Text tags on all of your graphics help people know what's there. That makes them more likely to pursue the options you present, rather than go off to another site in frustration. Use the technology appropriately. The rule is that if it winks, if it blinks, if it moves, or if it requires something special to load, it needs to have a positive purpose or it needs to be gone. Here are some rules for today's technologies.
Animations are excellent for showing transitions.
They can also be used to capture attention, but they slow down page loading and create an internal tension for users that work against using them too much. If you're using animations to capture attention, as opposed to illustrating a transition, for example, do not run the animation continuously. Run it for a short, defined period of time and then stop it. This keeps it from being a distraction on the page, while letting it perform its attention attraction function. Frames are excellent for keeping menus and other navigation choices in view, but they slow things done and have a negative effect on the ability of people to bookmark your page or print parts that they want.