After that was done and I had had nearly all the fun I could possibly imagine, it was time to import the animated .GIF into Flash. It was very easy to now select every keyframe, Trace Bitmap, Optimize, and convert to a symbol.

With some minor coloring changes and tweaks on the (now) vector images, The animation could be integrated with the site. Add a little shadow underneath Ben on every frame, set up some loops, do some cool brightness / alpha tweening near the beginning to really catch the viewers' eye, find just the right sound effects.. and we were in business.

After that, It was a matter of learning exactly what Flash 5 can now do that wasn't possible before, as well as experimenting with different looks and designs — Keeping in mind that we needed to create an HTML version of the website for those users that don't have a really powerful computer at home.

We're quite happy with the way this website turned out, and I hope you enjoy looking through it. Be sure to subscribe to the mailing list, and visit back often to find out what's happening with Big Ben Hillman.

"Cowboy" Ben Alman - RJ3 Productions
October 30, 2000