Software Review:
Astound Dynamite
Part 3
By Scott Clark
Buttons, Bells and Whistles
These buttons simply bring up a dialog box which lets you choose an animated GIF or an image from your hard drive to use in the page. Once the image is on the page, you select it by clicking on it, and then click the Path button from the same toolbar as before. You then click on the page where you would like the animation to begin, and click at each point on the path you would like it to take (See figure 2). Then you double-click at the animation's end point. You can check your animation out by clicking on the right arrow button on the top of the Dynamite window. If you'd like to see an animation I created, check out our example.
Figure 2: Dynamite's Path tool enables the developer to create DHTML animations.
Each HTML object can be presented using a transition (wipe, cover, uncover, circle in, circle out, etc), and each object can have an interaction with other objects. Each object may also include mouse-related effects, such as mouse-over or click, and a sound may be related to the object. Besides the ability to create cool animations, Dynamite features several other instant effects which can come in handy. It will create the JavaScript necessary for mouse roll-overs, and it will even create the raised, lowered and greyed out images from your original image. It can also rotate and shrink animated GIFs, and includes a graphic utility (See figure 3) which will enable you to add many different graphic effects including:
- Barrel
- Bevel
- Diffuse
- Emboss
- Gray Scale
- Melt
- Ripple
Additionally, Dynamite's QuickSet tool, which is basically a sophisticated drawing tool, enables developers to create many graphic effects. Dynamite also features other effect buttons, such as FunText, Funky Button, Astound WebMotion Animation, and Digital Clock. These are actually Java applets which, although fun, add additional download time to your pages.
Figure 3: Dynamite's Image tool lets you create some fancy image effects.
Although Dynamite is not a tool that every Web developer should run right out and purchase, it can be just the tool that a beginner is looking for. It does allow even those with no knowledge of HTML--let alone DHTML--to create visually appealing Web sites, slide shows, and presentations. It creates versions which will work for both DHTML-capable and standard Web browsers, and it even shows you which effects work for which browser.
Dynamite does has some limitations, but as long as you can live with them, you can add some multimedia Dynamite to your Web site, even if you're a novice!
This article first appeared in February, 1998.
Web Developer Site Feedback
Web Developer
Copyright © 1999-2001 internet.com Corp.
All rights reserved.
