Animation

Animation is a sequential series of still images that create an illusion of motion. In the examples on this page we're working with an animated GIF file with a transparent background. The rabbit example is a slide show where frames are held on the screen for specified periods of time that range from 10/1000 to 100/1000th of a second.

To create the most convincing illusion of motion frames should be played at movie speed of 30 frames per second. Unfortunately, that tends to create a very big file. The skeleton example below holds the frames for 100/1000th of a second producing a 66KB file.

Aside from the obvious problem of disk space, file size can have an impact on playback quality as well. When your computer plays a movie or animation sequence it will load as many frames as possible into memory and then fetch the next frame as it plays one. This technique is called cached sequencing.  To create smooth playing animations you must consider the complexity and size of each frame as well as the color depth and number of frames per second. Only the very fastest of modern desktop computers can play back full screen, 24 bit color video at 30 frames per second.

• If you know all about animation skip the Exercises and go to the Next lesson.

• Exercises - Animation

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