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gemstone main cabochon creation
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Animation of Gemstone
As you can see I created a virtual rotating table with a gemstone in the center to demonstrate a few things related to making a short animation of a rotating gemstone.

(Note: you will need Quicktime to run these animations - free from Apple site. Sorry about that but I work on Macintosh computers.)
The next image shows the finished model and you see that I spared absolutely no expense and fitted the table with a virtual "Paraiba" Tourmaline from the virtual state of Paraiba in virtual Brazil. (not one of those cheap virtual African look-alikes). This will become more apparent in the next animations as you will be able to actually see the virtual "inner glow" of this wondrous stone.
The size of the animation file on the WEB is controlled by several factors.

1.) the physical size of the image - a 320x240 will be smaller than a 480x360
2.) the total length of the animation (the number to seconds it runs)
3.) the frame rate of the animation (4 fps, 8 fps, 16 fps, etc.) (fps = frames per second)
4.) the "codec" used to compress the animation (co-dec = compression -decompression software)

I have chosen to use the 480 x 360 size for most of these tests as it's easy to see, and I have selected a 10 second long animation to make any math more simple to explain. Finally I will show the various effects of the frame rate, and the selection of a suitable codec.

I will try to point out a few things that can aid in making smaller animations. I will end with a couple of non-virtual animations (read that as done with a camera and real stone).
Animate - 1