New Flash compression tool soon to be released

Optimaze! is a Flash vector optimization/compression program that most of you might not have heard of. The developers of Optimaze, the UK based Ideaworks3D, first showcased their technology at the FlashForward 2001 New York City, they knocked everyones socks off with their compression technology and have been promising to release their excellent program ever since then. When I was attending FlashForward 2002 in San Francisco I again got to see their product taken to the next level. This time not only doing amazing compression but also adding vector effects to animations. It should be made available for Mac and Windows machines – but don’t be surprised if they make the program available for Linux as well. Their program actually has a Flash frontend as opposed to a regular GUI.

The product is especially interesting to use to get the file sizes down on vectorized animations and Flash content coming from 3D tools, as such their announcement of a close partnership with the 3D software maker Electric Rain makes a lot of sense. Electric Rain will be the primary US distributor and re seller of Optimaze!

I actually have a video presentation of the program just waiting to be published, if we could just get someone to host the video files for Flashmagazine.com – we can’t afford the bandwidth ourselves. I will let you all know if anything happens with the video content we want to publish.

Here is the press-release:

Boulder, CO – June 25, 2002 – Today Electric Rain, Inc. announced the signing of an agreement with U.K. based Ideaworks3D, Ltd. to become the primary U.S. distributor and reseller of Optimaze! Ideaworks3D Optimaze! is a soon-to-be-released compression tool that allows users to optimize their Macromedia Flash (SWF) files for better distribution and playback on the Web. The agreement is an effort to capitalize on each company’s strengths in order to maximize Optimaze’s market penetration.

“When we ran one of our Swift 3D Extreme showcase files through Optimaze! and saw a 50% reduction in file size, we knew Ideaworks3D had something special,“ explained Mike Soucie, President/CEO of Electric Rain, Inc. “Optimaze! is a great complementary tool to both Swift 3D and Flash MX and is likely to be a valuable asset to every Flash developer concerned with the size of their SWF movies. Electric Rain is excited to leverage our sales and marketing expertise within the Flash community to help insure the success of this great new product.”

Optimaze! is a patent pending post-production tool that provides Flash developers with a new way to efficiently compress the vector graphics contained within an SWF file. The nature of the application makes it a powerful tool for any Macromedia Flash developer concerned with creating smaller and more efficient SWF files. Optimaze! features a ground-breaking user interface, developed and delivered entirely in Flash MX, which provides unique functionality in the manipulation and previewing of compressed SWF content. This powerful, Flash based front-end, interfaces directly with an advanced vector compression engine to accomplish previously unattainable file compression. Files generated by Flash, Swift 3D and any other Flash exporting application can benefit significantly from Optimaze’s powerful compression engine to optimize the vector content of any SWF file.

“Ideaworks3D specializes in developing revolutionary technologies like Optimaze!,” said Adrian Sack, President/CEO of Ideaworks3D “and we’re looking forward to having Electric Rain on board to help us bring this hot product to market. Optimaze! is the first application of its kind to take an existing SWF file and shrink it down even smaller than Flash itself is capable of. Our optimization engine takes SWF compression to a whole new level of detail and Optimaze! will provide Flash developers with the control and flexibility that’s been sorely needed since Flash began to be used for creating dynamic Web content.”

Optimaze! will be available early July 2002. Electric Rain will begin selling Optimaze! through their www.optimaze.us Web site as soon as the product becomes available. U.S. residents who purchase Optimaze! from Electric Rain will benefit from their established in-house fulfillment system with shorter delivery times and lower domestic shipping rates than from the U.K. Electric Rain will also supply customers with discounted bundling deals of Optimaze! and their Swift 3D product line, as well as with Macromedia Flash MX.