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Build animations for your pages.

An animation for a web page is simply a series of images loading one right after another. Using Tripod's Animation Builder, you too can make animations for use on your web page. The two types of animation that Tripod helps you make are those that play once, known as multipart animations, and those that loop at set intervals, known as GIF89 animations, and repeat continually on the page.

Before You Begin

Before you begin working with the Animation Builder, you need to have uploaded the individual graphics that you are planning to use to your Tripod directory. If you are not familiar with how to do that, please refer to the FTP documentation. Generally speaking, the images that you upload should be in the same image format (GIF or JPEG) and should be of similar size and composition.

Generating Animations

If this is your first time, please see our documentation below.

To build you animation, follow the steps below:

1. The name of your animation:

2. The type of animation:

Multipart, plays once
GIF89 Looping; Loop interval -- time in 1/100ths of a second

3. List the graphics files that will compose your animation in order of appearance below, separated by spaces. (e.g. tripod1.gif tripod2.gif) Here's a list of the images at your disposal.

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How to Make Animations

1. Name your animation

The first step with Tripod's Animation Builder is to name the animation to be created by entering a filename in the first field. Do not add an extension such as .gif or .jpg as the Animation Builder will assign your file the appropriate file extension. Depending on the type of animation you create this suffix will be either .anim or .gif.

2. Choose an Animation Type

After you select a filename, choose the type of animation that you would like to create. The multipart animation takes advantage of an animation tool created by Tripod and will work with images in either GIF or JPEG formats. It is also more portable than the GIF89 format as the latter currently only works with Netscape version 2. Your options are:

• A multipart animation composed entirely of GIFs
• A multipart animation composed entirely of JPEGs
• A GIF89 animation composed entirely of GIFS

In the case of GIF89, you must also specify the time interval (in hundredths of a second) between the loading of successive images. The default interval is 50, or 1/2 second.

3. Designate Graphics to Animate

Finally, enter the names of the individual graphic files that will compose the animation in order of appearance. Separate the filenames with a space. Please be sure that your filenames correspond to files in your directory and note that filenames are CASE sensitive.

Click on "Generate Animation" and Tripod will build your new animation and show you a demo. If there is a problem, the Animation Builder will inform you. The animation is stored in your Tripod directory and you can use it like any other graphic.

Common Problems:

• Make sure that you have uploaded your graphics correctly and that you are entering the correct filenames for your graphics.
• You must use the same types of images for an animation.
• You cannot make a looping animation with JPEG images.

Nota bene: Playing with the Animation Builder can drain your disk quota quite rapidly. For this reason, animations do not count against your quota until the next time you visit the Advanced Builder, whereupon you will be informed if you have exceeded your quota. For this reason, you may wish to delete the images that you used to build the animation once you have finished. Don't worry, your animation will still work!