Re: Web Animation and Sound Advice Sought

On Thurs, Feb 16 2006 2:38 am, Lily wrote:

$Zero wrote:
Dr Zen wrote:
"$Zero" <zero@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> led the charge, yelling:
Dr Zen wrote:
"$Zero" <zero@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> led the charge, yelling:
Dr Zen wrote:
"$Zero" <zero@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> led the charge, yelling:

Web Animation and Sound Advice Sought

anyone here got any tips on adding animation and
sound to your website?

[...]

i was considering buying Dreamweaver, etc., but right now i
just want to handcode it all.

here's what i'm trying to accomplish:

upon someone landing on my website, i want to:

1] automatically toggle a few jpegs

Easy.

i would assume so. but what are the tags for it?

There aren't any. You'll have to use JS.

Maybe. It's probably more efficient, I'd imagine.

No. It's simply impossible to do what you want using plain HTML.

Not impossible, just very awkward. For the enduser, especially.

i really don't think you can do it so that the pictures switch
out automatically. you have to have some kind of script running it.
flash uses a script for things like that as well. actionscript.

So, how did that old basic HTML tag "blink" (or whatever it was called)
perform the blink action?


can i get them at w3schools.com? probably.

but which ones would YOU recommend?

Have a look at the code for my blog. It picks quotes.
You'd use similar code for a slideshow of images.

ok.

php is also a possibility,

I'm definitely gonna be learning that someday, I have a few projects
that I think will make good use of it.


which is what my blog uses for quotes, but that's another steep
learning curve

Nitpick: Wouldn't a steep learning curve indicate that one learns it
quickly rather than on a slow steady upwards slope? Although, I
rememember reading somewhere that that interpretation has always been
misunderstood.

and your server has to be set up to run [php].

It is. It has a toggle option for using either a windows server or
linux (and the linux server supports all sorts of php). Which is why I
selected that option from the begining.

that's what makes javascript so useful-it's read
by the browser so can be run on any website.

So can php, no? As long as the hosting server of the page one is
visiting runs the php stuff on the server side. Right?

Do you mean pick one at random or go through a slideshow
type thing. Either way, it's easy enough.

slideshow.

though naturally, i'd like to know the other as well.

2] have a sound file play in the background

Easy. But fucking annoying. Don't do it.

[why is it] annoying?

Because anything that makes a noise or flashes is annoying
on a website. Music is particularly annoying. If you insist,
include a highly visible way of switching it off. Personally,
I immediately *** off any website that makes uninvited music
at me.

Oh, I see what you're saying. me too.

Well then!

Well, my sound wasn't going to obnoxious or anything, so I
didn't even consider that dynamic, but still, it would be
the polite way to go, I suppose. Like for browsers who had
their volume cranked up all the way and didn't realize it.
They'd blame me.

Yeah, I'll probably put a launch animation/.mov button.

anyway, this is for a multimedia type presentation.

audio is a good thing in that circumstance.

Not if it's unbidden.

Agreed. I rememeber Josh using an annoying link like that once.

[...]

automatically, as soon as someone lands on the site.

also, i'd like to use very low resource-hog ways to do
this in order to be compatible with as many browsers/
users as possible. unless, are broadband connections
the only feasible way for soundfiles?

Not if the soundfiles are very low fi.

how low? what frequency range? like telephone quality?

Very low. It's not to do with frequency but to do with sample
quality.

Right. The word escaped me. Like how you can choose which
sampling quality you want when you burn your CDs into mp3 files.

Yes, exactly.

Which is pretty similar effect-wise to limiting the frequency range.

creating compressed sound files does require some kind of software.

I've got a few of those hanging around, but they only run on windows
98.

I'll have to boot up one of my old computers for that task.

Actuallly, I think have a pretty new copy of Adobe Premiere which could
probably do the job. I believe it's XP compatible. I was going to use
it to make a commercial for one of my inventions awhile back. In 2000.
To impress would-be investors -- which I did -- with just a quickie
video using the software that came with my Dazzle video capture
thinger.

Actually, the included Dazzle software seemed to work better than the
$500+ Premiere software -- at least on my first brief experimenting
with the latter.

there are some free programs that can convert to what you need, but
they're limiting. i tried out a few, but was relieved when i was
able to purchase adobe audition at work. i'm not so well-versed in
sound creation. i've used audition to edit and create sound effects,
but it's all trial and error, and i really don't know why i'm doing
what i'm doing when i mess around with the controls. i just know
i'm getting the effects i want. it's like using the histograms in
photoshop. they're total gibberish to me, but sometimes i can make
them work to my advantage.

That's always fun.


As low as possible so that the resulting file is very small.

A simple melody with a voiceover. No need for high fi.

A midi file might do it.

Are midi files pretty much universally readable? I have a few
midi-generating programs laying around.

yes, midi files are universal. do you want that tinny sound they
create, though? to do a voiceover you need a program that can hold
2 tracks, i believe.

I think you can combine multiple tracks into one midi file, IINM.

At least with that software I had, IIRC, the one that sadly doesn't run
on XP.

Some German-based company. Audio Studio 5 or somesuch. And a couple
others (from the same company) that I picked up at the now defunct
Media Play for like $45 a piece.


-$Zero... ThoseDarnedLearningCurves... AlwaysThrowingYouCurves...


"keeps me search-ing
for a hearrrrrt of gold...
and i'm getting old..."
-- Neil Young
[song: "Heart of Gold"]


http://www.blurbees.com

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