looking for a good framework/interface for creating an image browser

My apologies if this question is too general, as this is my first time using stackoverflow. :)

Basically, I wanted to write an image browser that would crawl a directory tree for images, insert them into a DB, and display them hierarchically. I wanted it to run fullscreen, be fairly fast to browse through large images, and have some niceties like sliding and fading animations when transitioning between views.

I originally started using Adobe AIR's HTML/JS interface + jQuery since I'm already familiar with HTML, etc. and needed access to the local filesystem. The problem at this point is that AIR is painfully slow, especially with large images. I can't figure out any efficient way to generate thumbnails o开发者_如何学Gof the images either (as3corelib is being distributed as an SWC now, which I've been unable to include into the page even after extracting the SWF from it).

So, basically, I'm just looking for a way to rapidly set up an interface, generate thumbnails, and display large images quickly and "smoothly" (e.g. with animations, etc.) I don't mind learning a new interface, and I'm fairly proficient with C/C++, Python, C#/VB.NET, Javascript, and HTML/CSS. I'd prefer something which would allow rapid interface prototyping, rather than having to write a lot of the interface stuff from scratch (for example, I was considering pygame, but dropped it after realizing that I'd have to write all the stuff for scrolling through a list of thumbnails myself).

Thanks in advance, and sorry for the poorly-worded question. :\

I personally LOVE both ASP.NET and jQuery. I have done something similar, where I've written code to crawl a directory and input the data into the database using the backend (ASP.NET). Then I spit the records back out using either a foreach loop (MVC) or a Repeater Control (Web Forms) and attach the elements to a slick looking jQuery gallery (there's lots to choose from)

http://speckyboy.com/2009/06/03/15-amazing-jquery-image-galleryslideshow-plugins-and-tutorials/

Galleriffic is my favorite