14 DAY TRIAL // Flash design has become more and more important in the field of web creation. Still images are no longer enough to convey an idea or a concept. People tend to pay attention to everything that moves (that's a predator feature) so moving images are immediately noticed, especially if they are located on a background that makes it stand out even more.
FlaX is a powerful tool designed by GoldShell Digital Media to create flash text effects. The installation file has only 760KB. The full software costs $39.95 and includes 143 text effects and if you decide to buy the FlaX Grand Fx ($14.95), it will enrich the software with additional 100 effects.
The interface consists of a big previewing area where you can see the text and the effects that you apply to it. The two menus in the menu bar (File and View) will not be mentioned at the beginning of my review as they are useful at the end of our work.
Many people get scared (in the sense that they do not want to deal with such softwares) when hearing about flash work and effects. They think that only a black-belt world class designer is able to create text effects. FlaX will prove you wrong as it can be used even by a ten year old.
As I said before, the main window is the previewing area where you can see the results. There are some other four additional dialog boxes that will allow you to customize the effects. The first one that my instincts said is logical to begin with is the Text Properties.
As all the other boxes, this too can be moved all over your desktop area for a better view of the results in the preview screen. Here, the user can enter the text s/he wants to apply the effects to. Make the necessary adjustments for the horizontal and vertical positions (XPos and YPos). This adjustment can also be done by simply dragging the text with the mouse.
If you have more than one text line you can adjust the spacing between the two lines and even the kerning (spacing between the letters). The user can choose between almost sixty fonts among which we noticed Vivian, QuigleyWiggly, Georgia, Emmet, etc. and also, you can dimension the font and make it as big as you need it.
The Style section gives you the possibility of electing one of the seven options. They do not have names, but I will make a brief description. The first one is simple and all you can do is change the color of the font. The second one is to apply a gradient effect and the user can select by him/herself the colors. The third style I call hollow as the letters are empty and you can see only their margin which is also adjustable.
The forth style effect is similar with the previous one but it is different in the fact that the letters are filled with one color and have borders of a different color. The user can adjust both the width and color of the border and the filling color.
The next style effect is a gradient with borders. So you can select the two colors of the gradient effect, the width and color of the border. The sixth style involves a three colored gradient with border effect. The user can define the three gradient colors and the border color. The drawback here is that you can no longer control the border width.
The last style is pretty disappointing because the user has no control over the colors of the letters which have each a different solid color. The user can only adjust the border and fiddle with the Random color slider (0-99).
The next box is the moving effects one. The work is simple in here. You can select a pre-set effect which you customize it by using the buttons and sliders to alter the effect in a way you desire. It allows for great flexibility in creating your own effects. Circle Radar effect for instance allows you to change the radius, angle, horizontal adjustment, chars and direction.
In the Movie Properties box the user can set the number of frames per second of the movie, width, height and background.
The last dialog comprises three sets of options: Picture, Sound and Shape. The user can choose a background picture (.jpg), add an audio file (.mp3) or change the shape of the text (arc, arc lower, arc upper, bulge flag or rise).
The Good
The software does not require high level skills from the user and the effects can be applied in minutes. The Special Effects dialog box has lots of effects and combined with the Text Effects dialog can get you to a really professional result.
The result of your work can be tested in a player or in your default browser. The result can also be exported as a .swf file.
The Bad
It would have been excellent if the software could import fonts so that the software would be 100% flexible.
The Truth
The effects created with FlaX have a professional look and you will be impressed by how easy it is to work with. The lack of skills necessary for handling the application is a big plus. For how small the program is, it has numerous effects that will surely suit your needs.
Another advantage of the software is that the effects created with it can later be processed in Flash 8.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
