Task 2, P2 - Explain different uses of animation

In this blog i am going to be explaining about where animation is used in advertisement, creative arts entertainment education and simulation.

Advertisement this video to my right is a advertisement that coca cola use to sell there product coke, the animation is most of the advert inside a vending machine it shows the coke being transport out the vending machine, the enhances the advert because it makes it seem magical and amazing because this doesn't actually happen in real life.

the above animation is a form of created arts with animations, animation can be used in creative forms for anything what ever you think of you can make it happen with animation. The new fashion for everything is computer everything is moving to computer and animation have now been classed as an art because of how creative you can be with it.

the above video is gameplay from a game, animation has become very popular for entertainment as there is a lot of animation everywhere in games movies ect, if you look at some of the old movies with the first animation in it like space jam at the time it was very top of the range technology but if you would watch spacejam today you wouldn't think it was that good because you can tell the animation isn't as good as new popular films from today like Thor or batman.

Animation is also used in education for example some videos that explain how to do things like maths equations have animation on because there could be someone at the side showing speaking telling you what to do and also when they Wright things down and it disappear this is animation.

There is also various simulations these days that people can do for example if you wanted to be a pilot you would get taught in a simulator first they would show you what to do in a short video which is a animation then they will also use real pictures to create animation because then it looks a lot more realistic. Some simulations could consist of driving, flying or a space shuttle simulator.

Unit 31 P3 The theory of Persistence of vision.

The theory of Persistence of vision.

Task 4, P3 - Discuss the advantages and limitations of animated GIFs

Produce an entry in your blog that discusses the different animation formats and tools available in the animation industry. You should also discuss the features, advantages and limitations of animated GIFs. To do this, you need to create a list of the "pros and cons" of the format and discuss these. What would each "pro" enable you to do, in terms of producing your short animation? For each negative point, what it will prevent (or restrict) you from doing?

In this post i am going to be speaking about the different types off animation, the format and the tools that you use to make them. I am also going to be explaining the advantages and disadvantages off using animation and where its used.

Firstly i am going to be speaking about the advantages and disadvantages of animation, There is quite a few advantages if you use animation wisely but if don't do it right it can make your website look shocking! if you are using animation on a website you need to avoid using it as much as possible because one or two animations on a website enhances the websites look and makes it look better but if you have more than 3 it can start to look a mess. for example if you look at www.lingscars.com it is full of pointless animation that moves you away from the website and the point its trying to make. the main advantage of using a little bit of animation is that to the person viewing the web page its eye catching and hooks them into reading the content.

The first type of animated image i am going to talk about is GIFs this is a bitmap format that is used a lot on the web. The advantages off GIFs is that the file size is very small this means that the animations will load quicker. You also don't have to download any any plugins or anything because the browser already supports GIFs. On the other hand the disadvantages of GIFs is that there is a limitation on file size as well on a limitation on colours that can be used in the animation. There is also no sound with GIFs and the worst disadvantage is that it could display differently on all platforms.


Flash is a very well know animation animation that unlike animated GIFs flash can have sound with the animation. The animation works on its own with a plugin but statistics say over 90% of computers already have a plugin installed to play flash this means that not even 1 in 10 people would have to download the plugin to watch it. Another advantage if you don't put to much animation on it makes the website just right it adds like a finishing touch if there only 1 or two animations. Whereas on the other hand flash can take a long time to load because the files are quite big. Some people don't like flash at all because to them it is very annoying so they will try to avoid websites with a lot of flash as much as they can.

Shockwave is focused on 3D animation and streaming videos and also has fast rendering engine then flash. The disadvantage for Shockwave is you have to download extra software for shockwave to play which is bad because not that many people already have the software installed.

Dynamic HTML is the old way for web animation, this is not a language or a plugin it is a combination of HTML 4.0 JavaScript CSS and DOM. The file sizes are very small and doesn't need any external software because it is using languages supported by the most browsers. The main Disadvantage of dHTML is that it displays different on different browsers because it is not one language its a mix so it could display completely different in some browsers then what you wanted it to look like.

There are a lot of types of animation and different tools firstly there's the industrial spec programs called adobe flash player this is a very expensive program but is very good for making animated images.

Unit 31 Computer Animation

Task one

The definition of animation is lots of pictures where the objects slightly move each time, the pictures are put together they are called frames when they are put together it creates the illusion off movement.

Traditional methods of animation
William is one of the pioneers for animation he was the person that made the modern version of the zoetrobe it worked on the same principles as the phenakistoscope but it worked a lot better than its older brother because of the slots you could see the full animation you can now only see the part you was meant to see at once not the full wheal like the phenakistoscope.

The other pioneer i am going to talk about is Thomas Edison, He was a major part of the development of animation because he invented the kinetoscope, this shined light though glass to show the image, Shown to the right. This was a big hit when it was made because there was no such thing as movies and because the animation lasted longer it was amazing to people and is our equivalent of a movie to back then.

Animation is now mostly done on computers, it has developed from only a 2 second motion video to full movies having animation in and TV programs. Now that animation is done on the computer it is a lot easier and faster to make and also because it is electronic its easier to add in features like frames ect so you can make it a lot smoother.

Techniques that are used with computer software.
frame by frame is taking a picture of something then moving it slightly and then slightly again ect this is what is done with adobe flash and also flip books is frame by frame animation because you move the picture slightly each time.

Tweening is adding anther frame in between two frames to make the animation run smoother. you can do this with software like adobe flash professional.

Another technique that is often used is morphing this is where one shape gradually turns into another for example a circle gradually turns into a head over a lot of frames. There is an example of morphing to the right.

The last technique i am going to talk about is masking this is basicly putting something about the bottom layer so you can only see part of it until you go to the next frame its like poking a hole into the page to see layer below.