My fascination with Flash began years ago when I first found a mesmerizing website called Turtleshell. Its captivating blend of curved, colorful shapes moving and transitioning automatically and interactively combined with a hypnotic soundtrack was unlike anything I had encountered in the realm of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I found myself revisiting that website almost every day for six months, deeply inspired and eager to dive headfirst into the world of Flash.
The abilities of ActionScript further amplified Flash’s capabilities. This object-oriented programming language specifically designed for interactivity, opened up a realm of possibilities. ActionScript empowered me to craft more sophisticated actions, allowing for richer user experiences.
One of my more advanced Flash creations was the smoothsurface portfolio site, which, unfortunately, no longer exists today. Although I loved my time working with Flash, I recognized its limitations Nevertheless, I look back at my experience with Flash fondly.
During this stage of my journey, as depicted in the image above, I combined Flash, Photoshop, ActionScript, ASP, and MySQL to assemble my projects. For instance, I used ASP to create a variable that dynamically fetched and rendered date information from the user’s system using ActionScript. The site boasted smooth page transitions as users interacted with the menu in the bottom left, with the orange section on the right dynamically filling with new content. One of my proudest achievements was implementing background music that gradually increased in volume upon page loading and smoothly faded when transitioning to another page. Although such techniques are now considered deprecated, I valued the opportunity to experiment and push the boundaries at that time. Additionally, I developed a form that allowed users to input their contact information, which was stored in a MySQL database.
Flash undoubtedly played a pivotal role in making the web a more exciting place. During that era, an air of optimism surrounded the web landscape, and every new discovery seemed to hold endless potential. While the web technology landscape has evolved, there are still remarkable technologies that can enrich the online experience, provided we make wise choices in their use and implementation.
