The advantages and limitations of animated GIF’s

The advantages and limitations of animated GIF’s

DHTML (Dynamic HTML) is standard HTML combined with scripting such as JavaScript and CSS. DHTML can be used to create animation among a webpage, often operational rather than aesthetic such as a rollover button and/or a menu, and can also be used to make simple browser based games. There is a problem with DHTML though due to the way browsers view web languages, and there were communication issues between users using different browsers such as Firefox. DHTML is made in Flash, which is currently the biggest and most common format among the internet. 

Flash is the virtual machine that runs animations among a browser, it allows users to create animation frame by frame including scripting. The user can use both audio and video in this format and can make various animations among the web, whether it be for entertainment purposes or for just functional purposes. It is often used a lot in advertising, often in banners which have an interactive element. Lower end animation is often made in Flash and is seen as the industry standard. 

Shockwave is another format for animation and specializes in 3D graphics and streaming and has a much faster rendering than that of Flash. Shockwave can handle multiple different types of assets in one project on a larger scale than Flash. 

QuickTime, a program by Apple, runs on both platforms, Mac and Windows. It is a multimedia player which displays all animation, sound, videos. There are also variants of this such as QuickTime Broadcaster which allows the user to present videos live and the pro version which allows for creating movies. 

RealPlayer is another cross platform multimedia player that supports other media player formats. A big solution to format issues among media players, but still has its issues. RealPlayer shows adverts and even popup messages during use, forcing the user into buying the full premium account if they want to get rid of these annoyances. RealPlayer is used on the BBC website for pod-casts as a sort of 'listen again' service.

The advantages of GIF's over other file formats for things such as animation are such things as: when converting a collection of images into GIF format, the conversion is lossless and the quality does not degrade; Being that it is only 256 colours the file format is usually a small file size and often a good choice for small animations; GIF's support transparent backgrounds, as such you can play an animation over whatever background you would like; it also has very good integration to online documents, being very compatible if you would like to include it in any webpage.

The disadvantages of GIF's over other file formats for things such as animation are such things as: a GIF is the less preferred choice say if you would like to make a detailed or long animation with a wider colour palette; colours within a GIF often appear blocky and pixelated, and not as clear as other file types so is less preferred for bigger, more colourful projects; dithering reduces the amount that the file size can be compressed, which is a big downside considering dithering is a nice feature in removing pixilation.

GIF’s are limited to specific things due to them being small in file size and usually only for short animations. They only use a specific amount of colours, this lack of colours make GIF’s less detailed as say such things as flash animations. Size is also an issue when using GIF’s, GIF’s are usually limited to a small size due to enhancing them causes heavy pixilation. Like I said, GIF’s are limited to a small length, only being able to show a small clip compared to a bigger animation project.