You see them a lot on the web. Cars that move across a banner ad. Price tags that jump out at you, over and over again. From words that dance on the page to slide shows that flash faces with changing expressions they just seem to keep coming at you. What are they? Animations, of course. Many of them don't seem good enough to fit the description, perhaps. Besides, aren't animations the things that Walt Disney did, like Bambi? You'd have to have some pretty high-powered computer to be able to do that, wouldn't you? Take another wild guess.
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Many of these so-called animations could have been made with an animation program like GIF Construction Set, which is available for Windows 3.1 for $20 US from Alchemy Mindworks (other Windows platforms are supported also). GIF stands for Graphical Image Format, and the use of animated GIF images is not much more involved than the use of still images for this format. You simply import still images in either GIF or JPG (Joint Photographic [Experts] Group) format, and precede each image with a control block that specifies how long a delay to have before the next image. You can even shift images left and right or up and down to expand the viewing area without increasing the size of the final file. Keep the image files small and don't use too many.
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You build an animation by using "Insert" to insert a "Control" element followed by an "Image". You can test the animation as you build it using "View" in GIF Construction Set. The more frequently you test it the closer you can get to the desired result, because it's difficult to predict the results of many of the changes you make to the delay times and position shifts. Don't by afraid to try things. If the animation is a cyclic one (one that repeats over and over) you can insert a "Loop" element after the header. Surprisingly good is the result when viewed using Internet Explorer 3.0 or 4.0, or Netscape Navigator 4.0. Other browsers just display the first still image of the animation. To make the animation appear part of the web page, use the same colour background for both and use the "remove by background" option in the "Control" elements of your animation. Remember, be creative, and enjoy the process. Upload it with its THN file.
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