What is FutureSplash Animator?

If terms like Bezier, directional lines, and paths make you break out in a rash, this could be the product for you. FutureSplash Animator is a 2D graphics and animation product that helps you create vector-based interfaces and illustrations for Web pages without those awful production tools. But like most things that seem too good to be true, FutureSplash Animator also has a little hitch. This hitch can be summed up in a single hyphenated word: plug-in.

The FutureSplash Player — aka FutureSplash plug-in — is required on the end user’s machine to be able to view FutureSplash files. (It is currently available as a Netscape plug-in at FutureWave’s Web site and will be a Microsoft ActiveX control for Mac when Internet Explorer 3.0 is released.) If visitors to your site don’t have the plug-in, all they see is the nasty little broken plug-in icon — an anathema for Web designers. But all hope is not lost: the creators of FutureSplash realized that very few developers are willing to create graphics in a proprietary (and still obscure) format, so the program allows animated file exportation in a variety of formats including animated GIFs, QuickTime, and DXF. Still, for the best file compression and performance, you have to export to the FutureSplash (.spl extension) file format.

To understand exactly why an easy-to-use, vector-based tool is exciting, you need to understand a bit about the premise behind vector-based compression. Vector-based graphics are created by defining a number of attributes between two points. Objects and images are created by connecting lines from point to point and filling in closed areas. If you’ve ever seen wireframe 3-D model, you’ve seen a vector-based graphic. One advantage of this scheme is that you can actually zoom in on a graphic and it remains clean and unjagged (perfect for maps on the Web). On the flip side, there are programs, such as Adobe Photoshop, that are built on bitmap graphic technology — building images pixel by pixel.

Vector-based graphics are exponentially smaller in terms of file size, and thereby much more efficient to use on the Web. After saving an animation into two different formats the GIF sequence weighed in at a hefty 79K, whereas the same animation saved as a FutureSplash file was lean and mean at under 20K.
FutureSplash’s magic may sound familiar to those who know and love Macromedia Director (Shockwave), but there are a few key differences. FutureSplash does not support sound, Shockwave does. FutureSplash files start playing during download, while Shockwave files have to be downloaded entirely before viewing. FutureSplash animation and interactivity does not require scripting, advanced Shockwave files require knowledge of Lingo (Director’s scripting language).

The procedure for uploading FutureSplash (.spl) files can be a bit daunting. First you must download and install the FutureSplash Player from . You must then contact your system administrator to have the Website server configured for FutureSplash. Though Shockwave also requires server configuration, its widespread acceptance may make it easier to convince your ISP to go that extra foot and a half. Just something to keep in mind if you're not running your site off your own server.

As an actual production tool, FutureSplash Animator makes creating vector-based images and illustrations fairly simple, especially when compared to the current generation of vector applications, such as Illustrator. In FutureSplash Animator you simply click and drag on an object’s outline to change its shape. This gives you much more natural control over your creations.

Importing, editing, and animating from your favorite drawing programs is cake: FutureSplash supports Adobe Illustrator, PICT, AutoCad DXF, JPEG, and GIF file formats. Animation sequences that are created as sequences of GIF, EPS 3.0, Adobe Illustrator, DXF, JPEG, PICT, GIF, or QuickTime movie files are also welcome. If all else fails, and you can’t find a single artistic bone in your body, pre-designed interactive buttons and animated clip art are also included.

FutureSplash provides terrific documentation and tutorials. Detailed interactive lessons walk users through a broad spectrum of FutureSplash production tactics. Drawing, animation, motion interpolation, button creation, and HTML basics are just a few of the areas that are covered.

On the horizon is a version of FutureSplash Player written completely in Java. Sound support will be implemented to enable synchronization of MIDI and digitized sound with FutureSplash Player animations, and increased browser support is on its way.

Overall, FutureSplash Animator is a solid Web production tool optimized for illustrators and animators, especially those unconifortable with some of the more arcane vector tools. Just keep in mind: if your end user doesn’t have the right plug-in, all those curves will take longer to display — and not all of us consider patience a virtue.

Swanson, Heidi. (December 1996). FutureSplash Animator. MacAddict. (pgs. 76-77).

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This program would eventually become Macromedia Flash.

Download FutureSplash Animator for Mac

Architecture

68K + PPC (FAT)

System Requirements

From Mac OS 7.1 up to Mac OS 9.2

Compatibility notes

Minimum Requirements

• MC68030 processor
• 8 MB RAM
• 5 MB hard disk available
• System 7.1

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Basilisk II