CompuServe Messages

Mike, It sure is comforting to learn (the postman having still not delivered 3.0) that the default state for all interpolations is spline. This will make all animations look much more natural, with no effort on the part of the user. Especially important when dealing with novice users, who'll be getting higher-quality results with no involvement on their part. This is what I would call a good design decision. You know Mike, with this software of yours, sometimes the simplest things can get you the biggest return-on-effort. Oh, speaking of which… the idea of a 30 fps Stage wireframe anim preview has already been tossed your way, and I know I put in my 2 cents' worth. I have refined the concept, so here goes: In the Action editor, next to the "highest frame #" field, add a "playback speed (fps)" field, with a default value of 30. This field will be used when playing back animations from the Stage wireframe preview, or the Project "Play" button. The Stage status bar would also show timing according to this value, i.e. at 15 fps, frame 6 would show up as "Frame 6 (0.33 secs)". Finally, the Stage wireframe anim playback control panel should be more timing-friendly: (a) start the slider at the midway point, which would represent the Action editor's playback speed; a click in the empty area on either side would double (right) or halve (left) the playback speed; dragging the slider would smoothly change the speed; and there would be a "frames/sec" field, constantly updated as you drag or move the slider. These changes would be relatively self-contained within the program, unlike, say, an object format change which would affect most every section of Imagine. In my mind, they would qualify as good "bang-for-the-buck" candidates. Blaq!