#Xv on Amiga
Zoetrope (and the earlier Cyber Paint on the ST), IMHO, had the most carefully
thought-out & useful interface ever for a low-end animation system. They were
created by Jim Kent, the genuis who wrote Aegis Animator, and contributed to
Targa Tips. He took some of the same concepts to where the money is (AutoDesk
and the PeeCee) and knocked together Autodesk Animator, (which, along with
Caligari TrueSpace make me seriously look at Pentiums).
A review of DPIII noted how some of the animation features that were included
were lifted from the above programs. But the added features were still
half-baked, if you ask me. You still have to point, click, drop,type, click and
close to do simpleton procedures. The Kent stuff did real-time recording of
mouse moves to move your brushes over a series of frames and everything was so
handily layed-out and thoughtful. I don't know what Jim is doing now…he
called me years ago when I sent a letter to ANTIC praising his work and making
a few suggestion-by then he was going on to Autodesk. Jim…Are you out
there????!!!!???