Mutimedia on the Internet

Shockwave Flash

2006-12-16T08:37:00.000-08:00

The problem with animated GIFs is that they can quite large for complex animations because each frame of the animations is completely separate image. In contrast, Macromedia’s Shockwave Flash animations don’t take nearly as long to download. Instead of storing an image for each frame, they record information about each moving object and its speed and direction. That information is far more compact than a full image, but does require special software, call Shockwave Flash. For users of the Windows version of Internet Explorer, Macromedia has implemented Shockwave Flash using ActiveX so it will install automatically when you visit the appropriate web page, whereas on the Macintosh, it’s plug-in file that must be downloaded and placed in your Plug-in folder inside the Internet Explorer folder.

Shockwave Flash animations have become quite popular because of their small size and fact that they can stream, which means they start playing as soon as they’ve started downloading. Animations that don’t stream must download fully before they can start playing. You can learn more about Macromedia Flash technology and download the free Shockwave Flash player from

Adobe Flash Player download Center

Animated GIFs

2006-12-10T03:35:00.000-08:00

A little-known feature of the GIF file format provides the simplest form of web apge animations. If someone creates multiple imaes, each slightly different, and saves them into a single GIF file using a speacial program designed for that purpose, most programs that can display a static GIF can display the animated GIF, much as you might have made flipbook animations as a kid. Animated GIFs are genetally set to loop constanylty, which is unfortunate, since I believe they'd have more impact and be less annoying if they looped just once, or at leat put a significant delay between loops. Animated GIFs are limited in the same way static GIFs are. The beauty of animated GIFs is that they require no additional software. Essentially, animated GIFs are simple, cheap, and probably the most common way of publishing an animation on a web page. You can find more information about animated GIFs at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIF
or more Examples of Animated GIF at http://www.gif.com/

Animation

2006-12-10T03:25:00.000-08:00

It only stands to reason that once a web page could display a static graphic that someone would want to display an animated graphic. The only problem with animations is that most web pages still contain a fair amount of text and, and I find it difficult to read while ignoring movement on the page. Unfortunately, you may not be able to avoid animations, although you can always encourage web pages authors to restrict their use to pages without much text.

Several different technologies have appeared over time for creating Web page animations. they vary fairly significantly in software requirements and most have found specific niches.

QuickTime VR

2006-12-10T03:14:00.000-08:00

A third type of graphics that you might see is called Quicktime VR, and is an Apple Technology that works on both Macintosh and Windows. QuickTime VR displays only static images, but offers one of two enhancements. Quicktime VR files can show an object and let you rotate around it in three dimensions, looking at it from every side, or they can display a scenes around you, allowing you to look around in every direction. Essentially, the first type of Quicktime VR graphic lets you walk around an object, whereas the second type lets you stand in a single place and turn around in a circle to see everything.

Quitcktime VR graphics require additional software to display, but you can download the free player from the Apple's web site at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/win.html

Here are some example of QucikTime VR

Hyatt Lobby, San Francisco by Escalator

Hyatt Lobby, San Francisco by lounge

Hyatt Lobby, San Francisco by concierge

From http://www.worldserver.com/turk/quicktimevr/

Introduction

2006-12-10T03:08:00.000-08:00

Multimedia

The web shook up the text-based world of the Internet when it first appeared because web pages can display text in different fonts along with graphics on the same page. That hadn't been possible before, and was a major step for the Internet. However, the Web doesn't stop at fonts and graphics-it also enables people to put sounds, movies, and even actual programs on the Web pages. All these are called Multimedia