CompuServe Messages

<I hope you did not take offense to my statement> Of course not, like "Jose Jimenez" (a Latin American TV character in the 60's — the "Grindl," "Get Smart," "Love that Martian" era) would say: "just pushing your leg" (I have a Spanish accent also) but you were talking about Deluxe Paint, my first love affair with animation. Although, as you know, I found my true love later, I just can't forget the nights Deluxe Paint and I spend alone, in my bedroom, sharing my lap…top. ——- Chapter I I'll forgive you if you look at "CIM World" (LCIM.ZIP), one of the animations I am most proud of. I had to do it using only 16 colors.And, as if that weren't bad enough, the colors had to cycle (a color register that was yellow, in one "frame" could be orange in the next "frame"). View that FLC from the palette menu, and watch the first 16 colors while you advance from frame to frame. ——- Chapter II In a message I posted several months ago, I explained how Animator had helped me in my career with IBM. Deluxe Paint did so also. Want to hear the story? La diro, venite in torno a me: For years I had been trying to convince my management to move from mainframes to minicomputers. In early 1990 I was asked to make a presentation on ways to reduce Data Processing costs.Opportunity knocking! At the beginning, my presentation looked just like the ones they saw every day, which were created with a standard mainframe program. Slowly, things started to look different.The first "how did you do that!" came when I showed a "foil" that said: American Sterilizer Co. took the knife to its mainframe operation and grafted on a personal computer network that has become the lifeblood its business In that foil I had drawn a few drops of blood, dripping from "lifeblood" into a puddle. Just drawn, no animation (yet). After the last foil, which by then had birds flying all over, I explained that: – I had used a program that cost $90, – it took only a few days to learn the program – the program ran on a PC, just like the ones we used for terminals! – the PC response time was much better, and more consistent, than the mainframe's – there had been no DP Center Charges – no foils or paper supplies were used or needed – it was not necessary to give up color to reduce costs – we got animation for free – If someone in Europe needed a copy, he could have it in a few minutes by E-mail and see it in color and animated! I finished by showing how the presentation sequence was specified by dragging thumbnail sketches with the mouse. Did I have to show them that I could chose from a variety of transition effects? I don't think so! Did I get to play with more PC toys after that? Guess. Thanks Dan Silva! – ——- Chapter III It was shocking to get the upgrade, after four years, and find that there is still only one animation example: the same one that came with the program in '89! DP for the PC is not considered an animation program. In fact, Electronic Arts later produced "Deluxe Paint Animator." Ed K