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Which is Best for Animation: SWF, GIF Or CGI?


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#1 Zubb

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 03:48 PM

I've started doing Graphics in Adobe illustrator.
And i'm just wondering which language would be best for animating my Graphics.

I've done flash before, but i couldn't quite figure it out, and i don't want to learn how Flash works just for the sake of animation.

I thought GIF may be a good idea, but what is the file size? is it big or small?

And lastly there is CGI. i saw some CGI on another site and it seems very flexible.
I know nothing about CGI, what's good & bad about it?

Please give me some tips <_<

Thanks.
Jason.

#2 rc69

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Posted 09 December 2009 - 11:14 AM

Flash is the best thing i know of for complex animations. GIF can only do simple things at best due to the fact that you have to draw each frame yourself. Additionally, each frame of a GIF has to be stored in the file as an independent image, so a 10 frame animated GIF is like saving 10 individual GIF's (i.e. the file size gets really big really fast).

I'm not sure what you mean by CGI animated images, so i can't really say much in that respect.

#3 Trusttec

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Posted 09 December 2009 - 10:05 PM

I would have to agree with everything rc69 stated above. swf is the way to go! I havent created anything in flash for a really long time! It makes me want to pull it out and create something!

#4 synn

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Posted 24 December 2009 - 03:23 PM

I found many animators choosing flash for faster animation production. But for industry tools are different. But as far as web is concerned flash is dominant.

#5 RyanMoster

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Posted 20 May 2010 - 05:26 AM

GIF is best and remember that smaller the size better the result will be.

#6 danieljones2006

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Posted 21 June 2010 - 02:49 PM

GIF will be the best option only if animation is kept simple.

#7 hurr

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Posted 21 June 2010 - 05:38 PM

It depends what kind of animation you want, and what its for. If you're wanting to create master pieces of animation involving lots of flashy graphics and movement, then the use of flash and .swfs is probably the way forward. If however, you're talking simple graphics that maybe move side to side or up and down (possibly even round in circle :)) then you could probably get away with a .gif - bare in mind, like others have stated, .gifs get really big really fast, so you'd really want to keep the frames to a minimum.

In summary:

Extremely simple animation = gifs.
Anything else = flash.




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