I designed this animation in time for Christmas 2006. You can use this page to create your Flash version of Christmas with Santa and his raindeers flying across the night sky. This Flash animation offers many configurable options to create many possible customized versions. I try to cut down the number of options so that they can all be on one single page.

This animation is designed for night scene and works best against a very dark background. You can leave all options at their default values and generate the final Flash file including the appropriate HTML codes with just one click. You do not need to know Flash or program its scripting language. You do not have to use any traditional desktop Flash tools to create this effect.

The size of the snow flakes and blinking stars as well as their positions and movements are randomly computed based upon the image size so each scene is slightly different from one another. If you are undecided which scenes you like best, it is recommended that you should save each generated scene to your computer for subsequent comparison.

You can vary several basic parameters such as the initial and ending font size, text colors, the number of raindeers and Santa's cruising speed, etc. to customize the animation sequence for your design need. This animation is available with five high-quality commercial typefaces. The parameters are self-explanatory hopefully to most of us. If you do not understand its meaning, change its value and see how it affects the text animation.

The image is originally designed at 480 by 360 pixels. If the image width and height are specified at this size, no scaling will occur.

The Linux-based ActionScripting engine behind this page generates the graphic file in industry standard Flash swf format that is supported by most modern browsers, and is compatible to all Flash player versions.
Enjoy and Merry Christmas.

1. Width of image   
(default 480 pixels)

2. Height of image   
(default 360 pixels)

3. Text vertical position   
(default 300 pixels)

4. Text horizontal position   
(default 80 pixels)

5. Enter your text to render
(up to 120 characters)


6. Font size   
(default 24 points, max 72 points)

7. Typeface: Arial Black



8. Delay between letters   
(default 100 ms)
9. Delay before pop   
(default 300 ms)
10. Maximum text pop scale   
(default 400 percent)
11. Maximum pop transparency   
(default 15 percent)
12. Rotation angle (degrees)  
(default 0, from -180 to 180)

The following Flash image demonstrates this effect. The font used is the popular free movie font Burton's Nightmare (from the movie Nightmare Before Christmas).




Click to generate the Flash image file with your current choice of parameters in a separate window.

The generated Flash swf file will be automatically removed from the server in approximately one hour. Right click on the apppropriate link and choose "Save Link As..." or "Save Target As..." to download the Flash or HTML file to your computer.