Animate!

  • Thread starter Sudden Disruption
  • Start date
S

Sudden Disruption

For years I owned and managed a retail computer store. We had Apple
Macintosh, Atari and of course IBM PCs displayed at our demo stations.
We also had lots of software to show off on these constantly advancing
machines.

One of my pet peeves at the time was a lack of animated demos. It
amazed me that other industries spent millions of dollars creating
cardboard mobiles to hang from the ceiling trying to sell soap or
automobiles, while the software industry didn't even bother to animate
a screen when they had such beautiful resources at hand.

As you might guess, I found the rare software that DID provide animated
demos and left them running most of the time. These titles garnered a
disproportionate mind share which I think helped them prosper.

Now computers are available at Walmart and BestBuy, but much of
retailing has moved to the internet. Google gives us a major search
advantage, but we still under-utilize the magic of movement in keeping
the customer's attention once the page is displayed. This is a major
missed opportunity.

Even as software developers focus on the design of their
user-interface, they often miss the most critical point of contact -
it's your home page. You only have a few seconds to keep the user from
bouncing off to the next website. Animation is the key, but only if
effectively used.

I've spent the last couple of weeks animating a demo of my text editor,
Sudden View. I started with a free trial of Camtasia Studio 3 from
TechSmith. It works as advertised though I'm sure I've only tapped
about 10% of it's features.

I'm still learning the editing process but I have a first cut on the
website. Check it out. As you can see, the whole site is still a work
in progress, but it's now doing a better job of expressing just how
strange yet effective Sudden View can be.

Since I was going for small file size to improve load speed, I produced
in animated GIF format. I kept the screen shot at 640 by 480 and
limited the loop to 125 seconds. Screen size seems to be more important
than length of animation. The Cut-Outs didn't add much at all.

Running an animated GIF is also a great demonstration of the difference
between Explorer and Firefox. If you have both loaded, do an A-B
comparison and you'll never go back to Gatesware. Which brings me to my
second pet peeve about animation - too much of it.

The worst animations are the big Flash files that take forever to load.
I'm amazed at how many of the big money sites still use them. One day
they'll get a clue. Maybe.

Almost as bad are those little ads that constantly flash with
absolutely NOTHING to say. Do we REALLY need to see lots of different
product banners in the same little rectangle?

And they never give us a break. It's a maddening distraction while
you're trying to read the content. To add insult to injury, they don't
let us scroll off either. There's another copy flashing somewhere down
the page. I don't stay long on these sites either.

So if you have a "moving" story to tell on your website, dive in and
give it a shot, but only if it's worth telling in animation. There's no
need for bouncing coffins or vibrating lake front property.

And remember, keep it small and short. And let the user scroll it off
the screen after they've watched it. You DO want them to read the rest
of your content, don't you?

Any one else have any animated web experiences?

Let me know.

Sudden Disruption

Sudden View...
the radical option for editing text

http://www.sudden.net/
http://suddendisruption.blogspot.com
 
R

Rhino

Sudden Disruption said:
For years I owned and managed a retail computer store. We had Apple
Macintosh, Atari and of course IBM PCs displayed at our demo stations.
We also had lots of software to show off on these constantly advancing
machines.

One of my pet peeves at the time was a lack of animated demos. It
amazed me that other industries spent millions of dollars creating
cardboard mobiles to hang from the ceiling trying to sell soap or
automobiles, while the software industry didn't even bother to animate
a screen when they had such beautiful resources at hand.

As you might guess, I found the rare software that DID provide animated
demos and left them running most of the time. These titles garnered a
disproportionate mind share which I think helped them prosper.

Now computers are available at Walmart and BestBuy, but much of
retailing has moved to the internet. Google gives us a major search
advantage, but we still under-utilize the magic of movement in keeping
the customer's attention once the page is displayed. This is a major
missed opportunity.

Even as software developers focus on the design of their
user-interface, they often miss the most critical point of contact -
it's your home page. You only have a few seconds to keep the user from
bouncing off to the next website. Animation is the key, but only if
effectively used.

I've spent the last couple of weeks animating a demo of my text editor,
Sudden View. I started with a free trial of Camtasia Studio 3 from
TechSmith. It works as advertised though I'm sure I've only tapped
about 10% of it's features.

I'm still learning the editing process but I have a first cut on the
website. Check it out. As you can see, the whole site is still a work
in progress, but it's now doing a better job of expressing just how
strange yet effective Sudden View can be.

Since I was going for small file size to improve load speed, I produced
in animated GIF format. I kept the screen shot at 640 by 480 and
limited the loop to 125 seconds. Screen size seems to be more important
than length of animation. The Cut-Outs didn't add much at all.

Running an animated GIF is also a great demonstration of the difference
between Explorer and Firefox. If you have both loaded, do an A-B
comparison and you'll never go back to Gatesware. Which brings me to my
second pet peeve about animation - too much of it.

The worst animations are the big Flash files that take forever to load.
I'm amazed at how many of the big money sites still use them. One day
they'll get a clue. Maybe.

Almost as bad are those little ads that constantly flash with
absolutely NOTHING to say. Do we REALLY need to see lots of different
product banners in the same little rectangle?

And they never give us a break. It's a maddening distraction while
you're trying to read the content. To add insult to injury, they don't
let us scroll off either. There's another copy flashing somewhere down
the page. I don't stay long on these sites either.

So if you have a "moving" story to tell on your website, dive in and
give it a shot, but only if it's worth telling in animation. There's no
need for bouncing coffins or vibrating lake front property.

And remember, keep it small and short. And let the user scroll it off
the screen after they've watched it. You DO want them to read the rest
of your content, don't you?

Any one else have any animated web experiences?

Let me know.

Sudden Disruption

Sudden View...
the radical option for editing text

http://www.sudden.net/
http://suddendisruption.blogspot.com

Considering that this is a Java programmer's newsgroup, the utter lack of
any Java in your post makes me wonder why you posted here, unless it is just
to flog Sudden View or your website.
 
A

Andrew T.

Sudden Disruption wrote:
...
One of my pet peeves at the time was a lack of animated demos.

That is 'old hat'. Java projects can be launched from the web
using JWS, or previewed in an applet.

Andrew T.
 
S

Sudden Disruption

Rhino,
Considering that this is a Java programmer's newsgroup, the utter lack of
any Java in your post makes me wonder why you posted here, unless it is just
to flog Sudden View or your website.

I figured there were some here who had experience animating the web and
I'm looking for someone to say, "That's shit!, you should have used
Java and done it this way.".

But I guess you just weren't up to it.

And I'm looking for feedback on the editor too.

Sudden Disruption

Sudden View...
the radical option for editing text

http://www.sudden.net/
http://suddendisruption.blogspot.com
 
T

Thomas Weidenfeller

Sudden said:
I figured there were some here who had experience animating the web and
I'm looking for someone to say, "That's shit!, you should have used
Java and done it this way.".

You simply could have asked a question. Instead, you decided to waste
our time with a useless marketing pamphlet, telling us how great you are
and what shining product you have.

So we have an off-topic article, multiposted in violation of netiquette,
Mr. Coleman. And if the advertised software is like your posting, then
you haven't achieved much with your spam.
But I guess you just weren't up to it.

Typical spammer tactic: When found out, insult the victims.
And I'm looking for feedback on the editor too.

Sure, in monetary form, from buyers.
 
A

Alex Hunsley

Sudden said:
Rhino,


I figured there were some here who had experience animating the web and
I'm looking for someone to say, "That's shit!, you should have used
Java and done it this way.".

Then you should have asked a Java related question (like 'Is X possible
in Java?'), instead of just posting something completely non-Java!
But I guess you just weren't up to it.

And I'm looking for feedback on the editor too.

This is comp.lang.java.programmer, not comp.review.my.editor.
 
O

Oliver Wong

Sudden Disruption said:
Rhino,

Here's what I was looking for (kiwiKKpage) :

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.comp.freeware/browse_thread/thread/58ece8eb8f2ac94c?hl=en

I guess the Java group didin't have a good example to counter with.

And my post only went to five groups. I hardly think that's spamming.

Sorry if you were offended.

Next time, crosspost instead of multipost:
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/usenet/xpost.html

I'd like to comment on the alt.comp.freeware's mention onf PCMark and
3DMark, but since I don't frequent the alt.comp.freeware newsgroup, I won't
see the responses to my comment, so now I won't bother.

But then again, this post is off topic in comp.lang.java.programmer
anyway, so when you do crosspost, only crosspost to the relevant newsgroups.

- Oliver
 
R

Rhino

Sudden Disruption said:
Rhino,


I figured there were some here who had experience animating the web and
I'm looking for someone to say, "That's shit!, you should have used
Java and done it this way.".

But I guess you just weren't up to it.
If there had been a Java question in your post and I knew the answer, I'd
have tried to answer it. But apparently you weren't up to the challenge of
finding an appropriate newsgroup, let alone composing a question relevant to
that newsgroup.
And I'm looking for feedback on the editor too.
Then you could have said that clearly instead of beating around the bush.
Although, if the editor isn't written in Java or written to edit Java, this
would still have been a pretty dubious place to post the question.
 
T

The_Sage

Reply to article by: "Sudden Disruption said:
Date written: 2 Jun 2006 14:35:44 -0700
MsgID:<[email protected]>
Again, my apologies. I honestly thought the topic would be of interest
to Java coders.

To the JAVA religious fanatics, you are an unrepentent sinner -- to the rest of
the thinking world, your observations are appreciated. I can learn something
from them.

Yes you can do what you did in JAVA but the method you chose instead was much
easier or elegant. Animation in JAVA is not trivial, especially when you get
into things like double-buffering. Beginner programmers have a difficult time
with this. A JAVA version of what you did is just not worth it.

On the other hand, even a beginner can implement your method but the real
challenge is coming up with artistic ideas, not implementations. JAVA is not
just programming. Take a look at your typical GUIs for your typical JAVA
applications. Just because one is a programmer does not mean they have any
artistic talent. HTML is even more challenging because much of your content is
not for function but for form or flow. That takes a special talent to pull that
off nicely and is not something you can learn from programming.

So if you have anything to teach all of us non-artists, maybe the programmers
can return the favor by developing/linking some software for you.

The Sage

=============================================================
http://members.cox.net/the.sage/index.htm

"Little minds are interested in the extraordinary; great
minds in the commonplace"
-- Elbert Hubbard, ROYCROFT DICTIONARY AND BOOK OF EPIGRAMS
=============================================================
 
S

Sudden Disruption

Sage,

The guy looking up my real name may note the irony in your moniker. I
founded a company back in the 80s called Sage Computer.

http://www.sageandstride.org/

We produced a 68000-based computer using the p-System. In the process I
spent some time with a guy name Nicklaus Wirth. We even had him out
from Zurich for a keynote one time. Even though I designed the
hardware for our system, my real love has always been computer
languages.
To the JAVA religious fanatics, you are an unrepentent sinner -- to the rest of
the thinking world, your observations are appreciated. I can learn something
from them.

I know and agree. Thank you. But let's get this back on topic.
Yes you can do what you did in JAVA

True. To simply Turning, anything that can compute, can compute
anything that can be computed. Languages are just how we describe the
process. To push Turning beyond the pale, wonders and crap can be
created in ANY language.

I personally believe Java's a good idea built on a weak history. (Ahh,
finally back on topic)

My favorite language is still Modula-2 (as might be noted in the actual
animation). And I can read RPG without a template (try to animate in
RPG sometime).The point is, there are lots of good choices for language
but good programming transends the tools.
So if you have anything to teach all of us non-artists, maybe the programmers
can return the favor by developing/linking some software for you.

And finally, I'm sorry to confess, I'm not an artist at all. I've
spent most of my professional life doing code. I was just trying to
point out for other coders, it's not enough to do a good job with your
software, you have to actually get it applied.

That's where the web animation comes in.

Now I shall tiptoe back out of this sensitive group.

Thanks for the kind words Sage dude.

Sudden Disruption

Sudden View...
the radical option for editing text

http://www.sudden.net/
http://suddendisruption.blogspot.com
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
473,744
Messages
2,569,483
Members
44,903
Latest member
orderPeak8CBDGummies

Latest Threads

Top