Multimedia Controls for Internet Explorer

Microsoft® DirectAnimation™ provides a set of multimedia controls and scripting methods that animate Web pages and provide integration with Dynamic HTML. DirectAnimation has comprehensive support for media types such as 2-D vector graphics, images and sprites, 3-D geometry, video, and sound.

The DirectAnimation multimedia controls provide access to many of the DirectAnimation scripting functions and libraries. These controls allow you to deliver impressive vector graphics, image, and animation content over the Web with little code and short download times.

The following table shows the DirectAnimation multimedia controls.

	Path Control	Move objects around the page over time using splines, geometric primitives, text outlines, or shapes that change dynamically over time with control over speed of motion, looping, forward or reverse playback, and bouncing behavior. This feature requires Internet Explorer 4.0 or later. Click the icon below to install the latest version. Then reload this page to view the sample.
	Sequencer Control	Create complex sequences of action involving Microsoft® ActiveX® controls, scripts, or Dynamic HTML elements. This feature requires Internet Explorer 4.0 or later. Click the icon below to install the latest version. Then reload this page to view the sample.
	Sprite Control	Add still and animated images to your Web page with control over playback speed, forward or reverse playback, dynamic seeking to different positions in the sprite playback, and user interactivity on a frame-by-frame basis. This feature requires Internet Explorer 4.0 or later. Click the icon below to install the latest version. Then reload this page to view the sample.
	Structured Graphics Control	Add extremely lightweight vector graphics to your Web page, fully capable of being scaled or rotated in three dimensions, and then easily apply solid colors, patterns, gradient fills, or bitmap textures to these graphics. This feature requires Internet Explorer 4.0 or later. Click the icon below to install the latest version. Then reload this page to view the sample.

To review reference documentation for each of the DirectAnimation multimedia controls outlined above, see the Microsoft DirectAnimation SDK .

DirectAnimation can be accessed in different ways by different user groups. HTML authors can integrate multimedia using the DirectAnimation multimedia controls. Web authors can add animations (3-D, movies, sound, and so on) using JScript® (compatible with ECMA 262 language specification), Visual Basic® Scripting Edition (VBScript), or Java.

The Microsoft DirectAnimation SDK  provides documentation, samples, and tutorials to help users get up and running with DirectAnimation. The Exercises and Templates sections of the samples contain many small, simple scripting examples that perform one animation task and can be copied and pasted. For example, HWorldJS.htm demonstrates basic text animation as a windowless control. Crop.htm demonstrates a cropped animated image that overlays a variation of itself. Clrswtch.htm demonstrates using Visual Basic buttons to color an animation. DanTrapz.htm demonstrates rectangles with time-varying colors that chase each other along a path.