Have you noticed the advertisements on various websites lately? Mostly they are still images but some of them are animated and gives you a notion as those are videos which they actually are not. Those are SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) images, deemed as sort of revolution in imaging and animation industry. SVG images have become extremely popular for creating high end 2D or 3D graphic animated images.

Creating animation is like chewing nuts or is it?

If you (like me) are not very friendly with Photoshop or Coral Draw or Gimp, then you might think that it is impossible to create such animated image your self. And even if you are good at Photoshop how comfortable are you with creating animations with it? Creating animated images does sound like a herculean task until you get a handy tool that can let you create /convert SVG photos?

Behold Pac-n-Zoom:

Pac-n-Zoom is an online tool that lets you create/convert ordinary photos in animated SVG graphics, easily. Best part, you don’t need to be an expert do so. Launched by Accelerated I/O, Inc which claims that it has created first photo animation application where users can upload photographs, convert them in SVG and can create animation that will run on most modern browsers (which means Internet Explorer needs special treatment). If you want to know how easy it is to create an animation with Pac-n-Zoom, take a look at the pictures below:

Now you wondering how the animation actually look like? You can see the animation created in example here. For more information on creating SVG animation with Pac-n-Zoom, try their .

Features of Pac-n-Zoom

• Accepts upload of JPEG and PNG file formats
• Background image can be left as JPEG or PNG and SVG animations run in front of it
• Animations can be viewed in all major browsers, although IE will need Adobe’s SVG Viewer plug-in
• File format is SVG which is an open standard developed and recommended by the W3C
• Animations can be zoomed in or out
• Animations can be timed
• Animations can moved up to 100 places in the photo
• The SVG standards allow many other animation options which Accelerated I/O intends to incorporate into their app

Verdict:

Pac-n-Zoom is still in beta, so you might find some glitches at the moment for e.g., animation can only be created on Mozilla Firefox presently. Pac-n-Zoom charges a penny per 10000 pixels which means that an average SVG animation conversion may cost you somewhere between 5-10 cents. I would suggest Pac-n-Zoom to opt for the freemium model in which premium users enjoy more functionality than the free users. If you are a professional and regularly deals with animation you must consider trying Pac-n-Zoom.