A Flash course was required for my Web Design|Development degree. I worked hard learning to create animations in Adobe Flash. The next semester, in my Advanced Web Design course,  they basically announced that “Flash is dead”. What?!? Apparently the first nail in the coffin was when Apple decided not to support Flash players on its devices.  My professor, and a student in the class who was already working in the field, said that the biggest trend in Flash was clients requesting that you remove flash from their website. Bottom line, unless I have a specific client request to do otherwise, I came out of that course resolved to:: 1. Make my websites responsive; 2. Create clean web design with minimal text; 3. Implement only non-Flash animation. A bit of technical info { GIF vs FLASH }

• GIFs don’t require an added browser plugin|player. Flash does.
• Flash can create a security vulnerability or open an exploit. { An exploit is a software tool designed to take advantage of a flaw in a computer system, typically for malicious purposes such as installing malware. }
• Flash is incompatible with some older devices, or even blocked on some portable devices or by browser plugins. GIFs usually aren’t.

Citation: Sanders, Adrien-Luc . “The Pros and Cons of Flash and Animated GIFs.” About.com Animation. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 July 2014. <http://animation.about.com/od/faqs/f/Which-Is-Better-Flash-Or-Animated-Gifs.htm>.

{.gif } = GIF is an acronym for Graphics Interchange Format. A GIF is animated by combining several images into a single GIF file. Applications that support the animated GIF standard, GIF89A, cycle through each image. GIF animation is popular because it is supported most Web browsers. { The format supports up to 8 bits per pixel and a palette of up to 256 distinct colors } = Due to the small color palette, GIFs are best used for simpler images like logos with solid color areas. Source image options include photos, vectors, logos or other graphic designs|illustrations.