#ANIMATOR questions
11 messages in this thread
I have a couple of beginners questions about ANIMATOR (NOT AniPro) 1) I am
having pallette management problems. I have a flick that uses very few colors,
most objects are painted using Vgrad and Hgrad using a ping ponged series of
grays to get a metallic cylinder effect. When I compress the pallette only
about 56 colors are used (the rest are blacked out after compress and the
picture is fine). Next I read in a different, picture that I want to use as a
background as a pic in frame two. After adjusting the picture to get the
colors right I compress the pallette for it and it only uses about 130 colors
(the rest are blacked out after the compress, and the picture looks fine). At
this point I assumed that I could use One Pallette to combine the two pallettes
and everything would be fine (56 + 130 is 180 colors, so the pallettes should
combine fine without any fitting of colors needed). Well when I do this, the
fine shades of gray shading of the original flick is ruined. The individual
shades (which were dithered originally for a smooth transition) stand out
dramatically, so instead of a smooth shading I get bands of gray. Why didn't
this work, and more importantly, what can I do to combine these with better
results??? 2) I have seen numerous references to inter-object constraints in
AniPro (lots of it) and 3DS (not as good constraint). Since I haven't stumbled
on this in ANIMATOR, should I assume that it was added later in AniPro, or is
it just undocumented in ANIMATOR, or am I just confused. Thanks for any tips!!
/* picture looks fine). At this point I assumed that I could use One Pallette
to combine the two pallettes and everything would be fine (56 + 130 is 180
colors, so the pallettes should combine fine without any fitting of colors
needed). Well when I do this, the fine shades of gray shading of the original
flick is ruined. The individual shades (which were dithered originally for a
smooth transition) stand out dramatically, so instead of a smooth shading I get
bands of gray. Why didn't this work, and more importantly, what can I do */
You ought to check out the NAAUG telecourses on ANI, Dennis. One of the first
five treats palette control including the CUT/PASTE options you probably need
to know about here. Section 14 on ACAD forum, do a keyword search for
TELECOURSE and look for the files ANI1-A through ANI1-F, all .ZIP files. The
problem you're describing is easily solved. -dave
Thanks for an excellent tip – I have DL'ed those files and I will look them
over. One question – I may have the same problem with some of these files that
I have with some of the "instructional" flicks that I pick up in the LIBS here
– that is that they will tell how, if you examine the pallette, you can see
that they have done such and such. Unfortunately, ANIMATOR won't load .FLC
files, so oftentimes, I am left guessing what they are talking about. Does
anyone know how to extract a palette from a .FLC file so that I can read it
into ANIMAATOR (not AniPro) and see what they're doing?? Thanks for any help,
again!
"Does anyone know how to extract a palette from a .FLC file so that I can read
it into ANIMAATOR (not AniPro"
This is something which can be done with AAPro, but I'm not sure if there are
other programs which work. If you have a bunch of FLC files you want
converted, CI$ doesn't charge to upload. Send them to me; I will save them as
FLIs and return them to you. (Well, CI$ *does* charge to download.)
Nik
Well, I tried converting the files using CONVERT.exe, which came with
MMEXPLORER but it wasn't very successful. For example, there is a 640×480 gif
of 2 trees in one of the NAAUG lessons. Supposedly the left tree uses only 125
colors and the right tree uses 250 colors, but they look about the same. You
are supposed to delete the right tree and see how many colors are used in the
left tree. After I convert the gif using CONVERT, the left tree uses 245
colors, and the right tree uses 250, so the program obviously can't resist the
temptation to screw around with the palette while it is converting it. Other
lessons say that I should look at how they have made little groups of colors in
the palette. I know CONVERT will not exactly preserve the palette so I can see
this – are you saying that you have something that will – okay then I want
ANI1-A.zip thru ANI1-F.zip, which I DL'ed from the ACAD forum – any of these
which have gif or .flc files at greater than 320×200 I would like to get in a
320×200 format with the palette same as the original. Is this enough info, or
do you need me to figure out which ones this is (the stuff is at home, so I
don't know right now which ones I had to convert). Thanks for the help!
/* Thanks for an excellent tip – I have DL'ed those files and I will look them
over. One question – I may have the same problem with some of these files that
I have with some of the "instructional" flicks that I pick up in the LIBS here
– that is that they will tell how, if you examine the pallette, you can */
Glad to hear it. Good luck, and keep an eye open for the upcoming MMedia
telecourses to be offered next semester here in the ASOFT forum including
courses on Animator. I believe the courses will include FLI files for most of
the lessons, so even though many of the techniques will involve AniPro features
(and you may want to consider seriously upgrading to Pro), most .FLx files
should be viewable in Animator (not Pro) since they are usually smaller than
.FLC's and 320x200x256 is enough for us to explain the ideas (higher
resolutions don't help much conceptually).
/* see that they have done such and such. Unfortunately, ANIMATOR won't load
FLC files, so oftentimes, I am left guessing what they are talking about. Does
anyone know how to extract a palette from a .FLC file so that I can read it
into ANIMAATOR (not AniPro) and see what they're doing?? Thanks for any help,
again! */
I don't believe Animator has any ability to work with .FLCs, so by itself it
has no .FLC palette extraction tools. However, I have seen a number of
shareware utilities in the Multimedia and Graphics support forums which "scale"
and convert FLCs to other formats including FLI. Browse around in those forums
(all libraries for FLI as keyword). -dave
Hi Dennis!
Don't take this the wrong way but …. have you heard of the show
the … FLINTSTONES ???, well, compared to animator pro, that is what era you
are in! hehe!, if you see what animator pro can do, you won't even bother
fooling around with the old version. The new version will actually blow your
mind!
– Resolutions unlimited, well 1024×768, – Yeah!
– New options, that blow away animator.
…
What can I say, go rob an old lady, get the cash, … and. ….
BUY ANIMATOR PRO !
Mark Schneider
Montreal Canada. ( Don't take me seriously, but take ANIMATOR PRO
seriously !) – This product blows away everything else I've ever seen
I understand that I am in Bedrock, but I am buying this stuff myself (not my
company) and I don't have the price of admission.
/* I understand that I am in Bedrock, but I am buying this stuff myself (not my
company) and I don't have the price of admission. */
I'm not a sales person at all, so please don't read this as a plug… there was
(and may still be) an upgrade offer under $200 if you have Animator. I know
because a friend of mine did it (upgraded) for an outrageously low amount.
-dave
Does anyone know how I would go about upgrading to AniPro???? $200 I could
convince the wife, it's the $800 price she isn't happy about!
/* Does anyone know how I would go about upgrading to AniPro???? $200 I could
convince the wife, it's the $800 price she isn't happy about! */
I'm trying to find the brochures I had around here… aw heck Dennis, I can't
find them… ask Nik if the promotion is still on. It's something like "tear
off the the front cover of any paint package (including Animator) and upgrade
for like $200 or something like that. Great deal. GREAT DEAL. -dave