Tools

Swish review

Swish is a program that allows you to create animated effects in the Macromedia Flash file format without actually owning a copy of Flash. The interface will be confusing to people who have never used Flash before but as long as you have used it you won't have much of a problem. It allows you to create text in any font/color and then apply various effects to it, including fade, blur, squeeze, explode, etc. You can see a demo of its effects here.

It is also possible to insert images but you can't manipulate them as much as you can with the full copy of Flash. When you load Swish, there are 6 tabs containing its Flash functionality. They include General (set movie height, width, etc), Content, Timeline (for setting when events happen), Scene (changing and adding scenes), Actions (where you add actions to the text such as movement and deformations), and finally Export (where you can export your creation to a .swf file for playing on the web). There is also a button that will generate the required HTML code to display the flash animation on your web page.

If you use the demo version, then you can't export the animation to play on your site as it comes out backwards but you can preview it within the Swish program.If you want to use anything you created on a site then you must purchase a license for Swish. The demo has no annoying nag screens, just a Purchase menu item.

Overall, it's a very useful program, especially when you compare it to the huge cost of Flash - you can use Swish to make similar effects. As long as you don't need to use Flash's enhanced image manipulation functionality, or it's scripting then Swish should be perfectly suitable for you.

Facts
Minimum Requirements: Pentium 100, 32Mb RAM, Windows 9x/NT/2000
Price: $30 - Minor Updates free, Major updates cost approx $10
URL: http://www.swishzone.com