P3 – Discuss the advantages and limitations of animated GIFs

Advantages

• GIFs allow transparency. This allows other images to show through or backgrounds. This is good because you can use transparent images rather than having to use green screen or crop the image out.
• GIFs can be interlaced. This means when the image loads it is blurry and a little pixelated, but then it will start loading in better quality. This is good because it loads a lower quality image first so it loads faster on a website. It beneficial for a speedier download.
• GIF uses a lossless compression which means there is no change in quality when it is compressed; this is very beneficial since you can save as a smaller file but it still has good quality.
• GIFs are easier to make and if you want to make an animated image other than a GIF then flash software would be needed, most advertisements use GIFs because they save money.

Limitations

• There are many limitations of GIFs, one of them is that you can only have 256 colours on a GIF. This means they will not be as good quality as other images that can contain much more colours.
• Using GIFs on things such as website can affect the website; this is because it is animation and may take a while to load on a website, especially if you have a lot of GIFs on one page.
• GIFs can only animate in browsers that allow and support GIFs, this can cause trouble for some people that use other browsers.
• Once the GIF has been made and is animated, it is impossible to back and edit it.
• If you want to upload your GIF to a website you have to make sure it is a reasonable size since you do not want a big size on your website, this means the length of your GIF has a limit.

Shockwave

Shockwave is used for 3D graphics since it specializes in 3d graphics. Shockwave has a fast render engine and is also good for streaming videos. A good point about Shockwave is that is was designed to work with director application, this means it can merge more assets into one multimedia product, this is on a larger scale than flash.

Quicktime

Even though quicktime is made by apple it can still be used on windows and mac. This player supports, sound, animations and videos. It also supports other types of media clips. There are other types of quicktime like Quicktime Broadcaster which is used for streaming, and quicktime pro which is used for creating profession films, this is not free whereas Quicktime is free.

Realplayer

Realplayer is supported across a number of platforms, it can support windows media and quicktime formats. Real players has received a lot of complaints about the advertisements and pop ups. A good point is that it solves the problem of different formats needed for quicktime and windows media player. Realplayer does advertise  a free version but you do not get all of the features that you get with the full program.

DHTML

DHTML means Dynamic HTML, it is a type of HTML that is combined with side scripting. This includes coding languages such as JavaScript. CSS and DOM which means Document object model. This can be used to create animations on a webpage without the use of programs such as flash. It allows you to to makes animation such as rollover buttons or drop down menus,. It can also be used to create games! A downside to DHTML is that there can be platform problems and browser problems since some browsers do not support DHTML. The features you had with DHTML you can now do with CSS which means less people now use DHTML. These features can also be created in flash, which means flash websites are now becoming a lot more popular.


Flash

Flash is now very popular since people use it for many things they need like animations and advertisements. It is used in education a lot to teach people animation, it is at the lower end for animation software. Flash is easy to learn since it can be very similar to other adobe software, and since adobe is quite popular there are many tutorials to view for help. This is a big difference to many other animation programs which can be quite difficult to understand and learn.

P5 - Describe the factors that need to be taken into account when creating animations for the web.

Unit 31 - Animation

P5 - Describe the factors that need to be taken into account when creating animations for the web.

Explain how animations are used on web pages (e.g. buttons with rollover effects, adverts)

Animations are used almost all of the time on websites. They are used for all sorts of needs, like buttons. Another use is roll over images, where the image changes when your mouse hovers over the image. When animation is used in buttons it changes when people hover over a button, it also changes when someone clicks it. For example when you hover over a green button it may change to a darker colour trying to give the shadow effect. Animation is also used in adverts that are displayed on websites. These animations vary from a simple advertisement like pictures swapping to different images from full games. Some advertisements create flash games that you can play on a website and when you click it, it will take you to a different website.

http://gimp-tutorials.net/gimp-vista-button


Explain how animations are used in email attachments (or e-cards)

Animation can be used in emails as well as websites. These animations are often used in emails for events or holidays such as valentines day, Christmas or somebody's birthday. The are called e-cards since they are virtual cards. They are used instead of buying a birthday or Christmas card. You can also customize e-cards on certain websites, for example you can edit somebody's head onto an animated body and send it as an e-card. These animated e-cards you may have to pay for , but some website do them for free.

Describe the issues that relate to output devices (third party software)

The designer may come across issues when creating animations for websites since not all devices and software support the right formats. The layout of the website will also change to mobile view when viewing on a smart phone, this also changes on when viewing on a tablet or other browsers. The website will look different of different devices. Testing would have to be done and even redesigning if things do not go to plan.

Describe at least two other factors that need to be considered when producing web animations

When creating animations for the web you need to make sure the file size is not too big since many animations of big file sizes can cause the website to load slowly and it may also cause confusion to the viewer.  The webpage may also look different on other browsers or devices so it is important that the creator makes sure that the files and animations are compatible and the layout still looks fine on other browsers and devices.

P2 - Explain different uses of animation

Abigail Stuart

Advertising

Animation is very popular when it comes to advertising, sometimes posters and leaflets don't quite do it. Animation can be used in adverts for things like the television or the internet. It can be used in all sorts of ways, from actual recording a video to making cartoon animation and editing. Animation helps much more than still pictures when it comes to advertising since it gives the audience a better idea of the product or whatever the advert is for. 

Creative arts

Creative arts is like a hobby for people who love to create animation and art. They will make random animations because they enjoy it, they can share their work via social media websites such as YouTube. People would make creative arts for things like college or education purposes. Some people enjoy making animations hoping to get into a good animation job, for example somebody may want to be part of an animation team, and the only way to get the word out is by uploading their animation to places like YouTube or vines. 

Entertainment

Animation is sued for all sorts of entertainment purposes. Animation is used for things such as Television shows like cartoons, for example Sponge bob  It is also used for series online such as Salad fingers which id featured on YouTube. They are also used for education entertainment, for example a an animation of the water cycle. Animation is also used for entertainment in things like films or trailers. There are plenty of animated films out there such as Final Fantasy 7 advent children, plus trailer animation like the call of duty ghosts adverts which features all kind of animation. 

Another type on animation for entertainment would be simulators in places like arcades where it looks like you are riding a roller coaster or killing zombies and much more. This links to gaming since animation used for all games so they can be playable and interesting, the use different types of software to make the game look more realistic. Take call of duty for example, they record the movements of real life people/animals and replicate it in an animation. 

Education

Animation is used for education purpose like i explained before, it makes things easier to teach or explain to people, such as a water cycle animation. This is called scientific visualisation  Another reason for animation in education is for people that are studying animation, a part of their course may be to do some animation. There are many films out there that are animated but designed to help teach and learn children lessons. One example would be the boy who cried wolf, someone could make an animation for this story so that children visualize it better and understand it easier, it also makes it more enjoyable to learn.

Military Training & Architecture

Animation is used in military training for exercises such as learning how to fly and vehicle training. They use simulators to make it look like you are flying or driving to get you used to it before you try the real thing. This would be very expensive. People that into architecture use animation software to design things and evaluate landmarks/buildings for either education or business. Types or software like this can help design a house.

P1 - explain different types of animation

Define the term “Animation”

Animation is an illusion that makes an image look like it is moving. There are many different ways to make ‘Animation’. Animation is a sequence of still images that are changed a little in the next picture; they are put together one after the other to make it look like the image is moving. Each still image is classed as a frame, the more frames (per second) the more realistic the animation looks. There are all sorts of ways to make animation, like Claymation and flip books.

Two traditional (non-Computer) methods of animation

Animation can be done without computers, one of the first people to discover animation were the Lumiere Brothers. Their names, Aguste and Louis, they were born in France. They used to work in their fathers photographic factory. They designed a camera of their own, they called it a cinematographe. It wasn’t just a camera; it could be used project films that the brothers had taken. They created the first animation/film that was made. It was an animation of workers leaving a factory.

Another way to create animation would be Kinetophones invented by Thomas Edison. This is a film of different images that when turned or moved they looked like it was moving. You would look throw a hole with one eye whilst a turn table turns pictures rapidly so it looks like it is moving.

Computer Animation techniques

There are many computer animation techniques, you can use all sorts of programs like, adobe flash, scratch and even Disney’s free online animation software. These methods can be used to make all sorts of animations, like cartoons or maybe even your own Claymation.  Disneys Free online animation software is a great way to explain or learn about frames, its simple and easy to use and the program does it all for you. It is great for beginners.

Tweening

Tweening is a shortened version of ‘in-betweening’. This is the process of generating another image in between two images to make it appear as the image is moving more fluently and less jittery.This makes the animation look much more smooth and realistic, this is because now it seems there are much more frames that have been added through tweening. Tweening makes the images look like their transaction is more defined and smooth.

Morphing

Morphing is an effect/illusion that making it look like the animation/image is changing into something else, almost like a transition. This is like cross fading in film which you see almost all of the time. This makes it look more realistic and adds a great effect to the animation, it also looks less jittery since it smooth ens the animation out. It is a great way to end a project or animation instead of leaving a still image.

Masking

This is when part of image is covered up so there can be more images on a layer. Just like green screening. The editor blocks out the colour green so the rest is transparent. It allows you to make all sorts of illusions. You can use Masking to cover certain parts out of an animation that you may have messed up on, or maybe to add something into the animation to make it that little bit better.

Frame by frame

Frame by Frame is the motion of frames/pictures being moved at speed to give the illusion of movement. This is achieved as the eye stores a copy of a seen image for a split second, allowing you to see the next image as if it is moving. This is used in every animation which is why you get the term FPS, which means frames per second. The higher the FPS the more realistic and less laggy your animation will be.