A Flash animation or Flash cartoon is an animated film which is created by Adobe Flash or similar animation software and often distributed in the SWF file format. The term Flash animation not only refers to the file format but to a certain kind of movement and visual style. With dozens of Flash animated television series, countless more Flash animated television commercials, and award-winning online shorts in circulation, Flash animation is currently enjoying a renaissance.
Flash is able to integrate bitmaps and other raster-based art, as well as video, though most Flash films are created using only vector-based drawings which often result in a somewhat clean graphic appearance. Some hallmarks of poorly produced Flash animation are jerky natural movements, auto-tweened character movements, lip-sync without interpolation, and abrupt changes from front to profile view.
Flash animations are typically distributed by way of the World Wide Web, in which case they are often referred to as Internet cartoons, online cartoons, or webtoons. Web Flash animations may be inreractive and are often created in a series. A Flash animation is distinguished from Webcomic, which is a comic strip distributed via the Web, rather than an animated cartoon.
