Comparing Animations: VRML vs. GIF89a

VRML sometimes gets a bad rap. It can actually be used to create some very rich interactivity, with high "bang for the buck" in terms of file sizes. Here's an example.

Compare the animation on the left with the one on the right.

Two things stand out about the animation on the left:

  1. it has more interesting motion (and doesn't simply loop)
  2. it's interactive, and can be rotated with the mouse

Another thing that is less obvious - it has a smaller asset size:

VRML AnimationGIF89a Animation
10,816 bytes

2 files

 20,793 bytes

1 file
Of course, you'll need a VRML viewer to enjoy the animation on the left.
3D ImageCube can be used to create the VRML animation (or several other variations) with a few clicks of the mouse. There's another myth down the drain: VRML isn't always hard to author.

By the way, other types of interactivity are possible, like linking each cube face to a different Web page.