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Finally… I’m in the mood of writing again… I’m sorry to say that it’s a long time since my last article, but hopefully that is going to change.

A lot has happened in the Flash world these past few month and I’m sure you’re up to date with the news so there’s no need for me to list them.

Anyway, if you noticed, during the summer JumpeyeComponents launched a new web application called PhotoSnack. It allows you to create very nice online Flash photo albums. Well, JumpeyeComponents has just launched an updated version of PhotoSnack for testing, which can be found at http://dev.photosnack.net. It has many more features than the initial version and a total of 13 albums to choose from. Here is a short video to get you started: http://dev.photosnack.net/help/tutorials/getting-started/.

Besides PhotoSnack, JumpeyeComponents also launched the SnackTools, which is a suite of web applications containing both PhotoSnack and BannerSnack. All of the web applications are only for testing purposes and JumpeyeComponents is happy to receive your feedback on the applications. There’s also a full-discount coupon (TEST) used to unlock the premium features.

One important thing to note is that the accounts you create in the test applications will be deleted without any notice once the testing is over and the applications are released in their final version. Just keep this in mind while you are playing around with the apps.

This being said, I hope you’ll all have fun with the SnackTools. I’m looking forward to see some interesting examples. If you have any comments on the applications (ideas, bug reports or any other comment) feel free to leave a note here or write to JumpeyeComponents through the feedback application they have on each of the SnackTools web apps.

Today JumpeyeComponents has officially launched the next version of the popular Flash animation tool – FlashEff. Now it has a redesigned workflow that makes life even easier and comes with a solution to lower the file size of your Flash clips: the FlashEff2 component has a lower size than the predecessor and it comes with another set of components – FlashEff2 Light.

The FlashEff2 Light pack contains separate animation components, each one specialized to do one of the main component’s jobs: show/hide animations for symbols, show/hide animations for texts, applying filters, creating buttons and executing commands. So you can use only that one feature you really need for your project without having to import all the FlashEff2 features into your Flash clip. This way you can lower the file size of the final animation even more.

Here are some other features for FlashEff2:

• a large number presets that you can choose from (3000+ presets)
• the possibility to tweak those presets or to make your own settings
• create and save your own custom effects which you can reuse any time you want
• a completely new button mode

Here you can find more information on the component’s features and watch some nice video tutorials that will help you get started with FlashEff2. There’s even a nice video on the home page based on the comments users left on this JumpeyeComponents blog post.

Today JumpeyeComponents launched a new web application called BannerSnack that lets anybody easily create Flash banners and publish them. The product is still in its beta stage but most of the features are already implemented and working. All you have to do to create a Flash banner is to create your account on BannerSnack, access the application from the website and start using it.

By using a free account, you can create, save and publish your banners without problems but there are a few limitations in comparison with the premium account:

All these limitations are gone if you purchase a premium account, which costs from $9 per month up to $149 per year.

The application itself is easy to use and has a fairly intuitive interface. The banners are based on a slide like structure with different types of transitions between them. You can use text and images for your banners on which you can apply different show/hide animations and filters. These filters and animations are based on the FlashEff engine, so you can use many of the eye-catching animations possible only with FlashEff.

Once you finished your banner, you can save it in your account and then publish it to the web. You can even set the banner to be public, which means other users will be able to access and edit it. Of course, their changes will not reflect in your banner, they will be saved separately.
But enough talking… I mean writing… For more information you can simply access www.bannersnack.com to check it out and to start using the banner maker application. There’s even have a short video presentation of the features of BannerSnack and you can also read a blog about a interesting stuff on marketing and banners (I’ve already subscribed to this blog… you should too).

My colleagues who went to present our brand new component, FlashEff, to the world, came back two weeks ago from the Flashbelt and FITC conferences. Overall, it seems that many people got interested in it and everyone who heard about the project was very impressed with it. This is a good sign for us, especially since we’ve just launched the final version (so no more beta).

While we were working on the component, we had really useful input from people with high expertise in Fash and ActionScript, many of them highly regarded in the Flash community. So the difference between the FlashEff beta and the final version is very much based on their feedback. Thank you very much to all of you.

Of course, we cannot create a product that would please absolutely everybody in the Flash community, but we tried to do our best in creating a component that would be easy to use (especially for those new to Flash) and also, leave an open door to those experts who like to code more than use the visual workflow.

There is a free version that has 30 patterns, which you can use to create show/hide effects on text, apply filters on clips and create buttons from movie clips on the stage, fast and simple. You can download it from the component’s main page and test it out. If you’re happy with it and want more, you can even purchase a full version that includes all the current (100) and future patterns. Also, we’ve changed the initial pricing model and now you can purchase the component for 1, 6 and 12 months. Also, there’s an unlimited version of the component, which costs a little more than the rest. For more information, you can check out the component’s site: www.flasheff.com.