Rich Media Types
June 7, 1999
With a little imagination, you can do quite a lot with the
animated .gif format. However, for true interactivity and some
really mind-blowing animations, more advanced tools are
available. In the online ad world, banners that are anything
other than an image file are called "rich media." Rich media
types include Shockwave, Flash or Java banners, as well as
various other lesser-known types of media, and HTML banners.
Serving rich media banners can be problematic. Although
high-end banner management software packages can handle
rich media, most of the medium- and low-priced systems cannot.
Also, some types of rich media require certain source files to
be present on the Web server.
Click here to see a comparative review of ad banner
management packages.
Shockwave and Flash, both from Macromedia, are tools that
allow you to create complex animations, including sound and
interactivity, for the Web. Actually, Shockwave is designed
to convert productions made with Macromedia's Director package
into Web-ready animations, while Flash is a self-contained
package. Both offer a timeline-based editing window, where
you can import various types of media, and assemble them
into an animation. These tools have been used to create
whole cartoon programs and fully interactive games over
the Web, so the capabilities are quite extensive.
Click here to read a recent review of Flash.
Here's an example of a Flash banner (your browser must have
Flash installed as a plug-in).
Java is a powerful programming language whose full capabilities
are only now being explored. To create a Java banner, simply
build a Java applet of the desired dimensions. Several shareware
apps are available that let you create simple Java animations
without knowing any Java. They are easy to use, and let you do
basic things like scrolling text. Things like this, however, are
a pitiful example of what Java is capable of. Java could be used
to deliver real-time data to a banner, or even to create an
entire "micro-site" in which a user can choose various options
and even order a product, all within the confines of a 468 x 60
banner.
How about creating a banner using no graphics or animation
software at all? HTML banners are conceptually the simplest
type of all, although banner management systems find them no
simpler than other "rich media." As I mentioned, most of the
lower-end ad management systems can't serve anything other
than graphic files.
To build an HTML banner, simply use the HTML editor of your
choice to create a table with the desired dimensions, and fill
'er up. You can include text, graphics, hyperlinks, form elements
- anything you can do with HTML, and that's quite a lot these
days. If you want to get fancier, you can use an inline frame
(IFRAME)
instead of a table, allowing you to use the REFRESH
attribute to create a multi-frame animation.
Making HTML banners may seem like a no-brainer, but be careful!
They are subject to the same problem that afflicts all HTML
masterpieces - they look different on every system. Can you
spot how I blew it designing the one above? Although I specified
a height of 60 pixels for my table cell, I put in too much text
to fit in that space. Whenever you specify the width or height
of a table cell, it's only a suggestion. The browser will
usually stretch the cell as necessary to accomodate whatever
appears in the cell. If I turned a bollixed banner like this
loose on the Web, there's no telling how it might appear. On
some sites, the text might get cut off, and on others it might
screw up the whole page. The moral is that HTML banners must be
thoroughly vetted on various browsers and systems, and even then
there's no guarantee that they will appear as intended.
Other Resources
Building an Animated Banner
Designing Winning Ad Banners
|
