Upsurging Flash Animations
By
[http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Rakhee_Chowdhary]Rakhee Chowdhary
Flash animations are protruding because of their myriad
characteristics in this coeval age. Flash is splashing all
around and the timeless saying “A picture is worth a
thousand words” aptly describes how large amount of data
can be absorbed quickly, imbibe our mind.
Flash animation is created using Adobe flash animation
software and is distributed in .swf (Shockwave Flash)
format, other formats are .as (ActionScript), .flv (Flash
Video). Flash animations have nowadays become best way
to showcase overview of an enterprise. Web flash
animations are often created in series and well known by
different names; bitmaps, raster-based art, vector based
drawings, videos can be easily incorporated with these flash
animations for more clear graphics. You can find numerous
flash generator, image manipulator, menu creator on the
web. You tube,
We find Macromedia Flash is a pioneering vector
technology for designing high-end-high-impact,
low-bandwidth websites that for enticing and retention of
visitors; providing a richer, more compelling web
experience. You don’t need to install or download player,
just drag the file to your browser and it runs, these flash
animations are very attractive and interactive and help a lot
in website brand campaigning.
Adobe Flex, is the latest upsurging flash animation; it is an
IDE and SDK that supports development and deployment
of cross platform for technologies based on proprietary
Macromedia Flash platform. Flex Data Services 2 provides
Enterprise-oriented services through data synchronization,
data push, publish-subscribe and automated testing. Adobe
Flex 3 is the beta version that supports Adobe Application
Runtime and includes Creative Suite products and Flex
Builder IDE.
There is good news for SEO executives working over flash
websites!! Previously it was almost impossible to get flash
websites indexed in the search engines, but now as adobe
as incorporated Adobe SDK capable of converting .swf to
html making the site fully search engine friendly, it is helping
SEO’s to gain rankings for the same with much more ease.
Presently google has also deployed a new fix over its
algorithm via which its crawler (googlebot) is capable of
indexing partly content of flash driven websites.
[http://www.icreon.com/]Icreon offers
[http://www.icreon.com/multimedia_flashwebsite.shtml]Multimedia presentation India Interactive multimedia, flash
website design and development.
Rakhi, is a experienced SEO content writer at Icreon
Communications Pvt. Ltd.
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rakhee_Chowdhary
http://EzineArticles.com/?Upsurging-Flash-Animations&id=672823
Monday, September 17, 2007
Friday, September 14, 2007
Illusion Technologies: Animation
Website Decisions IV - Animations
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Dustin_Schwerman]Dustin Schwerman
From Flash to animated gifs to javascript, there are a variety of ways to add animations to a website. Moving graphics can be a helpful addition, but should be used with a degree of care. As with all options, used properly, animations can improve the visitor’s experience and augment your message. Used improperly, however, and animations can distract, annoy, and delay the viewer.
The first rule for using animation is to make sure it doesn’t hinder the user. Having balloons float around the web page might look cool and provide a festive feel, but it also threatens to get in the way as the user tries to read your page’s content. Big flashing changing images can attract the eye, but can also distract it from the point you are trying to make.
Introductory animations are especially prone this sort of problem. Although these openings may be attention-grabbers the first time someone visits, they quickly grow boring, even annoying, after a few replays. Bypassing links can be useful for minimizing this effect, but the problems with such introductions do not end there. People are impatient; when they come to your site from the search engine, they want to be provided instantly with the information they are searching for. These sorts of introductions, thus, are excellent for sites whose primary function is to entertain. Informative sites, which may very well include sites that exist to inform about products, receive limited benefit from these additions.
You should also consider your SEO when considering animations. A web page that only contains a Flash intro has no content, which greatly limits SEO. If it is the main page to your site, the search engines will see that your main page has no keywords. Better optimized pages will rank higher, and at that point, the introduction isn’t useful at all.
This is not to say that animation is a bad thing to add to a site. However, it is a tool, one of many tools available to a skilled web designer. As with any option, using it solely for the sake of using it is never a viable option.
So how do you use animations? Ideally, you want to utilize them where they can be entertaining and attractive without drawing attention away from main content. Button links, of course, are classic places. Although these animations are subtle, they can improve the user’s experience by augmenting the appearance of interactivity. If there are circumstances where your website is loading other content, a brief animation can distract the user from the delay. A scrolling set of links can allow you to display more options in a limited amount of space. And, naturally, you can use animation to attract attention to sections of the page that you want the viewer to notice.
What it comes down to is that movement draws attention. The goal is to draw attention towards key parts of your website. Used in that manner, and animations can help direct the user to the places and pages you want them to view. If you simply animate things to see them move, you will only draw the eyes away from the more important parts of your site.
Copyright © 2007 Dustin Schwerman.
Dustin Schwerman is the primary web designer at [http://www.trulyuniqueweb.com]Truly Unique--Affordable Custom Website Design. Truly Unique specializes in impressive, custom sites designed to capture the essence of the businesses they represent, as well as creating useful web-based programs to improve and simplify some of the tasks of running a business. Their goal is to provide these services at affordable, pragmatic rates based on effort involved, rather than arbitrary costs based on number of pages or hours.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dustin_Schwerman http://EzineArticles.com/?Website-Decisions-IV---Animations&id=704593
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Dustin_Schwerman]Dustin Schwerman
From Flash to animated gifs to javascript, there are a variety of ways to add animations to a website. Moving graphics can be a helpful addition, but should be used with a degree of care. As with all options, used properly, animations can improve the visitor’s experience and augment your message. Used improperly, however, and animations can distract, annoy, and delay the viewer.
The first rule for using animation is to make sure it doesn’t hinder the user. Having balloons float around the web page might look cool and provide a festive feel, but it also threatens to get in the way as the user tries to read your page’s content. Big flashing changing images can attract the eye, but can also distract it from the point you are trying to make.
Introductory animations are especially prone this sort of problem. Although these openings may be attention-grabbers the first time someone visits, they quickly grow boring, even annoying, after a few replays. Bypassing links can be useful for minimizing this effect, but the problems with such introductions do not end there. People are impatient; when they come to your site from the search engine, they want to be provided instantly with the information they are searching for. These sorts of introductions, thus, are excellent for sites whose primary function is to entertain. Informative sites, which may very well include sites that exist to inform about products, receive limited benefit from these additions.
You should also consider your SEO when considering animations. A web page that only contains a Flash intro has no content, which greatly limits SEO. If it is the main page to your site, the search engines will see that your main page has no keywords. Better optimized pages will rank higher, and at that point, the introduction isn’t useful at all.
This is not to say that animation is a bad thing to add to a site. However, it is a tool, one of many tools available to a skilled web designer. As with any option, using it solely for the sake of using it is never a viable option.
So how do you use animations? Ideally, you want to utilize them where they can be entertaining and attractive without drawing attention away from main content. Button links, of course, are classic places. Although these animations are subtle, they can improve the user’s experience by augmenting the appearance of interactivity. If there are circumstances where your website is loading other content, a brief animation can distract the user from the delay. A scrolling set of links can allow you to display more options in a limited amount of space. And, naturally, you can use animation to attract attention to sections of the page that you want the viewer to notice.
What it comes down to is that movement draws attention. The goal is to draw attention towards key parts of your website. Used in that manner, and animations can help direct the user to the places and pages you want them to view. If you simply animate things to see them move, you will only draw the eyes away from the more important parts of your site.
Copyright © 2007 Dustin Schwerman.
Dustin Schwerman is the primary web designer at [http://www.trulyuniqueweb.com]Truly Unique--Affordable Custom Website Design. Truly Unique specializes in impressive, custom sites designed to capture the essence of the businesses they represent, as well as creating useful web-based programs to improve and simplify some of the tasks of running a business. Their goal is to provide these services at affordable, pragmatic rates based on effort involved, rather than arbitrary costs based on number of pages or hours.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dustin_Schwerman http://EzineArticles.com/?Website-Decisions-IV---Animations&id=704593
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Illusion Technologies: Animation
The Favicon, an Untapped Image Promotion Trick -
Animated Favicons?
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Andrei_Smith]Andrei
Smith
A favicon is that little image that most browsers display on
the address line and in the favorites (bookmarks) menu.
Tabbed browsers like Firefox and Opera extend the
functionality of favicons, adding them to their tabs. The
name was coined based on Internet Explorer (the first
browser to support it) and derives from "Favorites Icon".
Each web browser has a unique user interface, and as a
result uses the favicon in different ways. The favicon allows
a company to further promote its identity and image by
displaying a logo, a graphical message, etc. Often, the
favicon reflects the look and feel of the web site or the
organization's logo.
A traditional favicon is actually a Microsoft Windows ICO
file. An ICO file is actually a repository of bitmap like
images. They are used because in some locations a 16x16
pixel image is desired, and sometimes a 32x32 image may
be needed. Sometimes a 16 color image is desired, and
sometimes a 256 color icon is desired.
You probably already knew all of the above.
But did you know that Firefox can display animated
favicons? If you don't believe me, open Firefox and go to
my site, bsleek.com (there should be a link at the bottom of
the article). if you don't have Firefox, download it, it's a
"must have" and you will quickly fall in love with the
simplicity and convenience of tabbed browsing. Even if you
are not a designer but just a site owner, in today's
environment you absolutely must know how your site looks
in all browsers. You would think that all websites should
look the same, but as browsers become more diverse and
more sophisticated, standards are not respected and things
can get messy. For example, I just discovered that a few
pages on my site don't look as expected in the latest version
of Opera and need to be adjusted.
Ok, I hope by now you saw my animated favicon in Firefox
and came back to the article to learn more about it...
The main reason why you can see animated favicons in
Firefox is because Firefox abolished the proprietary ICO
format in favor of the ability to display any supported image
format in the favicon location, including BMP, JPG, GIF,
PNG and... animated GIFs.
So now you know the big secret, the animated favicon is
nothing but a tiny animated GIF.
Here's a very neat trick, that can actually be used to
visualize how any image looks like as a 16x16 pixel icon -
once you start designing one of those, you will realize that it
is extremely hard to produce a legible image on a 16 square
pixels canvas:
Find any page with any graphic that you are interested in.
Right click the image and chose "View Image" from the
dialog. A blank page should display with your chosen image
and surprise: you can see a miniature 16x16 copy of the
image as a favicon! Uhh... do I have to mention again that
we are doing all this in Firefox?
A hacker's mind will immediately think of how great it
would be to use this feature as a conversion tool.
Unfortunately, unlike Internet Explorer and Opera, Firefox
doesn't store FavIcons in .ico files, the icons are stored in
an encoded format directly in the bookmark file.
You can apply the same principle to animated GIFs and you
will notice that a miniature version of the animation also
plays in the address bar and on the tabs.
Perhaps one of the main reasons why you don't see that
many sites using animations is browser compatibility.
Animated favicons are not treated at all by Internet
Explorer. A static image will not be extracted from the
animation either. Instead, the default .htm icon (as defined in
Windows' filetypes) will be placed under one's Favorites -
once added, that is. The animations are not supported by
Netscape, Opera, Konqueror, Safari; at least so it seems at
the time of this writing. The Firefox family seems to be the
only friend to animations, yet as browsers evolve, broader
support for animation will probably come along (or, the
concept will die).
So, why not take advantage of this *now* and 'beat the
rush'?
Basically, this is how it's done:
1. You make a 16x16 animated GIF.
2. You upload the animated GIF to the "root" of your site,
or to any other location.
3. You hardcode in your page the location where Firefox
should look for the animation.
That's really it, "big picture" wise.
If you don't feel too creative or just don't have time and/or
patience, a reputable professional design firm (such as
Bsleek) should be able to make a nice animated favicon for
you. Another option - I don't endorse it, as your goal should
be to excel through unique content and push your own
image out there - is to find one of the many galleries online
and either download a ready made animated favicon or take
a large animated GIF and resize it and/or edit it in one of the
many available tools. There also are sites that offer online
animated favicon creation from a standard image (check out
chami.com, find "FavIcon from pics", they have a simple but
neat scrolling text feature).
If you are however a fellow do-it-yourselfer, then let's
elaborate and look at some techniques and useful tips:
As far as tools go: If you are a lucky owner of Adobe's
excellent Photoshop, then you also have a companion
application called ImageReady. Linux users have Gimp, an
incredibly powerful and free graphics application that can
easily handle animated GIF creation. What many people
don't know is that Gimp is also available for free for
Windows and the Mac. There is also GIMPShop in the
wild, which is a nifty GIMP version for the
photoshop-inclined audience (did I mention free?). There
are also many specialized GIF animation makers, some
freeware, some not.
Things to remember when designing animated favicons:
You have control over the number of times your animation
will play. Any decent animated GIF editor will ask you
whether you want your animation to play once, several
times (you specify a number) or forever. It is also important
to know that after the animation cycled the predetermined
amount of time, it will remain still on the last frame (not the
first one!), so make sure that frame contains the image you
want displayed at the end of the cycle.
If you really need to, you can set it to loop continuously.
However, out of curtsey to those paranoid about their
computer resources being eaten alive by your animation and
to those who find animated things in general terribly
annoying, I always recommend that you set up a finite
number of times your GIF will cycle through the animated
sequence. 6 sounds like a good, conservative number, 12 is
on the medium side.
By limiting the number of times your GIF plays, you might
even set a cool viral marketing effect, where visitors will just
click through your pages to see the animation start over. I
clearly remember when I first saw an animated favicon
years ago (on the first iterations of the Mozilla browser), the
animation was set up to cycle once, and I found myself
refreshing the pages over and over, and even clicking
through the site just to see it again and again. I don't care
what anyone says, people are attracted to eye candy.
So you made your animation and are very proud of it. Now
it is time to upload it to your web server. You can put it
anywhere you want, in any folder you desire. The old
school webmasters who follow Microsoft's teachings will be
very much appalled by this statement. They will tell you that
if you don't name your icon favicon.ico and if you don't put
in the very root of your site, it will not work. With Firefox
and animated favicons things are very liberal, you can name
your animation anything you want (.gif) and place it
anywhere you want. You just have to place a special tag on
every page that points to the gif.
Here is the big problem: All this works fine in Firefox, but
what about the rest of the browsers?
Well, for maximum compatibility you'll have to make a
regular favicon.ico and upload it to the root of your website
(that's where your very first index.xxx home page is, where
xxx is htm, html, php, cfm, etc..). Then we'll add the
following two lines of code to every page that you want to
pull and display the animation.
Please remember to replace the "{" and "}" brackets with
the standard HTML ones, "". I had to use the curly ones
here in order not to confuse article sites. The code has to be
placed between the {HEAD} tag and the {TITLE} tags. It
might possibly work otherwise, but your HTML code will
not be fully W3C compliant:
{LINK REL="SHORTCUT ICON"
HREF="http://www.mydomain.com/favicon.ico"}
{LINK REL="icon"
HREF="http://www.mydomain.com/favicon.gif"
TYPE="image/gif"}
Of course, replace "mydomain.com" with your own domain,
favicon.ico is a standard favicon, favicon.gif is your newly
created animated GIF. Again, it can as well be
mydomain.com/somefolder/somename.gif.
Always hardcode the location, use absolute addresses (as in
the example) and not relative ones ("../favicon.gif").
The first line of code is a standard, a-la Microsoft command
that tells the majority of browsers to load a standard
favicon.ico.
The second line of code is for Firefox only, instructing the
browser to load the animated version.
As a side note, if you forgot to add the two lines of code to
a page, that page should pick the default favicon.ico, but
only if you already loaded it via one page that had the code
in it, or if the page was bookmarked. Additionally,
sometimes, Internet Explorer will just refuse to show a
favicon...
If the above sounds strange (if it doesn't, what are you
doing reading my articles??), I talk about how to create a
favicon.ico and about some of the favicon's stranger
behaviors in my other related articles. Just Google for "The
Favicon, an untapped image promotion trick" (with quotes).
One last thing: I feel that this article will not be complete if I
don't support those folks who look at the animated favicons
the same way the world looks at the text blink "feature"
from the early nineties and would like to forever wipe it of
the face of the web.
You can disable favicons - animated or not & site icons in
Firefox. Here's how:
Open a Firefox window. Type "about:config", without the
quotes, in the address bar. Hit enter or click Go. Scroll
down slightly to "browser.chrome.favicons" and double
click it to change it to "false". This gets rid of the favicons. If
you also want to stop seeing site icons, then look right
below for "browser.chrome.site_icons", double click it to
change it to "false". Close all Firefox windows. When you
reopen Firefox, the pesky little icons should be gone.
---
Andrei co-owns [http://www.bsleek.com/promo]Bsleek - a
company that specializes in web design, hosting,
promotional items, printing, tradeshow displays, logos, CD
presentations, SEO and more. Andrei has amassed an
extensive technical knowledge and experience through his
career as the CIO for a major travel management company
and through his past careers in military research, data
acquisition and airspace engineering. He also consults for
[http:/www.trinityinvestigations.com]Trinity Investigations, a
New York based PI firm.
--- [http://www.bsleek.com/websites/]Bsleek Web Design
- If we build it, they will come.
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrei_Smith
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Favicon,-an-Untapped-Image-Promotion-Trick---Animated-Favicons?&id=153883
Animated Favicons?
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Andrei_Smith]Andrei
Smith
A favicon is that little image that most browsers display on
the address line and in the favorites (bookmarks) menu.
Tabbed browsers like Firefox and Opera extend the
functionality of favicons, adding them to their tabs. The
name was coined based on Internet Explorer (the first
browser to support it) and derives from "Favorites Icon".
Each web browser has a unique user interface, and as a
result uses the favicon in different ways. The favicon allows
a company to further promote its identity and image by
displaying a logo, a graphical message, etc. Often, the
favicon reflects the look and feel of the web site or the
organization's logo.
A traditional favicon is actually a Microsoft Windows ICO
file. An ICO file is actually a repository of bitmap like
images. They are used because in some locations a 16x16
pixel image is desired, and sometimes a 32x32 image may
be needed. Sometimes a 16 color image is desired, and
sometimes a 256 color icon is desired.
You probably already knew all of the above.
But did you know that Firefox can display animated
favicons? If you don't believe me, open Firefox and go to
my site, bsleek.com (there should be a link at the bottom of
the article). if you don't have Firefox, download it, it's a
"must have" and you will quickly fall in love with the
simplicity and convenience of tabbed browsing. Even if you
are not a designer but just a site owner, in today's
environment you absolutely must know how your site looks
in all browsers. You would think that all websites should
look the same, but as browsers become more diverse and
more sophisticated, standards are not respected and things
can get messy. For example, I just discovered that a few
pages on my site don't look as expected in the latest version
of Opera and need to be adjusted.
Ok, I hope by now you saw my animated favicon in Firefox
and came back to the article to learn more about it...
The main reason why you can see animated favicons in
Firefox is because Firefox abolished the proprietary ICO
format in favor of the ability to display any supported image
format in the favicon location, including BMP, JPG, GIF,
PNG and... animated GIFs.
So now you know the big secret, the animated favicon is
nothing but a tiny animated GIF.
Here's a very neat trick, that can actually be used to
visualize how any image looks like as a 16x16 pixel icon -
once you start designing one of those, you will realize that it
is extremely hard to produce a legible image on a 16 square
pixels canvas:
Find any page with any graphic that you are interested in.
Right click the image and chose "View Image" from the
dialog. A blank page should display with your chosen image
and surprise: you can see a miniature 16x16 copy of the
image as a favicon! Uhh... do I have to mention again that
we are doing all this in Firefox?
A hacker's mind will immediately think of how great it
would be to use this feature as a conversion tool.
Unfortunately, unlike Internet Explorer and Opera, Firefox
doesn't store FavIcons in .ico files, the icons are stored in
an encoded format directly in the bookmark file.
You can apply the same principle to animated GIFs and you
will notice that a miniature version of the animation also
plays in the address bar and on the tabs.
Perhaps one of the main reasons why you don't see that
many sites using animations is browser compatibility.
Animated favicons are not treated at all by Internet
Explorer. A static image will not be extracted from the
animation either. Instead, the default .htm icon (as defined in
Windows' filetypes) will be placed under one's Favorites -
once added, that is. The animations are not supported by
Netscape, Opera, Konqueror, Safari; at least so it seems at
the time of this writing. The Firefox family seems to be the
only friend to animations, yet as browsers evolve, broader
support for animation will probably come along (or, the
concept will die).
So, why not take advantage of this *now* and 'beat the
rush'?
Basically, this is how it's done:
1. You make a 16x16 animated GIF.
2. You upload the animated GIF to the "root" of your site,
or to any other location.
3. You hardcode in your page the location where Firefox
should look for the animation.
That's really it, "big picture" wise.
If you don't feel too creative or just don't have time and/or
patience, a reputable professional design firm (such as
Bsleek) should be able to make a nice animated favicon for
you. Another option - I don't endorse it, as your goal should
be to excel through unique content and push your own
image out there - is to find one of the many galleries online
and either download a ready made animated favicon or take
a large animated GIF and resize it and/or edit it in one of the
many available tools. There also are sites that offer online
animated favicon creation from a standard image (check out
chami.com, find "FavIcon from pics", they have a simple but
neat scrolling text feature).
If you are however a fellow do-it-yourselfer, then let's
elaborate and look at some techniques and useful tips:
As far as tools go: If you are a lucky owner of Adobe's
excellent Photoshop, then you also have a companion
application called ImageReady. Linux users have Gimp, an
incredibly powerful and free graphics application that can
easily handle animated GIF creation. What many people
don't know is that Gimp is also available for free for
Windows and the Mac. There is also GIMPShop in the
wild, which is a nifty GIMP version for the
photoshop-inclined audience (did I mention free?). There
are also many specialized GIF animation makers, some
freeware, some not.
Things to remember when designing animated favicons:
You have control over the number of times your animation
will play. Any decent animated GIF editor will ask you
whether you want your animation to play once, several
times (you specify a number) or forever. It is also important
to know that after the animation cycled the predetermined
amount of time, it will remain still on the last frame (not the
first one!), so make sure that frame contains the image you
want displayed at the end of the cycle.
If you really need to, you can set it to loop continuously.
However, out of curtsey to those paranoid about their
computer resources being eaten alive by your animation and
to those who find animated things in general terribly
annoying, I always recommend that you set up a finite
number of times your GIF will cycle through the animated
sequence. 6 sounds like a good, conservative number, 12 is
on the medium side.
By limiting the number of times your GIF plays, you might
even set a cool viral marketing effect, where visitors will just
click through your pages to see the animation start over. I
clearly remember when I first saw an animated favicon
years ago (on the first iterations of the Mozilla browser), the
animation was set up to cycle once, and I found myself
refreshing the pages over and over, and even clicking
through the site just to see it again and again. I don't care
what anyone says, people are attracted to eye candy.
So you made your animation and are very proud of it. Now
it is time to upload it to your web server. You can put it
anywhere you want, in any folder you desire. The old
school webmasters who follow Microsoft's teachings will be
very much appalled by this statement. They will tell you that
if you don't name your icon favicon.ico and if you don't put
in the very root of your site, it will not work. With Firefox
and animated favicons things are very liberal, you can name
your animation anything you want (.gif) and place it
anywhere you want. You just have to place a special tag on
every page that points to the gif.
Here is the big problem: All this works fine in Firefox, but
what about the rest of the browsers?
Well, for maximum compatibility you'll have to make a
regular favicon.ico and upload it to the root of your website
(that's where your very first index.xxx home page is, where
xxx is htm, html, php, cfm, etc..). Then we'll add the
following two lines of code to every page that you want to
pull and display the animation.
Please remember to replace the "{" and "}" brackets with
the standard HTML ones, "". I had to use the curly ones
here in order not to confuse article sites. The code has to be
placed between the {HEAD} tag and the {TITLE} tags. It
might possibly work otherwise, but your HTML code will
not be fully W3C compliant:
{LINK REL="SHORTCUT ICON"
HREF="http://www.mydomain.com/favicon.ico"}
{LINK REL="icon"
HREF="http://www.mydomain.com/favicon.gif"
TYPE="image/gif"}
Of course, replace "mydomain.com" with your own domain,
favicon.ico is a standard favicon, favicon.gif is your newly
created animated GIF. Again, it can as well be
mydomain.com/somefolder/somename.gif.
Always hardcode the location, use absolute addresses (as in
the example) and not relative ones ("../favicon.gif").
The first line of code is a standard, a-la Microsoft command
that tells the majority of browsers to load a standard
favicon.ico.
The second line of code is for Firefox only, instructing the
browser to load the animated version.
As a side note, if you forgot to add the two lines of code to
a page, that page should pick the default favicon.ico, but
only if you already loaded it via one page that had the code
in it, or if the page was bookmarked. Additionally,
sometimes, Internet Explorer will just refuse to show a
favicon...
If the above sounds strange (if it doesn't, what are you
doing reading my articles??), I talk about how to create a
favicon.ico and about some of the favicon's stranger
behaviors in my other related articles. Just Google for "The
Favicon, an untapped image promotion trick" (with quotes).
One last thing: I feel that this article will not be complete if I
don't support those folks who look at the animated favicons
the same way the world looks at the text blink "feature"
from the early nineties and would like to forever wipe it of
the face of the web.
You can disable favicons - animated or not & site icons in
Firefox. Here's how:
Open a Firefox window. Type "about:config", without the
quotes, in the address bar. Hit enter or click Go. Scroll
down slightly to "browser.chrome.favicons" and double
click it to change it to "false". This gets rid of the favicons. If
you also want to stop seeing site icons, then look right
below for "browser.chrome.site_icons", double click it to
change it to "false". Close all Firefox windows. When you
reopen Firefox, the pesky little icons should be gone.
---
Andrei co-owns [http://www.bsleek.com/promo]Bsleek - a
company that specializes in web design, hosting,
promotional items, printing, tradeshow displays, logos, CD
presentations, SEO and more. Andrei has amassed an
extensive technical knowledge and experience through his
career as the CIO for a major travel management company
and through his past careers in military research, data
acquisition and airspace engineering. He also consults for
[http:/www.trinityinvestigations.com]Trinity Investigations, a
New York based PI firm.
--- [http://www.bsleek.com/websites/]Bsleek Web Design
- If we build it, they will come.
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrei_Smith
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Favicon,-an-Untapped-Image-Promotion-Trick---Animated-Favicons?&id=153883
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Illusion Technologies: Animation
Forensic Animation
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Sarah_Freeland]Sarah Freeland
Forensic animation is a newer legal tool used in just about every type of legal suit imaginable. In murder cases forensic animation can be used to recreate a forensic crime scene. In car accident cases this legal video tool can be used to recreate the accident and to determine who was at fault. However, while this technology is very effective, before it can be used as evidence it needs to be evaluated by the court for its admissibility.
The admissibility of forensic animation depends on several factors. First of all the court is going to look at how objective the animation is. They are going to look for significant biasing of the animated footage, which can give one side an unjust advantage. Next the court is going to look at the data used in creating the animation. The data used must be verifiable and it must be supported by witness testimony or authoritative facts. Finally, the forensic animation must be easy to understand and be relevant to the case at hand.
Forensic animation, while intriguing and helpful, is not right for every type of case. It is expensive and it takes time to generate. For most average forensic animation presentations under 3 minute, you should expect a turn around time of between 1 and 3 months. You should also expect to pay $6,000 plus for a piece of forensic animation. The actual cost that you will incur is going to depend on how long the piece needs to be, the complexity of the animation used, how soon you need the piece by and what forensic animation company you use.
The cost of forensic animation mostly goes towards the labor costs. In fact, labor is going to make up about three quarters of the total cost of your animation presentation. Some of the labor costs that your project will incur include: consulting, model generation, camera animation and actor animation. Again the actual costs that you will be charged are going to depend greatly on the complexity of the animation that needs to be generated and the company that you work with.
A [http://www.legalvideographer.info/what_is_legal_videographer.html]legal videographer is a video production specialist who is skilled at producing video evidence for legal cases. The services offered by this type of video specialist is in high demand and it pays a very generous salary. Being a [http://www.legalvideographer.info/digital_videographer.html]professional digital videographer takes more than just knowledge of how to use a digital camcorder. It takes expertise in a variety of business, creative and technical subjects. There are a lot of [http://www.legalvideographer.info/videography_tools_accessories.html]videography equipment that videographers need including: cameras, tripods, editing software, video monitors, cases, lenses and mixing devices.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sarah_Freeland http://EzineArticles.com/?Forensic-Animation&id=702656
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Sarah_Freeland]Sarah Freeland
Forensic animation is a newer legal tool used in just about every type of legal suit imaginable. In murder cases forensic animation can be used to recreate a forensic crime scene. In car accident cases this legal video tool can be used to recreate the accident and to determine who was at fault. However, while this technology is very effective, before it can be used as evidence it needs to be evaluated by the court for its admissibility.
The admissibility of forensic animation depends on several factors. First of all the court is going to look at how objective the animation is. They are going to look for significant biasing of the animated footage, which can give one side an unjust advantage. Next the court is going to look at the data used in creating the animation. The data used must be verifiable and it must be supported by witness testimony or authoritative facts. Finally, the forensic animation must be easy to understand and be relevant to the case at hand.
Forensic animation, while intriguing and helpful, is not right for every type of case. It is expensive and it takes time to generate. For most average forensic animation presentations under 3 minute, you should expect a turn around time of between 1 and 3 months. You should also expect to pay $6,000 plus for a piece of forensic animation. The actual cost that you will incur is going to depend on how long the piece needs to be, the complexity of the animation used, how soon you need the piece by and what forensic animation company you use.
The cost of forensic animation mostly goes towards the labor costs. In fact, labor is going to make up about three quarters of the total cost of your animation presentation. Some of the labor costs that your project will incur include: consulting, model generation, camera animation and actor animation. Again the actual costs that you will be charged are going to depend greatly on the complexity of the animation that needs to be generated and the company that you work with.
A [http://www.legalvideographer.info/what_is_legal_videographer.html]legal videographer is a video production specialist who is skilled at producing video evidence for legal cases. The services offered by this type of video specialist is in high demand and it pays a very generous salary. Being a [http://www.legalvideographer.info/digital_videographer.html]professional digital videographer takes more than just knowledge of how to use a digital camcorder. It takes expertise in a variety of business, creative and technical subjects. There are a lot of [http://www.legalvideographer.info/videography_tools_accessories.html]videography equipment that videographers need including: cameras, tripods, editing software, video monitors, cases, lenses and mixing devices.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sarah_Freeland http://EzineArticles.com/?Forensic-Animation&id=702656
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Illusion Technologies: Animation
Tips for Creating an Effective Banner Ad Campaign
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Matt_Bacak]Matt Bacak
Just how true a saying is that? Whether in the wheat fields of Georgia or at home on the Internet, a good idea will generate good income. Such is true of banner advertising.
To begin, you will want to define goals for your campaign. Ask yourself the following questions: What do I wish to accomplish using this campaign? What step do I want online users to take when they first see my ad? Once you have defined your answers, it is time to develop your advertising message.
Here are some proven ideas that you can adopt to create an effective banner ad campaign:
1) Study some of the best online. Refer back to some of the best banner ads that you have seen previously. Take a look at MSN.com and look at the various banner ads. Identify at least three banner ads that catch your attention best. What is the common ground in the three ads? This will enable you to identify what techniques are most effective, as well as what design style attracts you best.
2) Send a clear message in graphic design. Your main goal is to have people take a particular action after viewing your ad. You want to present a strong, clear message to capture interest. Present your primary message as the strongest visual element in your ad.
3) Use seven words or less. This works best for a small visual space. Use fewer words and make the font size bigger. This delivers better impact. Remember that less is more in this case.
4) Think power words. Words like free, outstanding, secret, awesome, affordable and endearing - these all deliver a terrific message. You want to grab attention as quickly as possible.
5) Go easy on animation. You want the animation to draw the eye without offending the viewer in any way. Be subtle when in doubt. For the animation speed, look for something that changes at a slow to moderate pace. Consider setting your animations so that they stop after three cycles; some sites may insist on this.
As you create your design, remember that you will make a stronger impact with less cluttered messages. Go light on the number of elements, the colors, fonts, graphics and words that you use in your ad. You want to bring across a strong primary message.
You will make a favorable impression with your banner advertising if you pay careful attention to detail. Less is more, be subtle in animation and use clever wording for best impact. Prospects will act quickly and be impressed with your creatively designed banner advertising.
Matt Bacak, Entrepreneur Magazine e-Biz radio show host became a "#1 Best Selling Author" in just a few short hours and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to Retire From Your Job This Year and Still Make More Money Than the Average Medical Doctor... You Can Do It
Once You Know the Proven Steps Outlined here! ==> http://www.internetmillionairemind.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Matt_Bacak http://EzineArticles.com/?Tips-for-Creating-an-Effective-Banner-Ad-Campaign&id=163893
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Matt_Bacak]Matt Bacak
Just how true a saying is that? Whether in the wheat fields of Georgia or at home on the Internet, a good idea will generate good income. Such is true of banner advertising.
To begin, you will want to define goals for your campaign. Ask yourself the following questions: What do I wish to accomplish using this campaign? What step do I want online users to take when they first see my ad? Once you have defined your answers, it is time to develop your advertising message.
Here are some proven ideas that you can adopt to create an effective banner ad campaign:
1) Study some of the best online. Refer back to some of the best banner ads that you have seen previously. Take a look at MSN.com and look at the various banner ads. Identify at least three banner ads that catch your attention best. What is the common ground in the three ads? This will enable you to identify what techniques are most effective, as well as what design style attracts you best.
2) Send a clear message in graphic design. Your main goal is to have people take a particular action after viewing your ad. You want to present a strong, clear message to capture interest. Present your primary message as the strongest visual element in your ad.
3) Use seven words or less. This works best for a small visual space. Use fewer words and make the font size bigger. This delivers better impact. Remember that less is more in this case.
4) Think power words. Words like free, outstanding, secret, awesome, affordable and endearing - these all deliver a terrific message. You want to grab attention as quickly as possible.
5) Go easy on animation. You want the animation to draw the eye without offending the viewer in any way. Be subtle when in doubt. For the animation speed, look for something that changes at a slow to moderate pace. Consider setting your animations so that they stop after three cycles; some sites may insist on this.
As you create your design, remember that you will make a stronger impact with less cluttered messages. Go light on the number of elements, the colors, fonts, graphics and words that you use in your ad. You want to bring across a strong primary message.
You will make a favorable impression with your banner advertising if you pay careful attention to detail. Less is more, be subtle in animation and use clever wording for best impact. Prospects will act quickly and be impressed with your creatively designed banner advertising.
Matt Bacak, Entrepreneur Magazine e-Biz radio show host became a "#1 Best Selling Author" in just a few short hours and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to Retire From Your Job This Year and Still Make More Money Than the Average Medical Doctor... You Can Do It
Once You Know the Proven Steps Outlined here! ==> http://www.internetmillionairemind.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Matt_Bacak http://EzineArticles.com/?Tips-for-Creating-an-Effective-Banner-Ad-Campaign&id=163893
Monday, September 3, 2007
Illusion Technologies: Animation
Website Decisions IV - Animations
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Dustin_Schwerman]Dustin Schwerman
From Flash to animated gifs to javascript, there are a variety of ways to add animations to a website. Moving graphics can be a helpful addition, but should be used with a degree of care. As with all options, used properly, animations can improve the visitor’s experience and augment your message. Used improperly, however, and animations can distract, annoy, and delay the viewer.
The first rule for using animation is to make sure it doesn’t hinder the user. Having balloons float around the web page might look cool and provide a festive feel, but it also threatens to get in the way as the user tries to read your page’s content. Big flashing changing images can attract the eye, but can also distract it from the point you are trying to make.
Introductory animations are especially prone this sort of problem. Although these openings may be attention-grabbers the first time someone visits, they quickly grow boring, even annoying, after a few replays. Bypassing links can be useful for minimizing this effect, but the problems with such introductions do not end there. People are impatient; when they come to your site from the search engine, they want to be provided instantly with the information they are searching for. These sorts of introductions, thus, are excellent for sites whose primary function is to entertain. Informative sites, which may very well include sites that exist to inform about products, receive limited benefit from these additions.
You should also consider your SEO when considering animations. A web page that only contains a Flash intro has no content, which greatly limits SEO. If it is the main page to your site, the search engines will see that your main page has no keywords. Better optimized pages will rank higher, and at that point, the introduction isn’t useful at all.
This is not to say that animation is a bad thing to add to a site. However, it is a tool, one of many tools available to a skilled web designer. As with any option, using it solely for the sake of using it is never a viable option.
So how do you use animations? Ideally, you want to utilize them where they can be entertaining and attractive without drawing attention away from main content. Button links, of course, are classic places. Although these animations are subtle, they can improve the user’s experience by augmenting the appearance of interactivity. If there are circumstances where your website is loading other content, a brief animation can distract the user from the delay. A scrolling set of links can allow you to display more options in a limited amount of space. And, naturally, you can use animation to attract attention to sections of the page that you want the viewer to notice.
What it comes down to is that movement draws attention. The goal is to draw attention towards key parts of your website. Used in that manner, and animations can help direct the user to the places and pages you want them to view. If you simply animate things to see them move, you will only draw the eyes away from the more important parts of your site.
Copyright © 2007 Dustin Schwerman.
Dustin Schwerman is the primary web designer at [http://www.trulyuniqueweb.com]Truly Unique Website Design. Truly Unique specializes in impressive, custom sites designed to capture the essence of the businesses they represent, as well as creating useful web-based programs to improve and simplify some of the tasks of running a business.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dustin_Schwerman http://EzineArticles.com/?Website-Decisions-IV---Animations&id=704593
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Dustin_Schwerman]Dustin Schwerman
From Flash to animated gifs to javascript, there are a variety of ways to add animations to a website. Moving graphics can be a helpful addition, but should be used with a degree of care. As with all options, used properly, animations can improve the visitor’s experience and augment your message. Used improperly, however, and animations can distract, annoy, and delay the viewer.
The first rule for using animation is to make sure it doesn’t hinder the user. Having balloons float around the web page might look cool and provide a festive feel, but it also threatens to get in the way as the user tries to read your page’s content. Big flashing changing images can attract the eye, but can also distract it from the point you are trying to make.
Introductory animations are especially prone this sort of problem. Although these openings may be attention-grabbers the first time someone visits, they quickly grow boring, even annoying, after a few replays. Bypassing links can be useful for minimizing this effect, but the problems with such introductions do not end there. People are impatient; when they come to your site from the search engine, they want to be provided instantly with the information they are searching for. These sorts of introductions, thus, are excellent for sites whose primary function is to entertain. Informative sites, which may very well include sites that exist to inform about products, receive limited benefit from these additions.
You should also consider your SEO when considering animations. A web page that only contains a Flash intro has no content, which greatly limits SEO. If it is the main page to your site, the search engines will see that your main page has no keywords. Better optimized pages will rank higher, and at that point, the introduction isn’t useful at all.
This is not to say that animation is a bad thing to add to a site. However, it is a tool, one of many tools available to a skilled web designer. As with any option, using it solely for the sake of using it is never a viable option.
So how do you use animations? Ideally, you want to utilize them where they can be entertaining and attractive without drawing attention away from main content. Button links, of course, are classic places. Although these animations are subtle, they can improve the user’s experience by augmenting the appearance of interactivity. If there are circumstances where your website is loading other content, a brief animation can distract the user from the delay. A scrolling set of links can allow you to display more options in a limited amount of space. And, naturally, you can use animation to attract attention to sections of the page that you want the viewer to notice.
What it comes down to is that movement draws attention. The goal is to draw attention towards key parts of your website. Used in that manner, and animations can help direct the user to the places and pages you want them to view. If you simply animate things to see them move, you will only draw the eyes away from the more important parts of your site.
Copyright © 2007 Dustin Schwerman.
Dustin Schwerman is the primary web designer at [http://www.trulyuniqueweb.com]Truly Unique Website Design. Truly Unique specializes in impressive, custom sites designed to capture the essence of the businesses they represent, as well as creating useful web-based programs to improve and simplify some of the tasks of running a business.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dustin_Schwerman http://EzineArticles.com/?Website-Decisions-IV---Animations&id=704593
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Illusion Technologies: Animation
Attack of the Animated Web Page Ads
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Aidan_Maconachy]Aidan Maconachy
Annoying animated ads have been taking over cyber space lately.
How are you supposed to read a column when a moving pen keeps drawing a disco dancing silhouette on someone's arm over and over - a silhouette that does a frenetic John Travolta type dance in the corner of your eye. As if we aren't visually overloaded enough these days!
You can just imagine a bunch of advertising nerds sitting around trying to devise better ways to grab our attention. One says "yeah let's have the chipmunk race up and down the tree. Even if they try and read through one end of a rolled newspaper they won't be able to escape the blur".
Advertisers sometimes get it badly wrong. It's not only about animation, or concept originality or design flair. They need to consider what type of reaction the ad induces in the viewer. In a lot of cases animated ads on a page of text induce resentment, if only because people like to be bale to focus when they're reading.
A blogger I was reading on this topic said he scrolls rapidly on a page he visits to block out a hyperactive squirrel and an aerobic blond on eternal repeat.
One Daily Telegraph page I was on had a firing canon, that kept recoiling as it blasted again ... and again ... while some other frenetic behavior was going on in a box further up the page. It was like trying to read in the middle of the Battle of Waterloo.
Why don't advertisers understand the basic truth that a lot of people who are visually assaulted will make a point of NOT clicking on the ad. Some people even develop a prejudice against the product. Have advertisers ever speculated how much they may have lost as a result of turning off potential consumers? Might make for an eye opening survey.
But maybe there is a sizable demographic out there that becomes hypnotized by repetitive motion. Their eyes glaze over as someone's head gets tattooed forty times in a row and they simply cannot resist the urge to click on the cranium.
The sites hosting these ads, need to think of their visitors' eye health. If I go blind after a site has upped the number of animated ads to four while I'm struggling from sentence to sentence in a page that is like an ant colony, I have no doubt there is a Florida lawyer who will be very happy to hear from me.
Aidan Maconachy is a freelance writer and artist based in Ontario. You can visit his blog at http://aidanmaconachyblog.blogspot.com/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Aidan_Maconachy
http://EzineArticles.com/?Attack-of-the-Animated-Web-Page-Ads&id=460205
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Aidan_Maconachy]Aidan Maconachy
Annoying animated ads have been taking over cyber space lately.
How are you supposed to read a column when a moving pen keeps drawing a disco dancing silhouette on someone's arm over and over - a silhouette that does a frenetic John Travolta type dance in the corner of your eye. As if we aren't visually overloaded enough these days!
You can just imagine a bunch of advertising nerds sitting around trying to devise better ways to grab our attention. One says "yeah let's have the chipmunk race up and down the tree. Even if they try and read through one end of a rolled newspaper they won't be able to escape the blur".
Advertisers sometimes get it badly wrong. It's not only about animation, or concept originality or design flair. They need to consider what type of reaction the ad induces in the viewer. In a lot of cases animated ads on a page of text induce resentment, if only because people like to be bale to focus when they're reading.
A blogger I was reading on this topic said he scrolls rapidly on a page he visits to block out a hyperactive squirrel and an aerobic blond on eternal repeat.
One Daily Telegraph page I was on had a firing canon, that kept recoiling as it blasted again ... and again ... while some other frenetic behavior was going on in a box further up the page. It was like trying to read in the middle of the Battle of Waterloo.
Why don't advertisers understand the basic truth that a lot of people who are visually assaulted will make a point of NOT clicking on the ad. Some people even develop a prejudice against the product. Have advertisers ever speculated how much they may have lost as a result of turning off potential consumers? Might make for an eye opening survey.
But maybe there is a sizable demographic out there that becomes hypnotized by repetitive motion. Their eyes glaze over as someone's head gets tattooed forty times in a row and they simply cannot resist the urge to click on the cranium.
The sites hosting these ads, need to think of their visitors' eye health. If I go blind after a site has upped the number of animated ads to four while I'm struggling from sentence to sentence in a page that is like an ant colony, I have no doubt there is a Florida lawyer who will be very happy to hear from me.
Aidan Maconachy is a freelance writer and artist based in Ontario. You can visit his blog at http://aidanmaconachyblog.blogspot.com/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Aidan_Maconachy
http://EzineArticles.com/?Attack-of-the-Animated-Web-Page-Ads&id=460205
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