Animated Home Page

**Mach 3** · 22 March 2013, 02:36 PM

Hello Talkgraphics!
I'm desperately trying to find out if WebDesigner will allow me to create a site that loads the Home Page as an animation, then the static elements on the page become accessible as buttons. My idea is to have the page look loike a cartoon shoreline, seen from above. The static elements would be the site name as if written in the sand. The buttons would be cartoon representations of, say, a shell, a starfish, a bottle - which would serve as buttons to access various content (eg the shell for audio etc). The animated element would be a cartoon wave which enters the page from above, swirls around the static objects, then washes back out to the top of the screen (right out of 'shot') and reveals the site name written in the sand. Is this at all possible in WD 7?
ANY pointers would be appreciated! I've searched and searched but I can't find any info on how one goes about this type of thing! (might be me just using the wrong terminology, though)

**gwpriester** · 22 March 2013, 03:17 PM

Welcome to TalkGraphics

Web Designer does have an animation window and you can create a flash animation which you can then add to your home page.

But you have to create the animation.

**Mach 3** · 22 March 2013, 03:30 PM

Thanks for the speedy reply GW. Would it be poss to import as an swf from another vector-based application? Does WD allow you to import a swf that fills the whole page? I seem to remember there being a restriction to the size of swf or animation you can load? Also is it possible to 'overlay' the buttons on the swf/animation. I've not used WD for a couple of years now and seem to remember this type of thing as being difficult (but I was new to it then - maybe it just went over my head)

**gwpriester** · 23 March 2013, 01:02 AM

You can create simple animations and you can tween between frames (create in between frames) with named objects. But the options are fairly limited. Though this has never stopped members such as Egg Bramhill from creating some very excellent animations.

At any rate, yes, you can bring an external SWF file into WD using a placeholder (See Help > Placeholder Objects) using the Placeholder > Replace with Flash option.

**Egg Bramhill** · 23 March 2013, 07:51 PM

There's no limit to the size you can create your Flash. Just create your swf file from Xara and embed it in an Iframe.

The starfish, bottle & shell have links. I've included the web file for you to pull apart. Needs a lot more work to make it more convincing

**Mach 3** · 24 March 2013, 05:47 PM

Wow! Hi, Egg. How very kind of you. I'm blown away! How long did it take you to do this? I'm bowled over by a response to my query that not only perfectly illustrates that it's possible but also includes a working example of exactly what it is I'm trying to achieve. Actually, I'd be looking to make it 'less' convicing than more, if you know what I mean. I'm either going to give it a stylistic look similar to Ponyo-style animation or make it more monochromatic and 'sketchy'. Now I know it's possible, though, I can crack on with the aesthetics. Again, I can't thsnk you enough.
I had a look at your site - it's excellent. Sophisticated but playful Brilliant idea well executed. Is web design your main business/source of income? and how did you come to it?

**Egg Bramhill** · 24 March 2013, 05:58 PM

Hi Mach 3 and thanks for your remarks. It took me about 2 hours to create. I use Flash normally to create my swf files but out of interest I thought I'd try it in Web Designer to make sure it could be done.

A cartoon look would be better as it would greatly reduce the filesize. Please post a link to your site if & when you get it working, I'd like to see it.