CompuServe Thread

I said I would see messages addressed to me quickly. I assure you it's just a coincidence that I checked for messages five minutes after you wrote yours! < I still don't understand how that relates to Linking the bicycle chain stuff. Are you saying that you just paste on the end of the last element you pasted with a reduced size anim cel > That is what I am saying. I only gave a hint so you'd have to work at figuring it out. You did great! I didn't think you'd get it on the first hint! In the case of the tree, to have cyclical linking you'd have to keep adding branches until they went all the way around and back to the root of the tree. And, the tip of the last branch would always have to remain on top of the same spot of the root of the tree. < that doesn't sound like "linkage" or "constraint" to me> Remember that you are just drawing pictures. There are no real constraints or links. It only appears that AniPro had a feature to link. Look at it this way. In the case of the tree, as a branch at the fourth level moves, the fifth-level branches attached to it follow it. There is a point on a fifth-level branch that is always on top of the same point of its "parent." Its motion "appears" constrained. It "appears" to be linked at that point. 3D-Studio, an incredibly powerful program, keeps track of the links. As you move a parent, its "children" follow. Notice that my trick restricts you to children that are "similar" to the parents, both in motion and in shape. There is no such restriction in 3D-Studio If you can, get 3DS next! You might wonder about the fact that in spite of the similarity requirement, my tree has branches, flowers, leaves and a wasp's nest (did you see it?). But, I have to keep some secrets <g>. I am negotiating with Autodesk, and need to have something to sell <g>. < I also did BIR06 to see the color cycle demo – I presume that you prepare that screen by using the 14 color palette to "cycle draw" using an animated cel, right?>> I'd probably do it that way today, but the animation was done with Deluxe paint over four years ago, where animated cels didn't exist. BTW, in Deluxe Paint, it is only one frame. It is, to DeLuxe Paint, just one "slide" in a presentation. < Very nice trick – I always thought a "color is just a color" but I guess it's actually a "palette slot" isn't it?> That is the trick! Discovered in Dec. 1989!