ANI PRO fonts
/* I'm using Animator Pro to put together demo screens for a software project,
and have created a "font" by hand for use in my menus. Is there some way I can
convert this set of characters into a "real" animator font so that I can
actually type with my font instead of clipping cels one letter at a time to
construct menus etc… ? */
Great question, Thomas. People have been asking how to make font files for
ages, and your approach is usually what winds up happening– manual insertion
of each letter. I don't believe there is a way out of the box to change this,
but what you're seeing is a perfect application for programming. Most
raster/paint programs would not offer anything other than your current
technique, but through programming in POCO this IS do-able.
You could write a routine which keeps track of the current x-position on the
screen, takes a keystroke (using the WaitInput function), loads a cel of same
name, then increments the x-position. RETURN could drop the current pointer
position (x,y) to the original x position picked, and the y increment could be
set upon loading of the routine when x increment is set. A very do-able
routine. Do you program. If you do, I'd be happy to help you get through this.
If you don't, well… it's time to learn. 🙂
NAAUG is offering two courses in Animator Pro for it's members next semester
after Autodesk University… one of which is "Programming in Animator Pro with
POCO". You might want to get signed on as a NAAUG member (call the NAAUG center
at 415-491-8480) and register after October for this course. Mark McGraw will
be teaching the course… he's a current instructor for the ANI1 course on
Animator Pro techniques. This isn't sell… it's a giveaway. POCO us extremely
powerful, and NAAUG is making this neat opportunity to people who see the
benefit in sharing their knowledge and experience with other users of the same
products they use. Think about joining the North American Autodesk User
Group… Think about upgrading yourself! 🙂 -dave