Live Motion - Super Bad

PS Woods

June 16, 2000

I don't know what it was when Adobe announced that they were working on a development tool for .swf (the Flash file format). Maybe the name "Flash Killer" made everyone roll their eyes, (right now no one can imagine a world without Flash). Maybe it's just that everyone is so used to plain old Flash. But the consensus in the huge novice segment of Flash designers is that Live Motion doesn't have much to offer. That's crazy.

Bad news for Adobe: Live Motion is not going to kill Flash. Maybe the name "Flash Harmless, Beneficial Parasite" would be better. Or "Flash Useful Appendage - You Know, Like a Prehensile Tail". How about "Flash Live-in Lover"?

Bad news for Flash Designers: You should probably buy this thing. If you spend any amount of time doing text effects you will make back your $250 or whatever in a month. (The suit says, "I want something visual that really conveys the idea of innovation... I know - how about the word "innovation" in a cool font that like gets bigger or something!").

Good news for Adobe: Live Motion rocks! This tool is going to be around for the long haul; and every serious Flash designer will need a copy or an upgrade or a plugin or whatever makes a dollar.

Good news for Flash Designers: Live Motion rocks! As a tool for creating .swf animations, (NOT a comprehensive tool to replace Flash), LM is superior to Macromedia's Flash (1) in two important broad areas:

LM offers more powerful native tools for composing and manipulating images in a movie (2), like a bezier tool and a familiar complement of color tools.
LM manages objects for you. Now usually when you hear someone talk about software that manages some aspect of your design for you, you make a mental note: "Stay away...dummy editor". That is natural. We share the emotionally traumatic experience of the initial promise - and subsequent burn - of WYSIWYG html editors. But trust me here. We've come a long way in our therapy. Front Page is even showing signs of reform.

LM's approach to objects can really cut down on a ton of clutter. Consider this example. Basically all I did here was break apart the letters "wdvl" and apply factory animations to them. Imagine doing this in Flash - you would have to either convert each letter to a symbol (manually, by pressing F8 and going thru the dialogue) or deal with "Tween 1", "Tween 2", "Tween 3", and "Tween 4" - (little voice: "...is that a keeper? can I delete 'Tween 97'? Dammit - I should have changed the names as I went!").

(1)It hurts me to say this. I really love Macromedia products.

(2)Adobe wants you to call your project a "composition". I appeal to all Flash designers to continue to use Macromedia's naming conventions to avoid unnecessary confusion.

Live Motion - Super Bad

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