There are many different types of animation formats, there is dynamic HTML known as (DHTML) this is a different form of html which is then combined with different client side scripts, example of these are JavaScript, CSS and a document object model or DOM. DHTML is also a collection of technologies used together it is very useful, it can be used to create browser based games and you can use it to create many different animations on a web page. There is a problem with DHTML though, the main problem is that newer browsers interpret different web languages differently than the others, this created problems, and an example of this was between internet users who used internet explorer and others who used Netscape navigator. Internet explorer was the main browser that everyone went to from Netscape. DHTML is not anywhere near as popular as it used to be this is because CSS became more popular and also client side scripting languages are now much better, the features that DHTML give, can be made in flash. Flash is standard lower end animation tool, flash allows you to create animations using the frame by frame and bitmaps and other tools that flash have. Flash is mostly used as a teaching tool and also used for entertainment all across the internet. Flash is also used in a lot of advertising, and even in games in browsers such as flash games. GIFs or graphics interchange format is a bitmap image format that can support animations, there are three types of image formats, there are bitmap format this is a format that saves the image as a map of pixels. There is vector formatting, this saves the image as a mathematical algorithm and lastly there is a JPEG, which stands for joint photographic expert group, this is a bitmap image format that can hold up to sixteen million colours in an image, this is so there is harsh contrast between 2 colours instead it is more of a gradient.
A gif is a bitmap image format, a gif can only use a maximum palette of 256 colours, and this means it holds many less colours than a JPEG. Obviously JPEGS are more suited to images, like photographs that need more detail, since JPEGs colour palettes are much larger than GIFs, GIFs are more suited for images with fewer colours, like logos and one quite useful feature that a GIF has is that you can have transparent backgrounds. The main reason for GIFs is animated GIFs, a GIF is not a normal file format, because it supports animation, the way a GIF works is that inside of the folder there is a set of stored images, and also inside the folder is the instructions for how they should be played and in what order. GIF images are smaller than pure bitmap files, this is because of compression, they use a special type of compression called LZW, this makes the file smaller but without making the images look worse, but every time you compress the image the more quality of the image is lost. It is much better to work in a full bitmap, like a psd file in Photoshop and hen compress it when you have finally finished the image. There is a technique called dithering, which is what is used to try to include more images inside of a GIF, the problem with this is that this can cause some loss of definition in the image, this is so GIFs don't look as bad and look more photographic. The advantages of GIFs are that there is lossless compression, they are relatively small file sizes, it can support transparent backgrounds, and it is also suitable for inclusion in online content. GIFs do have their disadvantages, there is a maximum palette of 256 colours, colours can appear blocky in the photographic quality images and dithering although it is good can reduce the amount the file size can be compressed.
The pros of GIFS and how I can use them in my animation –
One of the pros is that the file sizes are relatively small, this is good because it takes less time to process and to upload to a site or file sharing website, this makes it easier to watch since there is less loading time, and people don’t have to wait, another positive is they support transparent backgrounds, this is good because you can add your gif to any background and you can also add anything to your gif making it more appealing to the people watching it, and adding another layer of story and detail to it. It is also usable on different online websites, this is a positive because it makes it easier for you to get your gif out there and also this way you don’t have to rewrite any code to get it on the web, that function is already available to you. There is also lossless compression which helps because you can make the file size smaller making it easier to transport if you wanted it on a small memory stick or if you had to email it quickly.
The cons of GIFS and how they prevent/restrict you from using them –
One of the cons is that GIFs have a maximum colour palette of 256 colours, this is a negative because when using a more photographic picture, of a person or real picture, it will look blocky and will not look very detailed, this is a problem because some pictures lose all of their quality. Although dithering is a good tool for making it look better, it also reduces the amount of time a video can be compressed.
