CompuServe Messages

Sorry for the late response, but I noticed your message about overscan and Disney Animation Studio. This has been a terribly confusing topic for me and prompted a lot of calls to technical support back when the program was first released in 1990, all of which resulted in no usable response from Disney. Finally, I got an answer here on CIS. This is the scoop on Disney and overscan: 1. Regardless of the type of screen that is loaded into Disney Animation Studio (DAS), all you see is the standard non-overscan screen. If you play back your animation, however, you then will see the appropriate screen in full overscan. While you are drawing on the individual frames, though, you will only see a non-overscan screen. 2. This means that, if you are working in overscan, a portion of the screen will always be hidden from view while you are doing your work. To move the screen around, to reveal the hidden areas, you push a combination of SHIFT and the the ARROW keys. This is extremely vital information which was NOT documented in the early manuals. This is a very awkward method, but it works. 3. Because of memory problems, probably in Chip Ram (even with a full two megs of Chip Ram) you cannot save a high resolution animation in full overscan screen in anim format, using DAS. It will save easily in the Disney proprietary Cfast format, but this is of limited value and has frightfully slow playback. When using pencil sketch mode in high resolution, I use non-overscan modes, save the pencil-sketch in anim format, paint the frames in DeluxePaint, and then process the individual frames with Art Department Pro (or the image processing software of your choice) to make the frames into full overscan mode. 4. DAS is a heavily flawed program. It is also my favorite program. I love the pencil sketch module, even with all of its irritating limitations. The Exposure Sheet module is essential for me to create sound synchronized speech in my cartoons. Ultimately, the majority of all of my finished animations are in a different form for playback, usually as part of a script made with that apparently now defunct program "The Director ver. 2". All of my animations, however, start in the pencil sketch module of Disney Animation Studio. 5. From what I can gather, Disney software is only going to support the IBM-compatible formats now. They still answer questions about the Amiga program, but it seems that Amiga development is out. They have a BBS which supports DAS: 1-818-567-4027. Some Mac fans have begged them for a Mac DAS, but the response has been that "the market for a Mac product is simply not big enough" (GADS! Where does that put the Amiga market…?). Anyway, the BBS is pretty good. I phone in regularly. Hope this helps!