FutureSplash Animator was a vector-based animation editor written by Jonathan Gay for his company, FutureWave Software.[1][2] The company and the product were later bought by Macromedia then Adobe Systems, and became Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash).
The company first product, SmartSketch, was initially a vector-based drawing program for pen-based computers. With the implosion of the pen-oriented operated systems, it was ported to Microsoft Windows as well as Apple's MacOS. In 1995, the company decided that they should add animation capabilities to their product and deploy it over the burgeoning World Wide Web. The only way to create such animations on the web at the time was through the use of Java, but this was quickly replaced with the debut of Netscape's plug-in architecture. The product was released as FutureSplash Animator in May 1996.[2]
The technology was used on several big-name websites such as Microsoft's MSN, Fox's official The Simpsons website and Disney's Disney Daily Blast. At this point, the company consisted of six people. As Disney also used Macromedia's Shockwave player, this provided a connection to Macromedia, which approached FutureWave Software about working together. In December 1996 Macromedia bought FutureWave, and FutureSplash Animator became Macromedia Flash 1.0.[3]
Macromedia Flash later (2005) became Adobe Flash.
The file format was SPL and FutureSplash animations can be viewed with new versions of Adobe Flash Player.