in the future of the design and development communities. From the testing that has been done so far, and with the thoughtful evaluations of both competing technologies the resounding winner seems that a shared landscape is the future, rather than a more exclusive one with either Flash or HTML5 shutting out the other.

HTML5 vs Flash

HTML5 vs Flash: The Video Benchmark Deathmatch

The Future of Web Content: HTML5, Flash, and Mobile Apps

HTML5 vs Flash

HTML vs. Flash: Can a turf war be avoided?

HTML5 vs. Flash: The case for Flash

HTML5 And Flash: Why It’s Not A War, And Why Flash Won’t Die

HTML5 vs Flash

Flash vs HTML5: What You Need to Know

Flash and Standards: The Cold War of the Web

See for Yourself

Below are a few more links that you can investigate for yourself so that you can see some of the creative comparison models that have been presented throughout the web. If you thought you already had your mind made up, take a look at the following links and you just might find your preference slightly shifting.

GUIMark 2: The rise of HTML5

Shows some in-depth testing of the two technologies.

HTML5 vs Flash

A tumblog dedicated to side by side comparisons of both in action.

HTML5 vs Flash? Pick a side with ‘Pong’

It is a fun way to decide for yourself which you prefer through a playable Pong game created with each.

Flash vs HTML5 Canvas Drawing

It is an interesting comparison of drawing in both.

Show Me Whatcha Got! HTML5 vs Flash Showcase

In The End

Both HTML5 and Flash have their draws as well as their drawbacks at this point, but the bottom line is that they are both versatile technologies that are not limited to the overlapping functionalities they possess. Therefore, the design and development communities will have to adapt to the changes that are sure to occur, but will those changes end in the extinction of one of these two competitors for the future? More than likely, no. They will eventually settle into their niches and continue to feed the overall beast that is the internet. If there is to be an extinction level event that shapes the future of our playing field with regards to either of these two technologies, then we are still far from that reality’s head rearing itself into our paths. And I suspect that it would occur for reasons we have yet to discover.

Here is a collection of the best 3D Flash Websites for those who love flash and those who don’t i recommend do check them out.

1. Markez Models

2. SimCity

3. Real Casual

4. Mauricio Studio

5. New Work City

6. Erguvan Platin

7. Digital Science

8. Ripe Studio

9. Rez Multimedia

10. PlayMedia

11. Get the Glass

12. Orang Edan

13. PrismGirl

14. Laser Lines

15. Doctor Stones

16. 2 Advanced

17. Agency Net

18. Ecodazoo

19. Mind Smack

20. Campari

21. Vb2

22. Mew Tube

23. Meintru 3D

24. Nike

25. Transformers Game

26. Scion Xpressionism

27. Marik Art

28. Strasserauf

29. White Void

30. Fifa Street3

31. Hatica

32. Plantate

33. The Egg Republic

34. Premiyum

35. Twist and Drink

36. Dasai

37. Modular Web

38. Philter Design

39. 13 Flo

40. Cortex Design

41. Chuyue

42. Ferrari

43. Bandit3

44. Syfy

45. Optus Whale Song

1. The Ultimate Museum Site

2. The Boy Scout Green Template

3. The Gray Hotel Template

4. Smartco Business Company

5. Photographer’s Portfolio

6. The Yellow Business Site

7. European Restaurant

8. Auto Company

9. Your Own Band Template

10. Our Wedding Template

11. The Car Dealer Template

12. Business Constructions 2

13. Car Online

14. Books Company 2

15. The Blue Family Page

16. My Brown Personal Site

17. GlaModels

18. Animal Official Site

19. Consulting Group

20. New Collection

21. Corporate Center

22. Global Digital Solutions Online

23. Communication Company

24. Global Business Ideas

25. Online Creative Solutions

26. Super Bike Club

27. Business Corporate

28. Create Your Style

29. Disco Club

30. Fashion Portfolio

31. S-Shape

32. Pure HD Touch

33. Chocolate Website

34. Design Studio

35. Microphone company

36. Movie

37. Elastic

38. Design

39. Studio Design

40. Film

To finally find out the truth, TemplateMonster has started the survey about Flash technology. The goal of this survey is to find out what role Flash technologies plays in our life today and to know our opinion about its importance. Your age, sex, occupation and social position don’t matter. Whether you are a professional web developer or just a person spending time on the Internet, your opinion is of great importance. Plus, by taking this survey you’ll be able to get access to its results afterwards – priceless results by the way letting you know the types of website that Flash is best for, whether anyone cares about SEO for Flash and Mobile Flash, etc. You just won’t find data like this anywhere.

TemplateMonster starts this campaign along with their media partners that also care about Flash. Each of us and Internet community in general can influence the development of some processes, and even such global thing as Flash is not an exception, that’s why every single opinion matters.

Don’t stand aside, share your opinion on the TemplateMonster’s survey page!

Let’s take, for instance, the Flash Photo Gallery that is basically an easy and powerful tool for setting up and running a Flash site with an integrated photo gallery section. It is by far the most prominent solution to develop impressive layout and extensive usability through a convenient admin panel that controls an image posting process. So we can see that Flash Gallery-powered websites are currently extremely popular for image-oriented web projects. And if you desire to be the proud owner of a spectacular Flash Photo Gallery, TemplateMonster can assist to quickly develop an awesome online presentation, photo gallery or slideshow for presenting your ideas in a best way. Its photo gallery designs have a stylish Flash-powered photo gallery front end and handy tools combined with ease of installation and customization on the back end.

With flexible image management, the gallery in these templates can be edited via the convenient admin panel (which is included into Flash Photo Galleries as an ordinary .SWF file), plus the content of a website can also be edited using the XML file. With any of TemplateMonster’s Flash photo galleries, site owners have a bunch of neat tools to add comments to the images, set preview details (width, height, spacing etc.), or manage the images online (crop tool, flip, rotate and resize). Basically, the straightforward functionality makes their gallery way more user-friendly.

But the most interesting part goes here – starting September 20th 2010 until September 30th 2010 the company offers a new promo for this category of templates. During only 10 days the Flash Photo Galleries are exclusively available at a huge 40% discount. So make it quick to browse those Flash photo gallery templates to pick the one for your project. Get yourself a fancy online image gallery and you’ll be the envy of everyone!

Almost all types of animation effects are in these 15 free dynamic Flash XML photo galleries.

1. Free Flash and XML Slideshow Photo Gallery

This is totally free Dynamic Flash Slideshow Photo Gallery. You can easily add, edit or delete images and thumbnails by editing an xml file in Notepad. Creating your own Flash slideshow photo gallery has never been easier!

2. FlashFlickr PhotoGallery

A photogallery made in Flex2/AS3 using Flickr API. This application let users to browse your flickr pictures, see your sets, tags and notes.

3. PhotoDiary 1.0

PhotoDiary 1.0 is a web application developed by Webgriffe which lets you to easily publish a brand new photo blog on the web.

4. Flash Page Flip Photo Gallery template for Picasa

This template is based on the free version of the FlashPageFlip flash engine on www.flashpageflip.com.

5. FlashMo Stack Photo Gallery

Stack Gallery is a flash xml photo gallery that supports HTML CSS in photo description textfield. It can be integrated with any flash template in actionscript 3.

6. WS-Slideshow

A free flash slideshow gallery with vertial thumbnails slider.

7. FlashMo Circle Gallery

Circular thumbnail XML gallery with a mouse wheel scroller using Flash CS3 ActionScript 3.

8. dfGallery 1.0

dfGallery is one of the coolest Galleries currently on the Web.

9. 3D Grip Photo Gallery

3D Grid – Flash Photo Gallery using Papervision3D and XML.

10. SimpleViewer

SimpleViewer is a free, customizable Flash image gallery. It allows you to display your images on any web page in a professional, intuitive and simple way.

11. Tony Photo Album

Tony photo album is elegant and free flash photo gallery.

12. Free Flash Photo Album

Dynamic Picture loading, easy to install and easy to change content. Ability to show up to 1200 images.

13. AutoViewer

AutoViewer is a free, customizable Flash image gallery. AutoViewer is designed to display a linear sequence of images and captions.

14. TiltViewer

TiltViewer is a free, customizable Flash image gallery. TiltViewer is designed to display a sequence of images in tilt view.

15. Polaroid Gallery v.1.01

The script loads images and image titles dynamically from an external xml file or a flickr RSS feed.

Below is a compilation of several flash websites that have employed the enticing amusement of these elements, producing a mixture of inimitable ideas exclusively complemented by the distinctive effects of Flash and Javascript. These will surely have you glued to your monitor screen for hours on end. Enjoy!

Zoomquilt II

Zoomquilt II is a fantastic Flash zoom animation which consists of images created by twenty collaborative artists in the ultimate creation of a never-ending alternate universe which carries you from one scene to another in perfect harmony, creating a fantastic landscape of psychedelic themes.

Element

This flash based site is an original grunge themed website promoting the ‘Element’ energy drink. It cinsists of a very stylish introduction and suberb 3D graphics which result in its fanatic look. The site is further complemented by dedicated sounds and themes directing to Element’s four flavours : Water, Earth, Fire and Air; each one revealing a unique little secret, allowing you to experiment and play with them.

Optus Whale Song

“When it comes to communication, anything is possible.” And truly said. This is a beautiful website committed to the protection of endangered animals. It is based on the magical idea of writing a song for a whale, whereby an orchestra floats on the surface of the ocean and you are to use your keyboard to compose a song for a whale. Exceptional graphics portrayed in underwater scenes and mesmerizing musical notes make this experience truly magical.

Thingdom

Thingdom is an interactive flash field for the creation of a “thing”, for which you will select traits, genetics, cells and chromosomes, making it a creature of its own for you to breed and evolve. This is an entertaining life simulation activity site that has proven to be appealing for adults and children alike, through its inviting graphics and flash effects as well as customization.

Silenzio

Silenzio is essentially a 3D movie library with maginificent 3D transitions. The layout is a structure of smooth animation and allows the viewer to hover over a variety of different movies laid down in a perfect table catering to exquisite graphic effects resulting in interesting options for selection.

Sensi Soft

Although Sensi Soft is a global service specializing in classified advertising solutions, its execution is its Flash based web design is a matter of marvel. It allows the viewer to experience the journey through time and space of revolution. It comprisies of beautiful 3D scene animation and equally fitting sound effects encouraging you to travel through different time periods by just one click of your mouse.

Habitat Seven

Habitat Seven comprisies of all the dimensions and characteristics of different designers and illustrators experimenting with their creativity. The sky is truly the limit! This has proven to be the personal playground of unconventional artists looking for inspiration.

Infinite Oz

The Infinite Oz is a compilation of the works of nine acclaimed international artists depicting a captivating journey through different sci-fi worlds, each replacing the last in it’s infinite aura of a world beyond reality.

I Love This Trash

I Love This Trash is truly an unconventional and entertaining way of picking your…drug of choice? Jokes aside, this flash based website is practially a library of the different stimulators raged popularly all over the world. The fresh and youthful Flash animations and transitions exhibit the quotas of people like yourself from different parts of the world, voting for their favorite vice, (anonymously so, I might add) with charts, geo-statistics and other features.

Ecsw

Ecsw is a great flash website with a cool flash introduction. The most interesting characteristic of this site is it allows you view and walk around the building of a contemporary art gallery by yourself in a virtual manner, from one level to another, to another. Whether you’re one who loves virtual tours and simulations or just looking for gallery ideas for your next exhibition, this is definitely a worthy stop-over.

Comcast Town

Comcast Town is a very bright and cheerful flash animation design following the theme of an ambitious virtual little town. You can explore the town by scrolling through the arrows and even virtually move into it and designing your new pad.

The Dribbler Magazine

The Dribbler is the first ever online magazine wholly dedicated to satirical football humour. It’s a tricky and stylish form of online sports literature and often comical, even ludicrous in its antics of the premiership game. In just a few words – British humour at its best!

Papervision 3D

This evocative website gives the viewer an enticing chance to explore the underwater world and the horizons of the ocean as well as the creatures that gracefully live in it. The open-source flash framework formally known as Papervision 3D is thus introduced by this interactive below-seas 3D environment.

The Eco Zoo

The Eco Zoo is a 3D flash animation website which encourages and environmentally friendly lifestyle.It exhibits a tall nature friendly tower in a forest-like zoo where several deifferent animals live in harmony and encourage a peaceful way of life. You can visit each of these animals whilst exploring their rich 3D world.

Gears of War – Emergency Day

Gears of war is a massive 3D animation scenario with exquisite 3D fade-in and fade-out transitions for each level. It is based on the video game “Gears of War” by Epic Games, surrounding the war theme around a chaotic and destructive time period wherein all technological and military barriers have been breached. This demo introductory website is a superb demonstration of its genre, likely to appeal to both adventure gamers and enthusiasts alike.

TUNE

TUNE is an interactive flash multimedia library featuring the original music of selected composers, songwriters and artists in order to develop a feel-good sensation for young girls and women to enhance their life and health. It’s hover pause-and-play high quality audio and transitions are sure to leave a lasting pleasant impression.

Ge

Ge is a three dimensional website comprising of animations of rich 3D objects and their utilization in three different 3D environments. It promotes the smart use of energy in an environmentally friendly way and fulfills it’s objectives by showing the contrast between virtual words with and without smart meters.

Kodak Pulse

The Kodak Pulse website was originally designed to generate buzz around the Kodak Pulse digital frame. Its neat flash animation and transition layout allows visitors to create their own personalized Kodak photo stream and further interlacing it with various popular networking centers such as Facebook and Twitter.

Battle of the Cheetos

Battle of the Cheetos is a fun and entertaining website promotion the brand Cheetos in the most enjoyable way. The 3D Flash interface allows for viewers to participate in an online game wherein the player can fight an interactive Cheetos battle with their own Cheetos chip of choice, and customizable army and flag out on the World Wide “Battlefield”.

Conclave Onscurum

This website is actually a display of the artworks of an unconventionally unique artist. Its Flash based interface displays a spooky and grotesque themed introduction and style of art. Everything from the animations and transitions to the spine-chilling music and sounds will render the visitor into a world unknown