Animated GIFs
When the GIF format was created in 1987, the "multi-part GIF" (or GIF 89a) sub-format was created at the
same time. This little wonder was underutilized until Netscape built support for the format
into the Navigator 2.0 browser. Support for the format was undocumented, and people slowly
came to realize it's potential about a year ago. It has been flavor-of-the-month ever since.
Note that not all browsers support this format in exactly the same way. Pre-Netscape 2 versions of Navigator will show
the first frame only of an anmimated GIF, and older versions of Explorer will show only the last frame
of an animation. In terms of modern versions of browsers, animated GIFs give a dynamic quality to your pages
without requiring that your users download a plugin.
A couple of handy guidelines:
- Make the first frame of your animation the largest (in terms of dimensions).
- Create movement with smaller graphics which appear and move as subsequent frames.
- Put any crucially important information in both the first and last frames.
Software
If you are working on the Mac, gifBuilder is an amazing program for creating animated GIFs.
On the PC, GIF Construction Kit is a pretty good alternative.
Reference
Animated GIF tutorial on Builder.com.
Building Web Sites - ITP Winter 1999 - Mike Cosaboom, Instructor
mc39@acf2.nyu.edu