CompuServe Messages

This protoscript works very well with ANI 1.3x. It also gives incredibly easy control over running any flic from the keyboard in any sequence. Tips to follow: // load all possible big flics into RAM for smoothest and quick transitions // i have 128 MB of RAM, but by using freeflic and loadflic with a few // GIF files in between to fill the screen while loadflic is working makes // loading/freeing easy and seemless loadflic FLIC1.FLC loadflic FLIC2.FLC loadflic FLIC3.FLC loadflic FLIC4.FLC // start the infinite loop which quits only when you hit ESC loop(forever) // make a blank 2-frame flic so that when a key is struck, the screen stays // black until you request the next flic with the next keystroke BLANK.FLC keychoice choice a // this shows the part where… blah blah blah FLIC1.FLC -t fadein fadeout -l 0 choice b // this shows the part where… blah blah blah FLIC2.FLC -t fadein -l 5 FLIC3.FLC -t fadeout -p 3 choice c // this shows the part where… blah blah blah FLIC4.FLC -t fadeout -l 0 choice escape // keystroke to terminate or call next script segment exittodos endchoice endloop // unload the flics to free up memory for the next batch of flicks freeflic FLIC1.FLC freeflic FLIC2.FLC freeflic FLIC3.FLC freeflic FLIC4.FLC As the player util manual states, you can use a-z for keystrokes… (and numbers too if needed) but I try to keep each segment under 20 animated slides. Usuall any presentation can be organized into "chapters", and each chapter than an accomodate twenty-six images. You can even assign the "z" key to call the next script and the "a" key to go to the previous script so that you can keystroke your way through scripts! Woh. Cool, eh? I also keep a printout of the script sequences and images beside me so I can go quickly to any script image. SCRIPTS are just text files so they print out easy enough for this. There are a tremendous amount of benefits to this script scheme, not the least of which is that it's a SNAP to synchronize playback schemes with any soundtrack. If you've ever had to do full production with music, you know what a bear (and that's not the word I usually use) to synchronize the images with the music effectively. With this scheme, just get each flic's speed right, and do the rest at the keyboard while your favorite music's playing and record real-time thru NTSC output to tape. Works everytime on any system too since all control is at your finger tips. I can't say it enough, animated slides leave powerpuff-style presentations in the dust. And ANI makes it simple to get the point across interestingly. We'll be showing all sorts of animated slides during NAAUG tracks during AU. If anyone has questions on this process, let me know. It's easy stuff, and very powerful. -dave