Blinky and rotaty animations in the year 2006?

[remi]

Excuse me, but I have to ask this:
Whenever I look through the contributions in the Xara3D forum I wonder, because I thought, the time of blinky and rotaty animations would be past?
I mean, which professional website uses rotating 3D text in the year 2006?
I know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and perhaps I'm wrong, but are you able to show me such a professional (!) site?

Remi

[-=Drifter=-]

i have been so impressed with how people in the 3d forum have been using xara 3d that i bought it just yesterday

and if i ever freshen up my dead site i will most likely want to have some of these "blinky and rotaty animations"

do you have xara 3d6?

[jamesmc]

I suppose not everyone has or wants a professional Website. Some just want a fun Website, where they can share pictures, ideas or whatever. If one has a Website dedicated to an American Football team, maybe they want a rotating logo. Why? Because the the logo rotates on television as well?

Some of the professional websites look good. However, there are some designs that make me feel that I've just swallowed a cup of sand and they want to give me a dry air chaser.

If you want to be in vogue, then by all means use the smooth curves, monotone colors and some sort of techno mood music...if that's your ticket by all means do it.

However, if you are a jelly-bean making, hot-dog-contest eating, beer-guzzling kind of gal or guy, then you will want your Website to have a few blinkies and rotating text.

[remi]

Hi Bob,

I've downloaded a trial version of Xara 3D6 and play a little bit with it. Xara 3D6 offers a real easy interface and I like software with easy but professional interfaces (it's more difficult to develop a software which is easy to use, than to program a software with a bad and complicated interface).
So, Xara 3D6 is a nice tool so far.

But after exporting some examples and look into some contributions here, I've ask myself: For which project should I use these "blinky and rotaty" animations? And that's my question here. These rotating 3d-text animations were "trendy", "in", "state of the art" at the start of the Internet, but not these days.

Or am I totally wrong? Are there new professional websites with this style?

Remi

[remi]

I agree with you, James - websites with techno mood music aren't the one and only solution to present whatever you need to present on the Net.

But I was in hope, that there is such a thing like moderate progress in Website Design. I was in hope, that Flash developers aren't using 4pt/5pt pixelfonts anymore and that's the same with "blinky and rotaty" animations.

What's your opinion? Is there any hope?

Remi

[Intbel]

These rotating 3d-text animations were "trendy", "in", "state of the art" at the start of the Internet, but not these days.
Or am I totally wrong? Are there new professional websites with this style?
Remi

What do you mean by a 'professional' website?
Whatever is the current fashion?
Whatever is the latest hi-tech format?

I tend to treat websites the same as I treat desk-top publishing.
That, is, what is most important is the information a website is to impart.

As with magazines, illustrations in web pages not only aid the process of imparting information they also break up large chunks of text which would otherwise not, perhaps, be read.

As do, perhaps, smileys in forum posts http://www.intbel.com/images/smileys/Mine/rfb012.gif

Illustrations may also provide pure decoration just to make pages more attractive.

Xara 3D was originally designed to produce 3D text in an infinite number of ways and is still the best application available for this purpose.
Look around you, whether on web pages, on billboards or in magazones and even on packaging, 3D test is used extensively.

So if we have established that 3D text is acceptable and even desireable then having designed your perfect 3D logo, how better to draw your readers' attention to it than to have it moving in some way?

That, to me, is the logic in the use of animations - they attract the readers' attention.
However, they can also detract the reader's attention from the message you intend to get across.
All tools are double-edged.

Now as to professionals sites - I don't understand what you mean by 'professional'. To my mind a professional is one who gets paid for his work as opposed to someone who doesn't and there is a lot of stuff out there done by folks who are paid which is exceedingly amateurish.

Quality web pages will do what they are intended to do without floss an' gloss. Illustrations, whether animated or otherwise, will add to the quality of the reader's experience rather than detract from it.

Recently I was asked to totally re-vamp a website from scratch. Being rather reluctant to do so for the client has bought into a hosted template-driven package in which any design is limited to the provided templates, I am not able to afford to turn away any work so accepted the commission.

The point of this preamble is to demonstrate one way of how the use of an animated logo can work.

The animation in the header banner, while not being intrusive, draws the reader's attention to the logo and hopefully the logo will be remembered and recognised whenever it is seen thereafter. Thus the animation has a pre-determined purpose and is not put in just 'cos I can.

See it here.

Not 3D, but the principle remains the same.
(The whole banner was contrived in Xara Xtreme using four photographs with the logo and animated text on top)

At the end of the day, what makes a webpage work is not so much what is used but how it is used. Seek not to find an excuse to use all your bells and whistles, rather, seek to discover which (if any) of your bells and whistles will enable your web pages to do what you want them to do.

Disclaimer: While I may describe myself as a professional ('cos I have paying clients) by no means would I describe myself as an expert and the above is my opinion only.

Incidentally, one of the best uses I have had for X3D was in part of a screensaver produced for advertising purposes. Worth the cost of the programme, that was!

[remi]

Hi Intbel,

I do not agree completely with you. You're right with your statement, that information is the most important of a website. But the Web works different as print. If you want to design effective Websites, good Webdesign, usability and credibility is very important. The visitors of a web page may not be overloaded with information. If they visit a Website and recognize their value not immediately, they surf to the next best Website. That's the nature of the Web and the challenge for a Web designer is to animate the visitors to stay longer. But one common failure in Webdesign is, to positionize a lot of animations on a webpage. Some Web designer do not know, that this is information overhead and most of the users feel irritated (see also "How we really use the Web").

You said, you don't understand what I mean by 'professional'. A professional website isn't necessary a commercial one, but a well made and a quality one.
"Professionalism is the competent implementation of the knowledge gained through experience with a commitment to quality and performance." [1]

Furthermore, I would say, that it's not really necessary to follow each new trend. Design is a subject of a cyclic change and there are always new tendencies in Webdesign. One does not have to follow to this compellingly, but one should notice at least, if a change of trend occurred.

I would say, there are four different classifications of Webdesign possible:
1. latest trends
2. mainstream
3. old-fashioned/outmoded
4. classical

In my point of view, "blinky and rotaty" animations belongs to point 3: old-fashioned/outmoded.

Therefore I wonder, if there were new professional websites, who uses such a style.

Remi

[Intbel]

Hi Intbel,
I do not agree completely with you. (I snipped the rest 'cos 'tis too big for a quote)
Remi

Remi,, you are, of course, right in what you say.
Particularly re number of images on a page.
That said, I am guilty of having a page full of animations and in this case it is appropriate for the page is all about animations ... and another is banners, examples of.

Latest trends is 8pt fonts and these drive me away.
Latest trends is Flash for everything. I don't want to wait forever, or even at all, for a page to load.

Animated gifs, unobtrusive, work.
The same with Flash objects.

I guess the web designer has three choices:
1. Design according to client brief;
2. Design according to targeted readership;
3. Design according to his personal taste.

Would you call this a professional website? With those size fonts I'd notbother reading further and the noise would put me off anyway.

How about this site?
An animated banner at the top + some scrollingtext lower and to the right. Okay, so it is Flash as opposed to a gif but so what? The principle is the same - a moving image.

This site I think answers your question about whether or not modern sites use these animations.

Incidentally, although I'll turn out animated banners an' suchlike at the drop of a hat, I use static headers on my webpages.

[Seagull]

Whenever I look through the contributions in the Xara3D forum

Well, if this this an open thread, I'll give my opion also. I agree with Remi in that I think a web site is for information, and what you need is good taste, good design and while flash may be nice at times, my site consist of just old fashion html which I do myself with an html editor called site aid. Where I do disagree with him is with the above quote. People are using the forum in many cases as a learning aid and it's true there is a lot of three "d" text, maybe because it's the easiest thing to do or to create while concentrating more on the technique. While trying to learn the sizing pixel I didn't have hours to spend so the text was very quick and easy to create and it gave me a chance to experiment with the bounding pixels, which was the whole point. I doubt if I will ever be able to create the way the rest of you guys (and gals) do but it doesn't stop me from having fun while trying. Yesterday I was fooling around with the four gears, two vertical, two horizontal (with absolutly no success I should mention) but while learning I could use four zero's or four "oh's" just as well as spending minutes or hours creating shapes in xara that will accompish the same thing while in the learning stages.

But again, I agree with Remi and Intbel that a site does not need a bunch of gimmicks and animation just because you can. I give a lot of big name sites a very low rating even though they are full of flash and other gimmicks and animation because I have a very hard time navigating or trying to find things in them. Other times I visit sites where I have to scroll horizontally because my screen resolution is smaller than the designers or they put in flash that does not work in my computer unless I download a plug in, and in this case I think to myself..."they can kiss my jolly green ass" as I leave their site, and if they were trying to sell me something, they just lost my business. In my opinion, keep it clean, simple, good tastes and easy to navigate and find information and you just created a good site..........frank..oh yeah, try to keep it small also, there are still a lot of people out there with older machines still on dial up.

[Intbel]

In my opinion, keep it clean, simple, good tastes and easy to navigate and find information and you just created a good site.

That about sums up my feelings and thoughts .
And navigation - grrr!