HTML5 - how 'Flash' can it get?

[Long Con]

Hi, I'm a Flash Developer, and my boss wants me to learn HTML5 and see if it is viable to replace Flash in our various applications. I don't really know anything yet about HTML5 and how it works... can it do this? (Click on PREVIEW to see the whole thing please)

Is it feasible to say I can reproduce that in HTML5?

[JAB Creations]

Just being honest but that Flash animation initially makes the page feel "empty".

Before you do anything always consider if it's necessary and what the benefits and drawbacks are especially in the context of the methods of implementation.

That Flash file is 122KB! Really?! Saving the image alone as an index colored GIF I knocked the size down to 9KB and you could animate the lighting effect in under 20KB most likely. That means less waiting for content to download, reduced costs of bandwidth (correlating to traffic/hosting), and you're not at the mercy of a proprietary format.

I personally only use Flash to stream audio and if I did video video. Beyond that XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript allow me to do everything else.

The only thing I can recommend using Flash for at this point is multimedia especially since Hollywood's grandmother-suing knuckleheads are hell bent on forcing H.264 down everyone's throats so they can send your small business a bill for using a video codec starting in 2016.

Ah, after clicking preview I'm seeing a lot more and for the most part right now Gecko, Presto and WebKit can do most of what's in the video with CSS3, IE can't (and not sure if IE9 will be able to do transitions as they are still announcing features but have not announced those CSS3 properties yet).

Also music on a banner...that doesn't really work plus there aren't controls or anything. Looking at the page I did not expect music so luckily for me my speakers weren't turned up too high.

My best advice is learn the difference between the rendering engines and start learning XHTML and CSS3 now so when Internet Explorer finally gets up to speed you'll be prepared to code things the right way and resort to Flash when there is a weakness in the industry (HTML5 video) in order to serve the same content to your clients without opting your boss in to paying thousands for proprietary video codecs such as H.264.

[Long Con]

Right now I'm seeing a lot of weakness in HTML5 as compared to Flash.

Being able to create timeline-based animation is one of the things HTML5 is lacking as a replacement for Flash.

And what about Blend Modes like Overlay, Screen, Hard Light, etc? Can I do those in HTML5?

How about turning up the Brightness of an image/text, or changing its Tint?

I'm currently converting a very simple Flash-animated advertisement into HTML5 and it's looking like switching to HTML5 is going to be more than ten times the work!

[JAB Creations]

Consider that Flash is exceptionally well established on the web, people have been using it years before video sites like YouTube existed on the internet.

Add to the fact that HTML5 features are being added to browsers with each release it's going to be one of those "give it time" situations and don't expect things to switch too quickly either. In example Hollywood is pushing their political agendas in conjunction with Microsoft to make H.264 video codec the only codec you can reliably play videos back in IE9 with so they can start charging royalties in 2016. Since any competent web designer won't opt their clients in to paying royalties unless Microsoft pulls a 180 then don't expect a reliable cross-browser open source video codec to be a viable option in 99% of browsers well in to the 2020's based on Microsoft's track record and that may even be a middle ground if they hold on to such a bad policy of playing politics; if they fail to support open source codecs in IE10 it could push all the way in to the 2030's. However besides the audio and video element codec support you should expect most of the other parts of the specs to be uni-formally adopted by browsers over the course of the years.