Why Use Animation?

I have to tell you, I was one of the last people to jump on the animated GIF bandwagon. At first, I found the animations cheesy and poorly done. As the animations got better and the software to create them more powerful, I changed my tune.

In the world of the Web, many different elements are competing for your reader's attention. Even a single Web page can offer dozens of images for your reader's eyes to wade through. This situation is the same on virtually every Web page. If you want to run a banner ad, how do you attract a reader's attention? How do you get his or her eyes to see through all the other flashy, attractive graphics on the same Web page?

One answer is animation. By animating an image, you make it stand out. You ...

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