Tools I Use Look, Ma,... no paper! ARGON ZARK! is drawn directly on the computer with the following toys... er, I mean tools! Links from this page open in a new window.

GIF animation

Boxtop Software, who makes PhotoGIF and ProJPEG (above), also makes GIFmation 2.0 (Mac and Windows), for making animated Gifs. It's $50, but you can get a 30 day free demo from their web site. It features a clear interface and rich feature set. I sometimes use Fireworks and Imageready, but I always seem to come back to GIFmation to do the bulk of my GIF animations. Macromedia Fireworks (above) and Adobe Imageready (ships with Photoshop) are also good GIF animation tools. Fireworks has nice tweening features and Imageready has a good interface and convenient cell preview windows. GIFbuilder (Mac only), is free and a very good animation tool in it's own right. Windows users may also want to check out GIF Construction set. Likewise WhirlGIF for UNIX

Flash animation

I haven't worked extensively with Flash, so I can't speak with great authority. I normally avoid technologies that rely on plug-ins, but the Flash plug-in is becoming so popular (70%+ according to some sources) that it's now reasonable to expect most people to be able to view Flash files. I'm starting to work with it more. Amazon's listing: Mac, Windows Macromedia Flash is, naturally enough, the strongest authoring tool for the format, but Adobe's LiveMotion has some advantages in terms of an elegant user interface and a shorter learning curve, particularly if you are already familiar with Adobe products. Amazon's listing: Mac, Windows