So what is flash animation? Flash animation is a type of computer generated software which is used to create flashing effects and with the use of animated storyboards, flash animation can be created.

Animation, as we know it, consists of showing stationery images in a rapid sequence so that, by creating an optical illusion, the illusion of movement is created. Animation as an art and as a form of motion picture has it’s beginnings in the early 20th century. The initial ways of making an animated film consisted of hand drawing on a frame which were then transferred to a transparent acetate frame called cel. Thus came into being cel animation which remained the most popular animation methods till the early part of the 21st century wherein computer graphics came into play. With the advent of computers and the computer generated graphics, it was seen as another way of creating images and even animated ones. Since, then several software have been developed which have led the world from the world of 2D animation, to the world of 3D animation, based on the same 2D illustrations or graphics.

Flash Animation One such software feature which is used in animation is the flash. Named after the pioneer software which launched this technology, Adobe Flash, there are nowadays various other flash software which can produce similar files and effects. Flash animation or short, animated films are made using Adobe flash or similar software which create flash like animated images and visual effects. This type of animation usually comes in the file format of .swf files. Flash animation became popular during the late 1990s when the low bandwidth of internet allowed flash images to be one of the easier image and animated files to load on a web page. Animators thus started using flash animation in which they could package visual and sound effects all under a file size of 1 MB.

However, with the advancement of animated software, flash files came to be regarded as crude and lacking in sophistication. Still, many web advertisements as well as commercials on television are designed with this software and hence it still has it’s uses amongst other software in the animated market today.

Flash animation used in the World Wide Web are termed as internet cartoons or webtoons which are simple, easy to design animations and are usually used as web banners on a web page. These simple files are easy to design and are even included in the school curriculum in U.K.

If you look at where it all began, Macromedia created the software Flash which was later on acquired, along with other Macromedia’s software, by the software giant Adobe in the year 2005. The latest version of this software is Adobe Flash CS5. The first Flash user in animated movie making for the web was done by John Kricfalusi, who is the creator of the Ren&Stimpy show. He went on to produce various cartoon web series along with other animators who popularized the use of this software.