Sarasota PC Monitor
Animation Factory Essential Collection
A Software Review
by Dave Gerber
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.One of my favorite things about computing is working with visual media or as I sometime refer to it as "Eye Candy". Plain text is fine, but just being "fine" just doesn't cut it for me. Graphics, clipart and photos elevate a composition to a creation and since I can't draw a lick I am thankful that my computer gives me the tools I need to "create". Take for example Dave "Bytes". (If you are a member of SPCUG and not receiving my newsletter shame on you.) Sure, I could send it as plain text, but how boring is that?
Imagine viewing a PowerPoint presentation that contained no graphics. Odds are you never have because it wouldn't be visually interesting. How likely would you return to a Website that wasn't visually interesting? Graphics help illustrate the information we are trying to share and that's what led me to the "Animation Factory".
I have, for quite some time now, subscribed to an email newsletter from the "Open Source Development Network" (http://www.osdn.com) titled "OSDN Update". Most of the time I scroll through the article headings to see if there is something that interests me but I always scroll to the bottom where I'll find an area called "Animation of the Day". Every issue includes an animated gif which is a graphics file that displays a set of images in succession fast enough to simulate movement. These types of animations can be found on almost every Website including www.spcug.org (see "What's New")
When I came across an animated gif that I wanted to save, all I have to do is "right-click" on the image and choose "Save Picture As" and then direct the file to be saved in a folder I had created called (get this for originality) "Animated Gifs". Over time I've collected hundreds of these animations, which I use often, especially in e-mail.
As I got more and more interested in animated gifs I decided to go direct to the creative source of these files, The Animation Factory (www.animationfactory.com). Once there you will have access to over 3000 animations, which you can save to your computer using the same method. All of the images can be found within various categories such as Alphabets Animals, Birds, Buildings, Business, Children, Computer, Creatures, Dividers, Flags, Food, Holiday, Events, Insects, Machines, Misc, Money, Music, Nature, Objects, People, Religious, School, Science, Sports, Symbols, Time, Transportation, War, Web Buttons and Web Text. I really enjoy browsing through the images and adding to my collection but I felt my experience was, shall I say, incomplete. The Animation Factory Website has a Search Engine it calls "Bloodhound." Enter a key search word and you are then provided with the results of that search. Unfortunately, all of the Animations shown as a result of the search have the word "SAMPLE" embedded on top of them. In order to get access to these high quality animations you need a "Premium Gold Site Membership."
A One Year On-Line Subscription ($39.95) gives you over 120,000 Animations, 50,000 design graphics, a convenient search engine (Bloodhound) and thousands of new graphics that are added each month. Not enough? I thought not. That's why I give BIG thumbs up to the Animation Factory Essential Collection. This 4 CD Collection comes beautifully packaged in a videotape style box along with a 115-page manual and image catalogue. This "Essential Collection" contains 150,000 Web, E-Mail and Presentation Animations not available elsewhere. Again, broken down by category, you can browse the images on the CD's and either import them into your chosen application or copy to your computer for future use. Each image offers you the option to save it various formats and sizes. One of the nice features is that each animation can be saved with a "clear" background, which lets you use them on a colored background without an unsightly white box around it. Each image can also be edited, which I found to be a very simple task to accomplish.
There are also some very cool animations that can be used as backgrounds in either email or on a Website. Every Image in the "Essential Collection" can also be saved as a Hi-Resolution Still Image that can be used in any application that accepts graphics. When you purchase the "Essential Collection" you also get a free one year Premium Gold Site Membership. Here is one piece of software that will not become obsolete or ever become unusable. Certainly a resource I will refer to on a daily basis.
So now I have access to 270,000 Animated Gifs. Do you know what that means? You should never receive a boring old plain text email message from me again.
Animation Factory Essential Collection and Premium Gold Site Membership can be purchased at www.animationfactory.com for $59.95. :
Copyright 2002. This article is from the May 2002 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/
The Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. has 1,300+ members and was established in 1982. We are members of the Assoc. of PC User Groups (APCUG), the Florida Assoc. of PC Users Groups, Inc., and we are members of the America Online Ambassador Program.
See http://www.spcug.org for all reviews from the Sarasota PC Monitor, go to the Newsletter Section.