Such Web based applications eventually came to be known as Rich Internet Applications RIAs. In 2. 00. 4, Macromedia Flex was released, and specifically targeted the application development market. Flex introduced new user interface components, advanced data visualization components, data remoting, and a modern IDE Flash Builder. Flex competed with Asynchronous Java. Script and XML AJAX and Microsoft Silverlight during its tenure. Flex was upgraded to support integration with remote data sources, using AMF, Blaze. DS, Adobe Live. Cycle, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, and others. As of 2. 01. 5, Flex applications can be published for desktop platforms using Adobe AIR. Between 2. 00. 6 and 2. Speedtest. net web service conducted over 9. RIA built with Adobe Flash. In 2. 01. 6, the service shifted to HTML5 due to the decreasing availability of Adobe Flash Player on PCs. As of 2. 01. 6, Web applications and RIAs can be developed with Flash using the Action. Script 3. 0 programming language and related tools such as Adobe Flash Builder. Third party IDEs such as Flash. Develop and Powerflasher FDT also enable developers to create Flash games and applications, and are generally similar to Microsoft Visual Studio. Flex applications are typically built using Flex frameworks such as Pure. MVC. 1. 3Video gameseditFlash video games were popular on the Internet, with portals like Newgrounds dedicated to hosting of Flash based games. Popular games developed with Flash include Angry Birds, Clash of Clans, Farm. Ville, Adventure. Quest and Machinarium. Adobe introduced various technologies to help build video games, including Adobe AIR to release games for desktop or mobile platforms, Adobe Scout to improve performance, Cross. Bridge to convert C based games to run in Flash, and Stage. D to support GPU accelerated video games. D frameworks like Away. D and Flare. 3D simplified creation of 3. D content for Flash. Adobe AIR allows creation of Flash based mobile games, which may be published to the Google Play and i. Tunes app stores. Flash is also used to build interfaces and HUDs for 3. D video games using Scaleform GFx, a technology that renders Flash content within non Flash video games. Scaleform is supported by more than 1. Unreal Engine, UDK, Cry. Engine and Phyre. Engine, and has been used to provide 3. D interfaces for more than 1. Film and animationeditAdobe Animate is one of the common animation programs for low cost 2. D television and commercial animation, in competition with Anime Studio and Toon Boom Animation. Notable users of Flash include DHX Media Vancouver for productions including Pound Puppies and My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, Fresh TV for Total Drama, Nelvana for 6teen and Clone High, Williams Street for Metalocalypse and Squidbillies, Nickelodeon Animation Studios for Wow Wow Wubbzy El Tigre The Adventures of Manny Rivera, Danny Phantom, and more. Flash is less commonly used for feature length animated films however, 2. The Secret of Kells, an Irish film, was animated primarily in Adobe Flash, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 8. Academy Awards. Several popular online series are currently produced in Flash, such as the Emmy Award winning Off Mikes, produced by ESPN and Animax Entertainment Happy Tree Friends Gotham Girls, produced by Warner Brothers Crime Time, produced by Future Thought Productions and Homestar Runner produced by Mike and Matt Chapman. Various third party software packages designed for traditionally trained cartoonists and animators can publish animations in the SWF format. HistoryeditFuture. WaveeditThe precursor to Flash was a product named Smart. Sketch, published by Future. Wave Software. The company was founded by Charlie Jackson, Jonathan Gay, and Michelle Welsh. Smart. Sketch was a vector drawing application for pen computers running the Pen. Point OS. 2. 12. When Pen. Point failed in the marketplace, Smart. Sketch was ported to Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. As the Internet became more popular, Future. Wave realized the potential for a vector based web animation tool that might challenge Macromedia. Shockwave technology. In 1. 99. 5, Future. Wave modified Smart. Sketch by adding frame by frame animation features and released this new product as Future. Splash Animator on Macintosh and PC. Future. Wave approached Adobe Systems with an offer to sell them Future. Splash in 1. 99. 5, but Adobe turned down the offer at that time.