Output device issues

Many different devices can be used to display animated content from small mobile screens to large public display boards.

Users may view content personally on there home computer, tablet or on a mobile device such as PDAs and smartphones although animated content may also be found on large public display boards in areas such a shopping centers for commercial purposes as well as through media including TV/Commercials or advertising.

Designing and optimizing an animation to be compatible and successful across multiple platforms can become a great challenge due to the difference in many factors between platforms. Smaller devices such as smartphones or PDAs will have much smaller screen resolution's and may not be able to display all the required content at the same time whilst other factors such as the download speed of connections and physical device processing speed can dramatically effect the appearance of an animation including how smoothly it runs. On device with lower processor speeds animations may run "jerky" and be unpleasing to view whilst downloading content through a slower connection could take long periods of time and put users of watching animations.
Designers must include provisions to adapt animations to the device that is being used such as different resolutions for differing devices and streaming options in order to reduce the loading times of content.

Differences in the resolution between platforms can present a challenge to animation design. If the end user's device has a greater resolution on screen than the content to be displayed then the animation will not fill the screen without zooming in, in turn producing pixelation and unwanted visual effects. If an animations resolution is greater than that support by a device some of the visual content may be lost or cropped off as it cannot simply fit on screen.    

The color depth of device displays can have a dramatic effect on how content is viewed by the end user. If content is created in a higher depth than the end user can display then visual artifacts and color distortion may occur or the file may become un-displayable on certain hardware.

File type is one final consideration that should be mentioned as it is crucial that content is released in a format that is universal between platforms. If content was released in a format such as flash and a device could not support this then the content would be useless regardless of the other considerations above.