Hi again

This post is about a very basic tip, creating dropshadow effect for texts. Ok, let me get on to the steps rightaway

1. Login to your Toufee account, create a new flash movie project and create a new Text object. Double-click the text object to open up the Properties window. In the Properties window, deselect Frame Background, set Size to any value of your choice (in the example below, I’ve set it to 40) and select a color for your text (I chose white). Once done, click Update to save and close the textbox. You should now have a single text in your movie. I have pasted below the output that I got from my movie that I am using as an example for this post.

2. Now, right-click the text and from the popup menu select Copy This Text option. Right-click on any blank area in the frame and from the popup menu, select Paste Text in Place. Now we have two text objects, but you could see only one as the new text that we just pasted sits exactly on top of the original one. Let’s call the new text object as “Text2″.
3. Simply, double click on the new text (”Text2″) to bring in its Text Properties window. Now, change the font size to 42, change the text color to something that contrasts (I chose black for our example) and click Update to close the dialog box. Now select the text that is on the top (i.e. Text2)  and  click Item Order button found above the movie editor. What this does is that  moves “Text2″ to the back  of our  original text  thereby creating a shadow effect. All done, what do you see now?

Do you see a dropshadow like effect now on your text like the one on the right? The image on the right is the output that I got from Step 3. You will also get a similar output that mimics a dropshadow effect.

You can also playaround a bit by changing the positions of one of the “Text2″ to create variations of dropshadows (like top-right shadow, top-left, bottom-right, etc). Below are some of the dropshadow variations that I did

Hope you find it useful. Leave your comments to this post. See you all next time!

Ganesh

With all the hype surrounding Toufee 2.0 and its release, I thought I’d quickly put through a post on a very useful flash movie tip. In this post, we will see how to speed up the frames and control its timing in your flash movie project. This can be set by using the Unload This Frame option  available in the Advanced Options window. To access this option, follow these steps.

1. Assume that you want slide 1 to have a timing of 4 seconds. Then, right-click the 1st frame on the left pane (all the frames in your project are listed on the left) and from the popup menu select Edit Advanced Frame Properties option. This opens the View Advanced Options dialog box for frame.

2. In the View Advanced Options window, place a checkmark on Unload This Frame feature. This opens up more options, where you will find the option Automatically after X seconds delay. X is a numerical value which represents the number of seconds the frame is displayed before it is unloaded. Repeat the above steps for other frames as well.

CONTROLLING SPEED OF MOVIE OBJECTS

When you unload a frame with x seconds, you need to set the movie objects (i.e. text, images, buttons) in that frame to unload  along with that frame. You can set this by selecting the object and clicking on Properties buttozn (found at the top of the editor). In the Properties window, you will have something called Unload Options. Placing on checkmark on it will open further options where you will have When Frame Unloads Selecting this will unload the movie object along with the frame.

Apple iWeb is a software that allows Mac users to quickly create professional-looking websites without worrying about programming. The nice feature about Apple iWeb is that it comes with great-looking templates for building websites. Once done, Mac users can instantly publish their websites as .Mac sites. However, the one criticism looming large is that iWeb saves the entire website as a single Domain file. Now, this limits Mac users from adding embedded objects into their websites - for example, a YouTube video or a Toufee flash movie. So how do you insert your favorite Toufee flash movie into your Apple iWeb website? Here is what you need to do

1. Open your website (the Domain file) with Apple iWeb
2. Select the File menu, and from the options select Publish to a Folder…

Selecting Publish to a Folder publishes your website as individual HTML pages instead of the single Domain file that you normally end up with. All the HTML pages of your website will now be saved to the Folder that you selected. Use Locator to browse to the folder. You can then use TextEdit to open the HTML page in which you want the Toufee flash movie to go into. Remember that you simply need to copy the HTML code of your Toufee flash movie (you can get this code from the Publish Your Movie window in Toufee) and paste it into the HTML page of your website.

Launch your iWeb website and you’ll now get to see your Toufee flash movie in action!

Hope this helps…should you have any comments please do let me know

 Ganesh

Its difficult to comprehend the features of Toufee 2.0 in one post. This is my third post and still I have a huge list of new features that Toufee 2.0 brings to simply flash movie making. Toufee 2.0 boasts of 75 new features that instantly turn you into a pro at creating flash movies. Why Toufee 2.0? If you had a look around whats happening around the technology side of Flash, you would be amazed at the pace at which new technologies overshadow their old counterparts. Toufee 2.0 brings the best of these latest developments in Flash technology to your desktop. With Toufee 2.0, we take you to experience flash movie making one step further - from simple effects to advanced flash movie creation, timing control, templates and a whole lot of exciting features that will allow you to create flash movies, the professional way - and hey not to forget - Toufee 2.0 is just as simple as Toufee 1.0, maybe even better!

Here is another quicklist of new features that you can expect to see in the new Toufee 2.0 (this is not the entire list, read my last few blogposts on Toufee 2.0 so that you can get an idea of all the features)

• New wizards that quickly allows you to create flash movies, flash websites and flash catalogues
• Masking and Shape Tweening
• Enhanced and easier time control and navigation 
• Animated buttons (e.g. rollover effects), improved Frame control and support for music notes
• New graphic and gradient elements on all objects
• Bitmap effects
• Option to create Inline Slideshows easily within your flash movie

This is my third post on Toufee 2.0, so before you start reading this article, I would recommend that you read my first post on Toufee 2.0 features and also the second.

There is something about Toufee 2.0 that I would like to share. As you maybe aware, Toufee 1.0 is hardly months old and we are already ready with the next big release. Too quick an upgrade? When we just finished work with Toufee 1.0, Adobe came up with the big news of Flex SDK which completely changed how Flash movies and Flash as a technology would be evolve in the years to follow. Immediately, the Toufee team set into action. While Adobe is working on Flex, we keep in synchronization so that Toufee works on the latest technology (mind you Flex is still in beta, but with Toufee you have a working Flex product ready for release). When released (very soon), Toufee will be among the first few products that is a full-fledged Flex application. So next time, when the folks at Adobe are ready with their next technology, we’ll be ready with a finished product and you can experience it live at Toufee.com

Ok now to a million-dollar question, what is the release date of Toufee 2.0? Watch out this space, I’ll let you know very soon

Ganesh
Toufee Support

This post is a continuation to my earlier post on Toufee 2.0 features and the new cutting-edge effects of Toufee 2.0, the free online flash movie maker. As I mentioned, there’s a long list of new features that make Toufee 2.0 a special version and a compelling upgrade.

Toufee 2.0 is more than creating flash movies and flash videos. We got rave reviews about Toufee 1.0 version and how its a heavy application (if one goes by the number of features) for an online tool. Well then, Toufee 2.0 might well be even bigger! Here’s a list of what you can expect to see in the new flash video maker

New Xbox-style UI
Expect to see a sleek and a refreshing UI in Toufee 2.0. The interface holds seemlessly integrates the sophisticated Toufee 2.0 flash movie maker engine with the flashy and trend Interface buttons, smooth window transitions that will give users a cool Xbox feel!

Save flash movies to YouTube
Saving flash movies to YouTube was one option that users had always emailed us about. Infact, this was a frequent query to Support and most users were mad about having this option. No more queries…its official, Toufee 2.0 will allow saving flash movies directly to YouTube. Worry not people, just wait a wee bit more and you can happily upload all your favorite flash videos and flash movies to YouTube.

400 Preset Effects
It couldn’t get bigger than this and its just a reminder of why Toufee 2.0 is complex, sophisticated but yet simple (getting work done with Toufee 2.0 is a breeze thanks to the new UI). With Toufee 2.0, you can never run short of effects for your flash movies. By the way, these are no ordinary effects and we’ve made sure that each of the 400 new preset effects is distinct from one another

Well, the fun is not over yet, there is plenty more to write and I will keep posting new updates on the latest free flash movie maker. Keeping watching this space for cool updates on Toufee 2.0!

Hi all

We understand that some of you might have had experienced problems with video uploads to Toufee last week. There was a slight glitch with the server handling video uploads We’ve been witnessed huge traffic to Toufee in the last few weeks and a more than increased uploads of videos and sounds from users. Though we’ve constantly adding server resources to scale the growing demand for Toufee flash movie maker, we are astounded by the huge signups that overpowers even our constant upgradation.

The problem with the video uploads was sorted out now and you can continue to use your favorite free flash movie maker as usual. If any of you face any issues with the video or audio uploads, you can email Toufee Support (help@toufee.com) and you are guaranteed a reply from me!

 Thanks
Ganesh
Toufee Support

Toufee 2.0, the all new improved version of the popular online flash movie maker, is in the making for quite some time and we thought we give users a feel of what to expect with the new Toufee 2.0 version. Unlike regular software upgrades where new versions means additional features or new enhancements, Toufee 2.0 differs in a way that the new version is more than an upgrade…its a completely recoded and fresh Toufee that uses the latest Flex technology. So what’s the big fuzz about the new Toufee? A run down of the features of the new flash movie maker is found below

New, New and New…
Yes, its new…the code, the core Toufee engine, the User Interface and the features. Since everything is new about Toufee 2.0, you are assured of a fast, efficient and more better Toufee application that makes creating flash movies quicker and easier!

Save flash movies to your PC
The new Toufee 2.0 version will allow you to download your flash movies to your PC. This is something that so many users have been emailing us about and finally here you have it. The new Toufee 2.0 version allows downloading of your flash movies in SWF format so that you can host in your own webserver

Bulk Image Uploader Tool
Gone are the hassles with uploading images one after the other. We understand how frustrating that could be when you are creating a flash movie that has loads of pictures. So we thought of introducing a new tool that will allow you to upload images in one shot! The new tool will considerably save your time and effort!

Remove Toufee logo from movies
You can now remove the Toufee logo from all your flash movies. Flash developers, web developers and freelance designers can now use Toufee to create commercial flash presentation or use it to create flash videos for their client websites.

That is not all with new Toufee 2.0 as it boasts of a hell of a features that I can just keep writing about. Stay tuned as I will be writing more posts on the new features of Toufee 2.0. So keep checking this space!

Till next time
Ganesh