CompuServe Thread

How do I get clear text?

4 messages in this thread
#90872From: maura cloverMar 13, 1994 10:59 AM
My boss gave me an animation effect she wants for a project due on Monday. I had no problem creating it in Anim. Pro. and am very pleased with the animation itself. However, the TYPE in the animation is very blurry and hard to read. Let me tell you what I did, and maybe you can help me achieve clearer type effects. (I did not find any mention of this in any of the manuals that came with Pro). I created a long flowchart in Corel with arrows and colored artwork. The boss wanted it to be animated. So I exported it from Corel as a 640×480 16 color GIF. I also exported it to 1 on 1 size, as well. The 640×480 .GIF did not export well as far as the text was concerned (very bitmapped and unreadable), but the 1 to 1 export was very good. However, it was very large in pixel size and needed to be scaled down, so I went into Aniconv to do that. I scaled it down proportionately to what I wanted, but the type blurred up. In fact it looks like it has a shadow or halo effect around it. You can barely read it in some areas. Fortunately, most of the art has a colored background, so that helps with the halo, but you still can't really read the text. What can I do about this? I will need to be able to do this type of thing regularly. In addition, I went back into Corel and tried scaling it down to where I want it and re- exporting it that way, but the type still blurs up, even without going into Aniconv. I tried exporting as .BMP's and then converting those to .GIFs, etc. I tried typing the text in Animator, but the text looks pixelated and bitmapped. There must be a way to get good text in Animator when importing from other programs. What is the secret to getting clear type? Regards, Maura
#90879From: Yost GroupMar 13, 1994 1:23 PM
I'm a little unclear when you say you imported the Corel image as 640×480, and 1 on 1 as well. Does this mean that you're using a different resolution in AniPro than 640×480? If so, your basic problem with the text is that you're attempting to scale it to fit between two different resolutions — that of Corel Draw and that of AniPro. When you scale any bitmap, you end up adding artifacts that, in effect, blur the text. For best results, design your Corel screens in the same resolution that you'll be using in AniPro (or design your flic to be the same resolution as the captured Corel Draw screens). – Jack
#90892From: maura cloverMar 13, 1994 2:50 PM
Hi Jack. I'm sorry for the confusion in the message. What I meant was that I tried exporting from Corel in 2 different ways. Once as a 640×480 image, and once as 1 to 1 scaling. I brought the 640×480 export into Animator Pro at 640×480 as a full screen .FLC. Even though both Ani Pro and the .GIF were set at 640×480, the type was hard to read. So just for a test, I scaled down the 1 to 1 export in Aniconv (scaled it to 640×480 with proportion on) and lo' and behold, the text was actually easier to read *except* for the halo effect around the letters. What I'm saying is that the scaled down 1 to 1 export actually looked better when brought into Ani. If I can only get rid of the blur around the letters, then it would be perfect. The 640×480 direct export from Corel did not look as good. Is this making sense now? Regards, mvo
#91039From: Yost GroupMar 14, 1994 11:01 AM
>> Is this making sense now? Semi-sense, but I don't have Corel Draw so I'm still not sure exactly what outputting text in "1 to 1 scaling" means. At any rate, it sounds like the text is being blurred by Corel Draw, and since I don't have that package I'm not going to be able to help you on this. – J