MS Gif Animator is ideal for anyone who wants to make a few simple animated GIF files or even pull off an entire short film. Animation software shouldn't have to be complicated. Unlike Flash animation, GIF files can be loaded on many low-end devices without the necessity of third-party software. Browsers that attempt to load animated GIF files and find they can't display them will still be able to show users the first frame of the movie.

The software adheres to the GIF89a file format specifications, which means that the animation it produces should be compatible with just about everything that can load animated GIF files. Users can draw cels in other programs and then loop, spin or fade them with the Microsoft GIF Animator package. Power users will probably find themselves messing around with the pallet and transparency options. Despite the fact that most people just used animated GIF files to liven up boring sites, it's fully possible to produce an entire animated GIF film with this software.

MS Gif Animator became popular because it was distributed with Microsoft FrontPage and Microsoft Image Composer. While it's not actively developed, it's recently seen a real resurgence in popularity. With a footprint that's well under 600 kilobytes, everyone from students to anime fans have found themselves using the program for their own personal projects. No one should have to go out and buy an expensive professional animation program when they can just as easily download this free application.

It's more or less portable and the animation suite can even sit on a floppy disk. Despite it's age, MS Gif Animator runs without hitches on most modern hardware. Even Windows 7 users shouldn't have any problems. People running other operating systems might have a pretty good chance of emulating the software, though there aren't any guarantees. Nevertheless, it's worth a try considering the simplicity of the software.