AnFX (pronounced: anne-eff-ecks) stands for "Animation and Effects" and that's exactly what it is!

AnFX is a full featured, yet easy to learn interactive animation tool: It is powerful enough for the most demanding web master yet simple enough for a home user to create impressive interactive content for their home page.

AnFX is an exciting, revolutionary, easy to learn tool that lets anyone harness the power of Flash™ or Java™ to produce eye catching web animations containing not just text but shapes, images and audio also.

AnFX is a software that allows you to create flash animations.

AnFX is made up of two components:

· The AnFX Visual Design Studio where you build your designs and export them to either .swf or .afx format.
· The tiny AnFX player which plays your .afx designs on the web (only required if you choose to export to .afx)

AnFX allows you to create actors that can be manipulated by various actions and triggered by events such as a mouse click, mouse enter, mouse exit etc.

Using combinations of actors and actions it is possible to create a limitless variety of effects played on your site using the compact AnFX player applet. You can even simulate many of the effects provided by single purpose tools that produce menus, scrolling text, marques, fading images etc., avoiding the need to have to learn and deploy multiple technologies on your site: with AnFX you can do it all - with just ONE highly productive and easy to use tool.

Here are some key features of "AnFX":

· It's so easy to use ... no coding or scripting required
Installation is quick and YOU can be creating world class designs in 15 minutes! If you can use a mouse then you can develop AnFX designs using the point and click AnFX design studio on Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP. You don't need to learn a new computer language or create cryptic script files. The designer makes creating Flash™ or Java™ based animated content a breeze. View a screen shot here

· Text Effect, Menu and Button Wizards make it all so easy
AnFX comes complete with a set of wizards to allow fast, easy creation of Text effects, menus and buttons.

· Scene Management
AnFX is unique in its support for managed scenes. Scenes have been an integral part of the AnFX product architecture from day one. Quickly create links that jump from one scene to the next from menu items or buttons or from any other object.

· Slide Show Capability
Combine common foreground and background layers with AnFX's scene management and you have an excellent tool for creating animated slide shows. Create online tutorials for your products, walk visitors through a process, provide online educational courses. With AnFX, everyone's an expert!

· Break free of HTML's limited capabilities
Now anyone including individuals at home, graphic artists or corporate web developers can harness the power of Flash™ or Java™ to create incredible effects and express their creative ideas much more freely.

· Compact, Highly Optimized export files mean Fast Download and satisfied site visitors
Some other tools generate extremely bulking .swf files that take users on 56K modems a long time to download. With AnFX whether you choose to export your designs to Flash (.swf) format or Java (.afx) you can be sure that our advanced optimizing technologies have produced a very compact .swf or .afx file to allow for fast transfer over the internet. Many other tools promise the world but make your visitors wait a lifetime to see the result! AnFX delivers powerful effects, FAST!


Requirements:

· 2.5 MB hard-disk space


Limitations:

· 15-day trial
· The Flash and Java animations created will have a message at the top directing viewers to the Step Ahead website.

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· Fixes problems of some text not displaying properly when there are italic / bold and non italic/bold forms of the same font in a SWF.
· Fixes problem with bold or italic text not appearing for certain typefaces