working on a new site dealing with computers... i need fast load times on the front page (index) so will a flash banner or animated GIF banner do best? I want the banner to have several different motions and images so it will be pretty intensive... don't know if a GIF would be best?
I would use flash if its a banner and animation in flash can be pretty good file size. A banner as .gif would be larger file size i believe.
well, actually it depends on what you're looking for, but I'd say flash if its something very professional.
Depends on content and audience. Anything that has a great deal of motion that is done with vectors instead of bitmaps obviously leans towards Flash. Anything that is going to be viewed by an audience that is likely to not have the version of flash needed installed I would go gif.
The gif will work everywhere, and Flash only if is install Flash-player. But at a gif really it is worse quality and more file size
Animated Gifs perform poorly in certain browsers. So whether you choose flash or gif you are not going to be able to reach everybody. I think that is why a lot of major sites use flash only on certain pages of their website. SEO for flash is not great either. That said, I would go with Flash. Smaller file size, better look. Just make it backwards compatible.
With flash you can always set the "version of Flash Player needed" such that you do not have to have the latest and greatest flash player in order to view the content. I am just clarifying what at least one poster has already stated (with regard to backward compatibility). I tend to try to keep my stuff at a Flash Player 6 level unless I really have a reason to use something that requires a higher level of Flash player. Nearly EVERYONE can play Flash 6 content...
I think Flash will be a better choice. You can do more complex things with Flash and it compresses nicely without loosing quality as much as animated gifs.
I say flash because if the image can be vector, it will be a tiny tiny file. you can have rollovers you can have buttons or clickables you have more precise control over the timing If you were to use GIF it would work in all browsers without additional plugins but, you wouldn't have control over the speed it plays at you just have an animation or a looping animation no clickable items or rollovers likely larger file size
if you don't have flash, or aren't ready to learn it, a simple alternative to it that's cheap and easy it swish. swishzone(dot)com < it's a great tool and it saves flash files with a lot of control. I think you'll be surprised. Even I've used it to create animations I could never have done in flash because of the learning curve...
i have used swish... it is more like a stripped down flash program. Also tried the export to gif from flash feature... but that totally was not what i was looking for. i am going with flash. thanks for the help!