Is a having a Flash Cartoon on my website a good idea?

[yousaint]

I have just put a small-ish Flash Cartoon (Flash is the file name for this kind of animation) on the home page of my website http://www.yousaint.com.

Have you found whether you get positive feedback from having a cartoon on your website (e.g fun, demonstrates product, demonstrates emotions linked with your product) or do you get bad feedback (e.g it's annoying, have to wait for it to download).

I chose to have a cartoon as it emphasises that my product is a gift, it adds a bit of movement to the webpage, and is fun.

I limited the file size to just 12KB, which I hope downloads well. I also have not looped the animation as this quickly gets irritating.

Do you have any cartoon tips (e.g. things to show, file sizes, other file types)? Many Thanks.

[annethedonn]

Looks fine to me, very quick and not annoying - I thought it was quite cute.

[Richard Conyard]

Fine, although you might want to save down as animated gif for those without / that block flash

[Richard Conyard]

If you're interested in that sort of thing you might want to have a word with Tony Castle ( http://www.sitepal.co.uk/ ), on here and have your own Site avatar.

[WelshPixels]

Looks great to me and as you said its only a small file anyway.

But...(there is always a "but") its over too quickly, if you are distracted while the page loads then you miss it. May be looping it is the solution?

12kb is a very small file size so I think you have a fair amount of room to manoeuvre and add more frames etc to create a smooth looping.

Perhaps add a small .wav file so there is a fan fare as the halo goes on. (Don’t do this if you loop the animation as it will get really annoying very quickly)

Just a thought

[Eagle]

I'd say it cheapens the site.

Flash in itself is ok but I don't think the cartoon is very professional looking. Try this guy www.mehmetsaygin.com for great looking Flash. :)

[yousaint]

Thanks very much for the always excellent advise, based on your suggestions I have made the cartoon a looper, and have made it a bit higher res.

[Mortime Business Software]

Why would anyone want to see the same animation over and over again when they are trying to read a message? I would just run the animation once on the first download, then leave it static. If the visitor is enchanted enough by the animation and wants to see it again, they will refresh the page.

And I HATE Flash.

Dave

[WelshPixels]

I think flash has it place and I think this is an ideal case.

There is no product to photograph so in this case it shows the concept of the product.

I suggested looping this animation because it was so quick it was over by the time the page had fully loaded, and I think it works well. Having a look at it now the animation is static most of the time and as a result is not too distracting.

I would agree that Flash should not be the "be all and end all" solution to a website. Large animations that distract from the message of the site should be avoided at all costs.

[WelshPixels]

I think flash has it place and I think this is an ideal case.

There is no product to photograph so in this case it shows the concept of the product.

I suggested looping this animation because it was so quick it was over by the time the page had fully loaded, and I think it works well. Having a look at it now the animation is static most of the time and as a result is not too distracting.

I would agree that Flash should not be the "be all and end all" solution to a website. Large animations that distract from the message of the site should be avoided at all costs.

[Eagle]

*
Did you speak with Mehmet regarding a more professional-looking animation?

:)

[Mortime Business Software]

I think flash has it place and I think this is an ideal case.

Yes I agree with you that flash has its place in advertising. Its a question of how much time you want to charge the visitor for the information you are presenting. The longer an animation persists, the longer it will take the visitor to read the information. Since visitors are not usually monkeys, they soon become annoyed and un/subconcsiously associate your image with a negative emotion.

If I were to use Flash on my website, it would be just that - a Flash for the first second when the home page downloads. This makes sense to me because if the flash happens to be an artistic work of genius, then the visitor will tell everyone they know about it, and countless multitudes of admirers and pilgrims will visit the site every day.

Dave

[WelshPixels]

I see where you going Dave, and its always good to hear a well put argument.

When a page loads my eyes explore the page as the various elements load, so my eyes are up, down, left and right. When this page loaded my eyes were still exploring the page when the animation had finished. (I know I am getting slower with old age but I am not that old yet)

I see the need for the set up you described and I have seen many sites use it very well. Most of these, however, had the product or a related image as the final frame left on the screen when the animation finished.

YouSaints product would be an awkward one to find a final image for.

I agree a rapidly repeating animation would be really annoying very quickly. Maybe it should be an animation of a couple of seconds followed by a pause of say 10 seconds?

I think YouSaint is already halfway there because it does pause for a couple of seconds during which the only animation is a twinkle on the halo.