My First Animation

[Juan Carlos]

Hello guys,

This is my first attempt to create an animation using Xara3D in a web site I'm working on. A designer created the logo, and I just recreate the logo using XaraX and then import into Xara3D.

You can view it here:
Web Page

It's still very heavy to load the page (500kb) I tried to export one by one all the frames, optimize it in Photoshop (save for web)then re-import into XaraX and create the animation there, but I'm not comfortable with the results.

Also tried reducing the number of frames, but I loss quality.

Any suggestions to optimize the size of this animation?

Saludos,
Juan

[Juan Carlos]

Hello guys,

This is my first attempt to create an animation using Xara3D in a web site I'm working on. A designer created the logo, and I just recreate the logo using XaraX and then import into Xara3D.

You can view it here:
Web Page

It's still very heavy to load the page (500kb) I tried to export one by one all the frames, optimize it in Photoshop (save for web)then re-import into XaraX and create the animation there, but I'm not comfortable with the results.

Also tried reducing the number of frames, but I loss quality.

Any suggestions to optimize the size of this animation?

Saludos,
Juan

[gwpriester]

Yep that is one big mama of an animation.

You might try Xara's 16 color with dithering option. And you will definitely have to reduce the number of frames. Also making the logo smaller will help somewhat.

One thing Xara 3D is good for is adding depth to a 2D logo such as this one. Perhaps you could rotate the logo a little bit and leave it as a still image?

As the animation is now the only practical use for it would be for a desktop presentation where it could load from the computer and as such would start playing instantly. But for the web, most visitors will be long gone by the time the second frame loads. http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/eek.gif

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person


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www.gwpriester.com </a>


<a href="http://www.xaraxone.com">
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[Juan Carlos]

Thanks Gary,

I will try your suggestions, when I reimport the animation in XaraX reduced almost half of the current size, but the animation started to jump http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

The still image is not what the client wants, but in the other hand I could put the logo in XaraX and create the animated logo, with some bevels and compare the results.

Thanks again for your kind response.
Juan

[gwpriester]

creating the animation in Flash.

You won't be able to have the cool bevels but you can create a zippy animation at a very small file size.

And maybe there are other tricks than rotating logos :-)

I would not recommend the Flash export option from Xara 3D 5 because the file size is still quite large, although if you have Flash, you can open the SWF file and save it and the file size will be somewhat smaller.

Here are two Xara X to Flash tutorials that may give you some ideas:

February 2001 Xara Xone Tutorial

March 2001 Xara Xone Tutorial

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person


<a href="http://www.gwpriester.com">
www.gwpriester.com </a>


<a href="http://www.xaraxone.com">
The Xara Xone </a>

[Juan Carlos]

Gary,

I tried your recommendations and I reduce the file to 172kb using 16 colors and dithering, without even changing to a smaller frame, but I will follow the suggested flash approach.

Your tutorials are so easy to follow that I don't anticipate any problems at all.

Gracias de nuevo Gary,
Juan

http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif