A number of technologies can be employed to deliver animation on the Web. The technologies can vary significantly in their sophistication, intended purpose, and effectiveness. The nature of your project, as well as your time, technical background, motivation, patience, bandwidth, and those of your viewers, will contribute to your selection of the appropriate technology.
Animation depicts motion by rapidly displaying a series of slightly altered images.
It can be useful on course Web sites for conveying concepts that are visual in nature and not readily described with language or still images. For example, vegetable crops Professor Carlos Quiros uses animations to illustrate genetic processes for his Genes and Gene Expression course. When they talk about Web animation, most people are referring to GIF, or Graphic Interchange Format, files. Newer GIF standards allow for some timing control, transparencies, and other minor sophistications. For longer sequences or more complex images, video formats such as MPEG, Quicktime, or AVI may save you bandwidth.