CompuServe Messages

/* Is there any way I can decrease a .FLC file size, keeping the file a FLC file. */ Hi Michael; The way this question is phrased, I could have fun and say "Why yes, delete all the frames except two and save the file. It will still be an FLC." <g> Somehow I have a feeling though that this is not what you meant. In general, is there a way to decrease a flic _without_ changing it– no. Some common ways flic filesizes can be reduced though: 1> frame reduction : either by macro or POCO routine… in the same vein that an existing flic can be doubled, tripled etc, by using macros or a POCO routine you can take out every nth frame, etc and cut the filesize down. This does chop the flic up though and may have skips depending on the animation. 2> palette squeezing : by reducing the amount of colors in each frame over time and applying one palette, the amount of overlapping colors used in a flick increases, thereby reducing the delta between frames and reducing the size of the flic. The price; color degredation. If you're good with palette cropping though, it's amazing how few colors are necessary to keep an image decent. But this sweet spot is not found through formula since it is image dependent. 3> re-assemblies : some flics are generated from smaller pieces and can be pieced together again using macros and still images. For example, if your flic involved a cel being applied to a moving background, all that is essential to reconstructing the entire animation would be the cel, the background image and possibly a macro to reproduce it or a text file to remind you how it was put together. I've been able to save 20MB animations down to 50K using this technique. No, it wouldn't be a FLC file, but in essence it has the potential within a relatively small amount of time, to be created back into one. The ultimate compression scheme if it applies. 4> format conversions: if you're familiar with JPEG files, you know that the compression of a file can be controlled at a price of image degredation. If you take a flic and NUMPIC it out to JPEGs, increas the compression of each image and then re-assemble using NUMPIC into a flic, your size will also decrease. The flic will be degraded as a whole though. Sidenote, NUMPIC doesn't have JPEG option, but if you go out to GIF first, then automate conversion using ANI's JPEG driver, automate JPEG compression change, convert back to GIF and re-assemble, this works. Well I might add. If you program, POCO can automate this entire process easily. JPEG driver is available in the forum Animator Pro library 5> resolution change : by using ANICONV, the resolution of a flic can be reduced to something smaller. The price is pixelation, but depending on the purpose of the animation, 640×480 may be sufficient at 320×200, 640×480 may be sufficient for 1024×768, etc. Filesize results from number of pixels, so this type of reduction is typically scalar. 6> single palette : depending again on how the animation was generated, if frames have such different deltas that each frame carried its own palette, you might try reducing all frames to a common palette, reducing thepalette delta. These are just a few of the many ways reductions can be done. In my own work, re-assemblies tend to be the most beneficial, but you really have to keep your P's and Q's crossed on the procedure to rebuild things correctly. Keep in mind that a lot of the alternatives depend on where the animation is being generated from. If you're a 3D Studio user for example, the 3DS file alone (or Project file set) can always re-create the animation with time. If ANI generated them, you can keep track of the creation process and save ther process rather than the final animations. How are you generating your animations? /* And is it possible to go from a 256 color .FLC to a 64 color .FLC? */ Sure. Bone up on ANI's palette functions big time. -dave