how is youtube doing this anyone know?
 

hi,

look at this picture
http://s.ytimg.com/yt/img/master-vfl58583.gif

deviantart.com has the same thing

i understand it has something to do with moving the image up , down left right to display a certain part of the image but since there are a lot of images on one image file. anyone know how its really being done? if you've seen a tutorial on this let me know.

thanks

The popular term for using images like the one above is "CSS sprites" which were introduced as a way of cutting down the number of HTTP requests that have to be made (and therefore saving time for the page to load).

The classic discussion about using CSS sprites comes from A List Apart magazine back in 2004: A List Apart: Articles: CSS Sprites: Image Slicing’s Kiss of Death