Adding interactivity to the Web

TES 1998

The World Wide Web brings another dimension to desktop publishing and it's one that we are just getting our teeth into. Internet software is fast growing new gizmos and widgets that, used with flare, add magic to a Web page. By helping us add animation and interactivity they help us communicate. Whatever the reason for using them - to allow creativity, develop design skills or enjoy challenge of something new - these are the tools of today's publishing.

For example, if you want to show the Internet world a panorama of the school grounds, there's a tool that assembles a set of overlapping photos into a rolling wrap-around scene. It's called Spin Panorama and it makes QuickTime Virtual Reality movies where you can pan around a scene with a drag of the mouse. That the result impresses and takes under an hour from start to finish makes it even more worthwhile. The technique is to take pictures from a single point using a tripod and digital camera. You load the pictures onto the computer, use the software to arrange them in order and then match the points where the pictures overhang. The software chugs away to assemble the shot, smoothing out the differences between pictures at the same time. As a small group project, involving thought and collaboration this is fun for sure.

Animation is such an eye catcher that it's not surprising to find it used in Web advertising banners. Animated graphics are made from a series of pictures that cycle over and these are an easy matter to construct. You'll will find software for this on the Web, while Micrografx Windows Draw Print Studio does the job without adding complication. You create the first image in a sequence and with a click this is copied to a second where you move the object. You repeat this until the set is complete and you're ready to save the work as an 'animated GIF' to add to a web page like any other graphic.

But professionals use other tools, some needing plenty training and some not. Macromedia's Flash 3 is behind the best you'll see in Web animation - allowing graphics that 'interact' as you roll over them with a mouse as well as all the animation you can imagine. But mere mortals can do this for themselves - at the price of a few hours with its easy tutorial.

Flash provides a time line which you fill as many still frames as you need. For a simple animated title you might type some text on the first frame, and then add your message with a new word on each new frame. You might add a typewriter noise to each frame, press play to run the sequence and if all is well, save the result as a 'Flash Shockwave' movie. The beauty of it is that the result is a surprisingly small file that takes seconds to load over the Internet. If you want to go further with moving graphics, you add say, a picture of a ball in one frame and another in a new position on a later frame. You then get the software to 'tween' or generate all the stills in between. It needs only a little enthusiasm to learn to create objects that bounce, grow, twist, fade or change shape as the sequence runs. Flash 3 comes with clip art and push down buttons to use as menu items on any page. Even first attempts show the potential here while some new education prices helps make the idea reasonable. Another tool to look for is Microsoft's Liquid Motion.

Some new software that defies categorisation is Macromedia's Fireworks. It allows you to mix graphic and photographic images, add text that seems to glow and use textures like paper, wood and red 'goo'. It makes graphic menus, slices up large graphics so they load in smaller chunks and does much of what has become fashionable on the Web. Here are endless opportunities to do great graphic things and edit them endlessly, though it is significantly hard going. As a measure of this, those that are up to speed with other packages like Freehand and Adobe Photoshop will be ready for it.

The other question is whether we are ready for this - suddenly we're dealing with not just how things look on a page but with how people interact with them and what is in vogue. Maybe the best way to get the flare needed is to start experimenting.

Details

Look for free and shareware software on magazine cover discs and at www.tucows.com.

Spin Panorama Web: www.pictureworks.com Contact: Directek 01494 471100

Macromedia Flash 3, Fireworks. Web: www.macromedia.com Contact Macromedia Education Tel: 01344 458600. Macromedia pricing: user licence £39; software £35; manuals: £49. Details at www.chest.ac.uk/software/macromedia

Micrografx Windows Draw Print Studio - www.micrografx.com

Microsoft Liquid Motion www.microsoft.com/liquidmotion

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