Carboniferous Critters

Wednesday, 16th December 2004
Wild West Yorkshire nature diary

I've just taken on designing a new website for the local geological conservation group that I'm secretary of, West Yorkshire RIGS (see link below). As we've decided on a spiral, representing a goniatite, as a logo for the signs on a local geological trail the group is designing, we decided we might as well go for that as a logo for the group too. I decided I'd have a go at animating the squidlike mollusc that lived in the fossil shell, 300 million years ago. The Carboniferous goniatite was a forerunner of the better know ammonite of Jurassic times.

The idea is that the animation will bring the site to life; I'm going to have fun designing it but I intend that the information about geological sites across the region will be clearly laid out.

Ammonitic Animations

I'm surprised how wobbly this animation is; I didn't realise that I'd drawn the shell so differently in each frame. My bubbles I can improve on and I certainly wouldn't give it such a rolling eye next time but, on the credit side, those tentacles aren't too bad! Look forward to trying some more animations, now that I've got in the mood for them again.

Related Link

West Yorkshire RIGS at the time of writing just the bare bones of the site are online.

Richard Bell, richard@willowisland.co.uk