Take a tour of SMIL, the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language, and find out how you can use it to quickly and rapidly build Web-based multimedia offerings incorporating multiple media types.
For a long time, dynamic movement on a Web site meant GIF animations, which were both tedious to create and annoying after the first three repetitions. Then came Macromedia Flash, one of the cooler authoring tools for Web animation, and, with its powerful tweening toolkit, turned drab Web sites into rich landscapes of sound and colour.
Of course, in order to truly exploit Flash's capabilities, you need to know the basics of animation...not always a feasible option, especially for non-technical users who just want to put together a quick online presentation or display a series of sequentially-linked or synchronized media clips. GIF animation doesn't have the requisite power or flexibility for the needs of such users, while the dazzling array of options available in Flash tends to intimidate.