Flock of Seagulls

[bencooperjewelers]

I've been searching for a neat eye-catching way to promote our new nautical jewelry, and after seeing a mouse trailer script go haywire (no matter where my mouse was, it assumed it was in the top left corner) I had an idea.

I'd like to see a script where I have a set line (a perch type thing) defined to a specific area on my page (ie, at the top of a picture). On that line I'd have a number of "birds" or something similar that sit there. When a user mouses over them, they fly up for a few moments and fly around, then land in the same spot. The mouse trailer I saw had bats that flew around your mouse in a hectic and varied way, and I thought there might be some way to alter this script and combine it with another so it will be functional on mouse over.

Is this kind of script even possible without the use of flash or really advanced coding?

[djr33]

Following a mouse is one thing, just changing the position of an image (perhaps an animated image).

It is, I suppose, possible to have, onmouseover, an event triggered that the birds fly around a bit, but this type of thing would be much more suited for flash, etc.

It's certainly not a standard effect in javascript.

Really, all of those scripts are just annoying. You might think they are cool, but I guarantee most of your users would just be annoyed. Think of the last time you went to a site with loud music that played, or popups, or, yes, even trailing cursor images, etc. Did you like that?

[bencooperjewelers]

True, which is why i thought something small like that and something that could be manually triggered (either on mouse over or on click) would have the same eye-catching effect but not quite as annoying. I had imagined it on top of a banner for the new line, and more as an easter egg than the main page feature.

[djr33]

That's a good point, that it isn't as intrusive.

I'll think about it. Not sure if this is within my level of Javascript to write, though.

[Sliight]

http://www.gifmania.co.uk/birds/seagulls/

Not exactly what you want... but could ask permission to use an image, then create a still image. On mouseover the animated image could load...