Image Effects

I would like to know how I can create effects that I have seen against photographs or images. They appear to have a blur or gray transparent window that glides across the image using Flash. Then the image is fully displayed in color, after the bar passes. I only found a similar example below.

Exmaple 1: This site uses a frosted type of glass on the bottom portion of the banner image. The rest of the site appears to use different types of blurring and transparency effects on top of the images. http://www.westonfl.org/interface_fr.htm

Any help or guidance on ceating these effects would be appreciated.

If you are talking about the image of flowers at the top…
It’s done by using a mask. You have an original image and an image that has some photoshop effects done to it.
Then using a mask select the area you want people to see and then place the masked image over the top of the original image.