What is a good way to perform animation using .NET?
I would prefer not to use Flash if possible, so am looking for suggestions of ways which will work to implement different types of animation on a new site I am producing.
The new site is for a magician, so I want to provide animated buttons (Cards turning over, etc.) and also embed video. Is it possible to do this without using Flash or is this the only real solution? I would like to keep it as cross-platform and standard as possible.
JavaScript is probably the way to go if you want to avoid Flash. Check this: http://www.webreference.com/programming/javascript/java_anim/
It won't work for embedded video, though, so you're stuck with Flash for that (or Silverlight, or QuickTime).
Silverlight springs to mind as an obvious choice if you want to do animation using .NET on the web. It may not cover all platforms but will work in IE and FireFox and on the Mac.
Have a look at the jQuery cross browser JavaScript library for animation (it is what is used on Stack Overflow). The reference for it can be found at http://visualjquery.com/1.1.2.html.
Unfortunately without Flash, Silverlight or another plug-in cross system video support is limited.
Silverlight is the answer and Moonlight will be the linux equivalent and available shortly. We have done some beta testing on moonlight and found it fairly stable at with most of the Silverlight work we do.