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If an animation is well used the page becomes more interesting and attracts attention. Some pages are full of gif animations, java applets and Flashes, since Adobe Image Ready-a, Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Fireworks or countless other shareware tools make them so easy to create.
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Animations don't have to be piled up. Three images that are blinking or moving across the screen irritate the visitor and disturb the reading. They also make the page look amateur.
Gif animations created with too many frames should not be used, since it takes too long for them to open. Three or four frames are usually enough. The duration of the animation loop should be time limited in order to give a visitor an opportunity to read the content in peace.
Unlike gif animations which are simple, Flash animations can be complex and rich.
Many tools (Macromedia Flash, Adobe Live Motion, and for smaller projects even Adobe Illustrator) can save files in swf format, which can include images in vector or raster scan format (bit maps) as well as sound and video.
It is possible to create a complete web page in Flash, use any font and include animations and images in the desired spot. Flash used in the best way emphasizes the message of the page and even provides information that would be hard to convey in any other way.
However, the maintenance of a Flash page takes more time and skill, and manus will not find the internal site pages.
Accessibility of the pages to blind or people with seeing difficulties is another feature that is demanded more and more intensively. Text-reading software cannot read Flash pages for the time being, but this technology is advancing fast.
Some of the pages where you can find more about Flash are:
Macromedia
Flashkit
Ultrashock.
Animated examples in web-based textbooks can show phenomena impossible to show in classic, printed textbooks.
For example, the functioning of human organs, the orbiting of space objects, the impact the angle and speed have on a free throw in basketball, intermolecular interactions, the laws of physics, the drawing of an ellipsis, economical principles or the pronunciation of Spanish.
