P3 - Discuss the advantages and limitations of animated GIFs

Unit 31 – computer animation
P3 – Discuss the advantages and limitations of animated GIF’s
Lee Mercer
14/11/2013

DHTML or Dynamic HTML is a combined form of HTML and some script such as CSS, PHP or Java. This can be used to create animation on web pages which can include games or rollover buttons

Flash is another tool that can be used to create frame by frame animation using vectors or bitmaps, Sound or videos can also be included into flash.

Shockwave is used for 3D graphics and streaming videos. Shockwave allows the compilation of many different assets into one multimedia project.

Quick time is a multimedia platform that is useable by both Mac and Windows even though it was made by Apple, it supports animation, sound and videos.

Real player is another cross platform multimedia platform for Mac and Windows which is seen as a solution for many peoples format problems.

Advantages

·         File size – GIF files are made up of a few frames or images so they take up much less file space than other types of files.

·         Lossless compression – GIF files support a compression method called LZW or lossless compression. This allows the files to be made much smaller without losing quality, this helps on websites as you can minimise the bandwidth.

·         Minimal bandwidth – Minimising bandwidth is a key task for anyone who owns a website and using gifs can greatly help this. As they have a much smaller file size the GIF file type is a good choice for minimising bandwidth.

·         Transparency – Most GIF’s support transparency in their images allowing other images to be seen through the GIF.

Limitations

·         256 colours – GIF file types are limited to 256 colours which means you can’t go into as much fine detail as other image types but at the same time it allows for a much smaller for a much smaller file size.

·         Blocky images – As GIF’s are saved as images and not vector files the image can become blocky and distorted when zoomed in. This could be a problem if you are trying to portray fine art or other such files.

·         Dithered images – Dithering is used to make images that have a limited colour pallet such as GIF’s with only 256 colours look like they have intermediate colours. This reduces the effect of banding when colours are gradually changing.