NONE: ONLINE-ADS>> Re: Animated GIFs
ONLINE-ADS>> Re: Animated GIFs
Tommy Oddo (tommy_at_oddo.com)
Sat, 21 Sep 96 17:38:10 -0000
> What do people think about animated GIFs? I finally took the plunge,
>and set some time aside and made one up, it turned out to be much easier
>than I had thought it would be.
> I invite anyone who is interested to check it out at:
>
> http://www.kingston.net/suboski/lab.html
Nice job Bill - you may want to slow it down a bit though - that guy is
falling awfully fast! :)
> I freely confess that it is simple, but then, the whole thing only
>took two hours. I am of a mind that these kinds of touches add greatly to a
>website; there is of course the Java route, but I have seen too many
>different programming languages featured as the "flavour of the month" to
>believe that Java is anything more than a weigh-station.
> So, what's the consensus?
Animated gifs can work nicely because a) they don't require any special
plug-ins, b) they are easy to create and c) they work with most browsers
- sort of. Most browsers that don't recognize animated gifs, will at
least display the first frame of your animation.
Still, as a web site designer, I cast my vote for what will eventually
become a standard on the web - Shockwave. This plugin allows viewers to
experience true multimedia presentations which are created with
Macromedia's "Director" which has a very powerful, English-like scripting
language called "Lingo". It's not as difficult to learn as Java but it is
certainly more challenging (and more powerful) than creating an animated
gif. "Lingo" has been around for roughly 7 years and has been used to
create many sophisticated, commercial cdrom titles.
Having said all this, it is obvious that animation is a great tool - it
gives us an opportunity to give the human eye something it craves -
movement. Still, there needs to be a good reason to use it - especially
on the web. Obviously, Bill is having a little fun, but there are many
commercial web sites that utilize animated gifs (and Shockwave) in a way
that does more harm than good. In other words, the same abuse that we see
with still images (no clear message, poorly rendered artwork, long
download times, etc.) also "raises it's ugly head" with moving images
many times over.
A final note: If you're interested in learning more about "Lingo",
Jennifer Bennett has written an excellent book called "Easy Lingo",
published by MIS:Press. I just bought a copy at Barnes & Noble (in
Houston).
O.k., I'm guilty. :-|
My web site was used in "Easy Lingo" as "a great example". There - I
confessed, but at least I don't work for Macromedia!!! :)
Tommy
_____________________________________________________________________
Tommy Oddo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . e-mail: tommy_at_oddo.com
Oddo Design - A Marketing Communications Firm for the Information Age
Corporate Headquarters: http://oddo.com/ . . . . .Voice: 713.531.8137
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