Background problem

**calypsoH2O** · 09 August 2006, 04:17 PM

Hello,

Thank you very much for the animation Soquili.

I am planning to use the animation as a sort of "introduction".

So, the index.html will contain only the animation and a text/hyperlink that says "ENTER" below. It's for a friend's website.

I was wondering if in this case I can leave the animation to 197.3 KB ?

Cheers!

**Soquili** · 09 August 2006, 04:51 PM

Anyone accessing your friends website using dial-up or a slow DSL connection may not hang around long enough to see the animation.

I don't have much experience creating web pages for use on the internet. I personally usually find another site if I see a page that wants me to click something to "Enter". Many Flash sites do that, or just show "Loading..."
My personal opinion of those sites isn't very high and so I find another site to visit.

**Seagull** · 09 August 2006, 05:46 PM

I'm afraid I have to agree with Bill 100% and I have been saying this on a few threads lately. If you want a good site, concentrate on the message. Animation can be okay sometimes but it slows down the download time, it draws my eye away from your real message. The older sites were all done with plain html which created a static site like a magazine page or a newspaper, but full of information and I'm afraid that even with all today's technology it hasn't changed the what creates a good web site (design)

I can't give you anything more because I don't know what age group your trying to attract and what your trying to do, but if you want a person to visit your site the Accueil or index page should be fast downloading, tell me what your site is about with possibly an image posted and links to slower downloading pages. That way, if I am interested, I will wait while your other pages downloads. In my opinion, if you want to be a good web creator, get rid of you brand new high speed machine, get an older p2 which for me is a step up, get rid of high speed connection and use dial up, set the screen resolution to 800 x 600 and then sit on your ass for half an hour while waiting for your site to download and then scroll left to right to see the page, then you will start to understand good web design. At this stage I think there are a lot more of us than there are of you's, so keep this in mind. I am sure you can create good, if not a great site but keep in mind size, navigation, and good tastes. Make your big pictures no more than 500 pixels wide and experiment, but you should be able to compress jpg's between 60 to 75% without really affecting the viewing quality........hopes this helps a bit.......frank

**Egg Bramhill** · 10 August 2006, 04:31 AM

The problem is that I use the trial version of xara 3D, so the background instead of being all black as I want, has "xara 3D" written all over the place.

Yeah, I know

...

Anyways, I was wondering if someone could help me with my animation.

Come on guys, there's a reason for the Demo background in the trial version of Xara3D. A bit like biteing the hand that feeds you!

As for 197 Kb animation ..... a 50 second download on a dial up connection .... everyones out of here.

**Seagull** · 10 August 2006, 04:44 PM

As for 197 Kb animation ..... a 50 second download on a dial up connection .... everyones out of here.

Hi Egg

I covered this point in twinkling stars. Animation is okay but it seems a lot of people are growing up with fast machines and high speed internet connections and are starting to loose the concept of a web page. A web page is basically a means for conveying something you have or you know to somebody else, either for free or for a price. And please, please do not tell me that for optimal viewing I have to use msexplorer version x cause I don't, I won't and I probably never will.

Your banner is very nice but animating it is create a bigger site, a slower site which is not really in your interest. If your site has not come in under 15 seconds you start loosing people and the longer it takes the more you loose

This is old information from the old dialup days but it still applies to an awful lot of people yet........frank

**calypsoH2O** · 10 August 2006, 04:54 PM

Hi,

Thank you for all your answers.

I agree with what you said, that is best to forget the animation as introduction, but my friend for which I make the website (she's a photographer, the website will present her work) insists on keeping it.

Many thanks for your advice and help!

**jamesmc** · 10 August 2006, 05:32 PM

Putting an animation on a page never bothered me. Since I have a 8mbit connection, what I see on the screen loads instantly, usually.

People that still have 56K modems shouldn't really be surfing the web anyway in my opinion. It's good for email and casual reading of web pages, but not for general surfing.

With flash everywhere, animation is more the normal than not. Although a bit outdated GIF animation and its editors has its uses. For instance, in editing frame by frame scenes for overlays for movie production (if you don't have a flash editor.)

(downloads a 200mb file in less than a minute and snickers)

**Seagull** · 10 August 2006, 07:13 PM

People that still have 56K modems shouldn't really be surfing the web anyway in my opinion

Hi James

A lot of people don't have the choice. You take what you can get and what you can afford. Up where we are, the high speed only came in two years ago and is still restricted to people in our village. 10 minute walk and your on dialup country. These people do browse, do search and do buy on the internet so a person wanting their money has to take this into consideration. Up here we have two languages. Only want to use english you only hurt yourself since 60 to 90% of the visitors will be french.

It might sound like I'm against animation or flash or all the new technology, well I'm not. I just think that people trying to design a site have to concentrate more on the subject they are trying to put over. Text downloads in zero seconds, it's images that take time. A friend used to email me 3.5 mega pixel photos that took 10-12 minutes a piece to download and I finally convinced him to resize to 500 pixels wide and they came in at around 15 seconds. If you haven't experienced this you don't think of this when designing. An example....how many people are posting images on the forum larger than the suggest 600 pixels. I am forever having to scroll left and right while viewing and then while reading text with these postings. They post what they see and overlook that not everybody will see the same thing. Same thing with creating a site with fancy text.....a hugh waste of time if the majority of the viewers don't have the same text in their computer since your site will just revert to the default text of the viewer.

In Calypsoh20's case, if this is what the client wants, go for it. You hand people business cards with the site adress printed on them and these people, who are the people your trying to attract will be willing to wait for a slower site. Bit if it were me I would at least put the artist name and a message of some sort on the same page (zero download time) so people know what they are looking at when they get to this page. However, what makes good sites and good browsing is that people do what they want, what they think and what they see, giving us lots of variety. Otherwise, we would all use templates designed by so call experts and then wouldn't the internet be a boring place. So Calypso....go for it and I am sure you will do a fantastic job......frank