Software Review: “Adobe Flash CS4 Professional”

Developer: Adobe Systems Inc.
Release Date: October 27, 2008
Retail Price: Adobe Flash CS4 Upgrade – $199, Adobe Flash CS4 – $699, Adobe Master Collection Upgrade – $899 Adobe Master Collection – $2499
Available for Purchase on: Amazon for $693.99 – The Adobe Website for $699

In the past few years I’ve become a competent designer. Well…at least in my own mind. I’m a self-taught web designer. I started out in PSP (of all programs) though I hate to admit I ever used such a substandard program. It wasn’t long before I started using Photoshop. This was way back in 2002. I was new to Photoshop and while I was told that all of the “pros” were using the program, I found it to be much harder to learn than the previous programs I’d used.

Still, I was persistent. I wanted to use what the pros were using. In time and with a lot of help from tutorials (as well as other designers) I became quite proficient in Photoshop. From there, the next logical step was to learn Flash. I was absolutely fascinated with Flash. I started trying to learn Flash back in late 2002. I was obviously quite dependent on tutorials and assistance from other designers in these early days. Flash was in one of its earliest editions, but it was offering a revolutionary new approach to design and illustration. I definitely wanted in on the Flash bandwagon.

Sometime in 2003, I found an excellent Flash tutorial website, Cartoon Smart. The site was (and still is) run by a man named Justin Dike. For a fair price, I was able to receive easy to follow and in depth lessons in how to do many of the things I wanted to learn to do in Flash. Since 2003, I’ve been a loyal fan and customer of Justin’s. I highly recommend all of his tutorials, no matter your level of proficiency in Flash. While I know quite a bit more, and have become quite competent with Flash on my own, I still find Justin’s lessons invaluable. I often buy new lessons and modify what he teaches to suit my own designs and illustrations. Without him, I don’t feel I’d know Flash nearly as well as I do today.

When Flash CS4 Professional was being announced and I found out about all of the new features, I knew I had to have this program. I now use Flash, nearly exclusively as my primary program for website design, development and illustration. The ability to animate, draw, design and develop a wide variety of web friendly applications makes Flash CS4 the flexible, reliable and obvious solution for any web designer. I just happen to be one of the many Flash loyal people on this planet and with all of the really cool features that Adobe Flash CS4 is now offering I don’t see that changing anytime soon!

New Features:
There were several new features I was quite excited about after the release of Flash CS 4 Professional had been announced. The most exciting new features, for me, are object oriented animation, the Bones Tool (which allows for inverse kinematics), and the Deco and Spray Brush. The latter (Deco & Spray Brush) would either be really amazing to use, or a bit corny and not at all helpful. Unfortunately, as of now, I haven’t found much use for it, so I can’t exactly say whether it was worth being added to this upgrade, or not. I will say that it does have the potential to be worthwhile, in the right circumstances. I just haven’t found them.

I was putting my money on the entire Flash CS4 Professional edition being pretty amazing based on the videos of the new features I saw on the Adobe website. I can’t tell you how right I am. You’re just going to have to use this program to see just how amazing it truly is. While Flash (and all of the Adobe software packages) is expensive, I do believe this invaluable tool for designers will pay you back tenfold.

Let’s start by discussing Object Oriented Animation. Back in the good ol’ days, Flash required a series of steps to animate objects. If you didn’t follow the steps just so, your animation might appear bumpy, unrealistic and not at all like animation should look. Now, your object is set as a symbol, you right click, select Motion Tween, go to the ending keyframe, move the object from the start position to where you want it to stop and then the timeline is set for you. Adobe Flash determines the path the motion should take for the movement, ideally, and you just have to sit back and let the program do all the work for you. Pretty cool, eh?

To make things easier, you can adjust your animation without having to reanimate the layers and reset the motion tween. The object in motion features something called Bezier handles. Adjust those and you can adjust your animation. It’s pretty simple, and easy to use. It makes animating nearly any object a hundred times easier and then some! Of course, the addition of motion presets, which allows you to pop in presets for nearly any type of object saves designers even more time! To add to the motion features is a motion editor, which allows for more control over every aspect of individual tweens including, but not limited to rotation, scaling, easing control, transformation controls and color effects.

If this is still a bit confusing then you are going to want to check out Justin’s (Cartoon Smart) free lessons. This shows an example of how to use motion tweening on any object of your choosing. He also has a lesson on 3D object animation in Flash CS4. You can download both of these lessons for free at the Cartoon Smart Blog. Also, check out my own motion tween video below! This looks pretty nifty doesn’t it?

As if Flash animation couldn’t get any easier or more high tech, the addition of inverse kinematics has to be about the coolest feature of this new upgrade. You can take any chain like object and make it swing around. In the example I’ve included, I quickly drew a funky little cartoon guy. To show off what the Bones Tool can do, which controls inverse kinematics motion. In this case, I moved the funky man’s legs and arms.

Then I made him jump up and down using the object oriented animation motion tween method I mentioned above. I wanted to make him do the air splits and show off how his legs and arms can swing around individually. I should note that I only drew his arms with the intent to move them. After seeing how funny he looked, I decided to move his legs, too. So from the straight drawn legs, I was able to give them dynamic, realistic joints. This is DEFINITELY my favorite new feature of Flash CS4!

To see my animation, go to the next page.

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Written by Dominick - Visit Website
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Dominick Evans is in his late 20's. He spends his days working as a full time writer/editor and a part time musician/composer. His passions in life include music, directing films, watching movies, reading books, watching sports, wheelchair football, politics and spending time with his family (fiancée Ashtyn, son Robert, and shih-tzu Oliver). Other interests include being an advocate for the disability and GLBT communities.