what do you use to make your animated banners?

[balls_deep]

Hey everyone, what are you guys using to make animated banners? I'm looking for a simple program that will allow me to use static banners and link them together.

basically i want blinky "click here" text.

any suggestions?

[Hammer]

Photoshop and Image Ready

[aardvark2]

Photoshop and Image Ready

[porn punk]

ImageReady all the way. There's no dispute unless you want to get complex and go with flash

[mynameisjim]

Photoshop and Image Ready work great but they are expensive if you are not upgrading.

For Flash banners you can't beat Kool Moves. $50 and it takes about 4 seconds to learn how to use it. Free trial too.

There are a few animated GIF programs as well that can be had for $20-$30 but I don't remember any names off hand. Most have a trial so you can check them out.

[Compdoctor]

I use Ulead GIF Animator works good for me. I love the part where you can take a movie, resize it and make a banner

[sojproductions]

i always use fireworks, just find the export wizard highly useful for filesize and colour accuracy! don't use flash as the file sizes are always to high and quality poor for animated gifs

[balls_deep]

hmm.. quite a few suggestions, thank you all.

i guess i get to be a pirate today

shiver me timbers and hide your activation keys.

[Hammer]

Avoid federal prosecution and download this one instead. I used it years ago and it's an excellent program. http://www.jhepple.com/gif_animator.htm

Somehow I assumed you already had Photoshop and Image Ready, that's why I suggested it.

[balls_deep]

Originally posted by Hammer
Somehow I assumed you already had Photoshop and Image Ready, that's why I suggested it.

I have photoshop and i think i may even have imageready on the cs2 disk as well, i never messed with anything other than photoshop, but i think i have the entire suite.

[Compdoctor]

Originally posted by balls_deep
hmm.. quite a few suggestions, thank you all.

i guess i get to be a pirate today

shiver me timbers and hide your activation keys.

Nice link, thanks

[porn punk]

Originally posted by balls_deep
I have photoshop and i think i may even have imageready on the cs2 disk as well, i never messed with anything other than photoshop, but i think i have the entire suite.

If you have photoshop you most likely have imageready unless your photoshop is version 4 or earlier.

Imageready has a small animation program in it that's very easy to learn and set timing to using layers. Just save it optimized as a gif once you're finished. Run through the built in help section punching in "animation" for specifics.

Flash is much better, but it takes a little more to get it down. I just recently made a couple animated banners and forgot how to use flash it's been so long so I jumped over to imageready and settled for something simplier for the time being.

If you know photoshop, Imageready is very easy (it's a built in "sub-program" that comes with it standard now) and probably what you should be using for making things for the web anyway (except when you need to jump back to photoshop for something imageready can't do, which you do at the bottom of the toolbar window).

Have fun!

[Hammer]

The nice thing about that gif animator I linked to is that it will do transitions automatically, but with Image Ready you have to manually prepare each image.

[MediaGuy]

Hey Hammer - that gif animator - does it optimize your graphics though, or create big weighty things?

[sassygirl]

Photoshop mostly...

[Hammer]

Originally posted by MediaGuy
Hey Hammer - that gif animator - does it optimize your graphics though, or create big weighty things?

It's been a long time since I used it, but as I recall the file sizes were reasonable. The more advanced the trasitions and the more frames you use the larger the file though. Personally, for really complex banners I use Flash.

[Nate]

I started on Ulead gif animator, then found out I could do it in photoshop and image ready. Now, I only use photoshop and image ready.

[Blake]

It is best never ever to mention the word "flash" because it increases the chances of it spreading on the web.

The horror.

The horror.

[Jimmidean]

Thanks for the info Hammer.
Think I will have a peek myself