DC Comics

The Challenge

Create small animations for the DC Comics website based on the cover art of the latest comic books (circa 2002).

The Approach

At the turn of the century the world wide web was smaller, slower, and much simpler than the one people enjoy today.

90's style DC Comics home page

Constraints on bandwidth meant that any animation must be small and heavily-optimized. The limited list of content creation tools and browser plug-ins meant that animations lasting more than a few seconds were nearly always made in Flash.

Structure

run a 15 second animation
loop animation three times
end on poster frame
link to appropriate comic book

Technical Requirements

must be 200 pixels wide and 80 pixels high
must be optimized for speed
must be designed and developed in Macromedia Flash (pre-Adobe)

Success Criteria

follows the standard structure
meets all technical requirements
is engaging to the audience

The Process

Each animation followed more or less the same process:

Collect cover art and in some cases supporting promotional material
Come up with a pitch for the animation.
Receive approval from the online editor.
Create the animation in Macromedia Flash.
Review/revise animation based on feedback from the online editor.
Send completed Flash SWF file to the online editor.

The Results

Each animation followed the prescribed structure and met all of the technical requirements. While exact figures were not shared, the animations did result in greater interest in the comic books based on clicks.

Original size: 200x80

For presentation on this website I converted all Flash animations to modern video and doubled their original dimensions from 200×80 pixels to 400×160 pixels, so some pixelation is noticeable. And while the originals looped three times, these videos only loop twice.