tháng 12 06, 2014
Open Source Alternative to Flash Professional
Adobe Flash Professional is a multimedia authoring program used to create content for the Adobe Engagement Platform, such as web applications, games and movies, and content for mobile phones and other embedded devices. Adobe Flash Professional is the successor of a product known as FutureSplash Animator, a vector graphics and vector animations program released in May 1996 by FutureWave Software. In December 1996, Macromedia bought FutureWave and so re-branded FutureSplash Animator as Macromedia Flash. In 2005, Adobe Systems acquired Macromedia; subsequently, re-branding and releasing it as Adobe Flash Professional.Using Adobe Flash Professional users can produce flash ads, games & web animations and other interactive solutions for running inside web browsers (based on the popular Flash Player), or for the desktop or mobile devices (based on Adobe Integrated Runtime aka AIR). It can be purchased separately or as part of the Adobe Creative Suite. The latest version of the software Adobe Flash Professional CC was released in 2013 as part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud rebrand. It include a native 64-bit scene rendering engine, minor performance improvements and bug fixes, and the removal of legacy features such as ActionScript 2 support. As part of the Creative Cloud suite, Flash CC also offers users the ability to synchronize settings or save files online.
The increased use of HTML5 and rich JavaScript libraries have reduced the use of Adobe Flash but it’s still very popular and pretty much used by every internet user. Flash Professional doesn’t come cheap and will cost you 20$ per month in an annual subscription plan. So, here we explore some free and open source alternatives to Adobe Flash Professional.
1) FlashDevelop 
FlashDevelop is an integrated development environment (IDE) for development of Adobe Flash websites, web applications and desktop applications. The resulting applications run in Adobe Flash Player or the Adobe Integrated Runtime. It uses the free Adobe Flex SDK in order to build ActionScript 3 and MXML applications, the free MTASC compiler to build ActionScript 2 applications, and the free Haxe toolkit to build ActionScript 3, PHP, Neko or JavaScript applications. It also has code completion and highlighting for XML, HTML, PHP, and CSS.FlashDevelop is free and open source software, mostly written in C# and is built on the efficient Scintilla editor component. It is extensible with a plugin architecture and is a .NET Framework 2.0 application only available for Microsoft Windows. FlashDevelop is not a platform of its own, and is a code editor for the Adobe Flash Platform. Publishing a project into an SWF file that can playback in the Adobe Flash Player is the primary purpose of the editor. It includes code editing features comparable to Eclipse or Microsoft Visual Studio.
The latest version of FlashDevelop is 4.6.4.
2) OpenLaszlo 
OpenLaszlo is an open source platform for the development and delivery of rich Internet applications. It is released under the Open Source Initiative certified Common Public License (CPL). The OpenLaszlo platform consists of the LZX programming language and the OpenLaszlo Server. LZX is an Extensible Markup Language (XML) and JavaScript description language similar in spirit to XUL, MXML, and Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML). It is designed to be familiar to traditional web application developers who are familiar with HTML and JavaScript. OpenLaszlo Server is a Java servlet that compiles LZX applications into executable binaries for targeted run-time environments.Laszlo applications can be deployed as traditional Java servlets, which are compiled and returned to the browser dynamically. This method requires that the web server is also running the OpenLaszlo server. Alternatively, Laszlo applications can be compiled from LZX into Dynamic HTML (DHTML) or a binary SWF file, and loaded statically into an existing web page. This method is known as SOLO deployment. Applications deployed in this manner lack some functionality of servlet-contained files, such as the ability to consume SOAP web services and Java RPC remote procedure calls.
The latest version of 4.9.0.
3) Ajax Animator 
Ajax Animator is a free, web-based animation suite. Its development began in March 2006 by Antimatter15, then a sixth grader. Ajax Animator was originally intended to be a free replacement to Flash MX, but is now a general-purpose animation tool. Contrary to its name, it uses little to no Ajax in its code. Ajax Animator is primarily written using JavaScript, the Ext JS framework, and HTML5-related technologies such as SVG.Development started around March 2006, based on the RichDraw JavaScript library, which allowed for in-browser graphics creation. The application was soon rewritten to use the DHTML Suite library from DHTML Goodies, and finally allowed for exporting SWF files through the Freemovie Java library. Version 1.0 was rewritten to use version 1.0 of Sencha’s Ext JS library instead. It also added support for inbetweening and sharing projects. The next version, 0.20, was a complete rewrite to support version 2.0 of Ext JS, and used the OnlyPaths library by josep_ssv, which extended RichDraw and was designed specifically for Ajax Animator. Later versions used the author’s own VectorEditor library, based on the Raphael framework.
The latest version of Ajax Animator is 0.20.05.
4) KToon/Tupi
KTooN/Tupi is a software application for the design and creation of 2D animation. This tool, inspired by and for animators, is being developed by an open community. It is covered under the terms of the GNU General Public License v3, meaning that KTooN is free and open-source software. It has now been forked, and the old official website redirects to the website for “Tupi”.The main purpose of this project from the beginning has been to provide an easy user experience, starting from the design of the GUI which allows the creation of simple animations in only 5 steps. Despite still being in beta phase, the software already includes these features: Modular user-friendly interface, Animation and preview modules
Basic tools for vector illustration, Timeline and exposure sheet, Bitmaps Importation, Export to various formats (Ogg Theora, AVI, MPEG, SWF and a sequence of PNG images).
Basic tools for vector illustration, Timeline and exposure sheet, Bitmaps Importation, Export to various formats (Ogg Theora, AVI, MPEG, SWF and a sequence of PNG images).
The latest version of Tupi is 0.2.
5) Synfig Studio
Synfig Studio is a vector graphics and timeline-based computer animation program. It was originally the custom animation platform for the now defunct Voria Studios, but was released in 2005 as free/open source software, under the GNU GPL. As a true front-end and back-end application, it is possible to design the animation in the front-end, Synfig Studio, and to render it at a later time with the backend, Synfig Tool, on another (potentially faster) computer without a graphical display connected. The goal of the developers is to create a program that is capable of producing “feature-film quality animation with fewer people and resources.” The program offers an alternative to manual tweening so that the animator doesn’t have to draw each and every frame.Synfig stores its animations in its own XML file format, often compressed with gzip. These files use the filename extension .sif (uncompressed) or .sifz (compressed). The files store vector graphics data, and can also reference external bitmap images. Synfig can render to video formats such as AVI, Theora and MPEG, as well as animated graphics formats such as MNG and GIF. It can also render to a sequence of numbered image files, using formats such as PNG, BMP, PPM and OpenEXR. It also has basic support for SVG import. At present, it cannot export to SWF format but this is to be implemented as indicated in the software’s roadmap.
The latest version of Synfig Studio is 0.64.2.
6) Pencil2D/Clash
Pencil2D is a free and open-source 2D animation software license under GNU General Public License. It is a fork of Pencil. The application uses a bitmap/vector drawing interface to produce simple 2D gr
aphics as well as animation. Pencil is written in C++ and is Qt-based. It started as a simple “pencil test” program by Patrick Corrieri, extended to the current Pencil application mainly by Pascal Naidon. It was forked as Pencil2D by Matt Chang and is being actively developed. The latest version of Pencil2D is 0.5.4 beta.
aphics as well as animation. Pencil is written in C++ and is Qt-based. It started as a simple “pencil test” program by Patrick Corrieri, extended to the current Pencil application mainly by Pascal Naidon. It was forked as Pencil2D by Matt Chang and is being actively developed. The latest version of Pencil2D is 0.5.4 beta.Clash is another work-in-progess fork of the Pencil. Its being developed independently of Pencil or Pencil 2D and its main goal is to make it closer to Adobe Flash Professional IDE. It also has a related project called Geesas which will be basically a GTK-based Clash. The latest version of Clash is 0.9.7b.
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