HTML is the basic building material for the world-wide-web. As browsers become more sophisticated, the results you can achieve with HTML alone are ever more interesting. With Javascript and Style Sheets (CSS), all kinds of effects are possible, including a number of interactive options. All the animations on this page, for instance are written purely in HTML without any external program.
Once the coding is complete, all sites are tested in Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer (versions 4 and 5/6) on both PCs and Macintoshes.
Animation can be used to bring both pictures and simple text passages to life, encouraging the viewer to take more interest in what you are saying. Both Flash and LiveMotion allow the addition of sounds to web pages, lending emphasis, for example, to visual effects or interactive elements in the page.
This site is written partly in Flash, to give you a flavour of the kind of effects you can achieve. To see the Flash Menu click on the e4effect logo (above left) to navigate your way from the Main Menu, or follow this link directly to the Flash Menu in a new window.
This is the distinctively unglamorous end of writing for the world-wide-web.
CGI scripts ("programs" would actually be a better description) are a vital part of providing a truly interactive experience for the user. They allow live updates and interaction between the user and an on-line database. Without such scripts, e-commerce and automated response to visitors would be almost impossible.
As everyone knows, not everything you see is quite what you think it is! The ability to take a picture or just a piece of text and make something truly interesting or eye-catching from it is one of the core elements of any good web design. In fact, without the range of graphics manipulation programs currently available, it would be hard to imagine how uninspiring (perhaps unappealing) the world-wide-web would look.
Of course there are loads of other programs which may be used in the course of designing a site.
The first three in this list, for example, are all 3-D modelling programs which allow you to make, for example, short film sequences with a full range of motion around the object or person you are modelling. Amorphium is ideal for complex shapes, Poser allows you to model life-like humans and with Canoma you can take two-dimensional photos (of an object or a building for example), and create a 3-D scene from it.
