Best file format for animation

[MarieMeyer]

Hello, I am new to Captivate. I need to commission a freelancer to create an animation for me. It is just an object floating in space that rotates. There is no interactivity - the student has no control over the rotation, the angle of view, etc.

What is the best format for animations of this type, given that I want to include them in Captivate slides?

The colors of the animated image are very important.

[David Burnham HBA]

No interactivity, no user control, just an animation playing on a slide - say like a spinning globe.

Use Photoshop or Illustrator to create the object and use Adobe After Effects to animate and Adobe Media Encoder to create and MP4  and place the video file in the Captivate slide.

[MarieMeyer]

Thank you. What size should I specify as the maximum? I'm assuming most users will view the course from a desktop or laptop machine, not a tablet, not a phone.

[MarieMeyer]

Also, can I ask why MP4 and not SWF or GIF?

[David Burnham HBA]

MP4 can be played in any html5 compatible browser, swf is flash based video requiring the flash player  = end of flash will happen very shortly. Animated gif would be stilted for an animation of this type - video will give you a smooth playing animation.

Size do you mean file size as in mgb or aspect ratio. If you want to play on the entire slide then it would be the size of the slide or the project size at the largest.Of course it could be a smaller video object.

Anyone creating the animation and using Adobe Media Encoder should be versed in video and audio compression, frame rate etc. You could describe you playback environment internal or external web server, lms etc and specify a minimum data rate for the video.

[Lilybiri]

Know however that the file size of a MP4 is much bigger than for an OAM or an animated GIF,  huge difference.