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Autodesk Multimedia Forum · Autodesk Animator

#DOS screens into animate

6 messages in this thread

#177517From: Bob RadcliffeJun 27, 1995 11:24 PM

Is there any wasy to capture DOS text screens into Animator, so as to add animated annotation to them. Probably need some kind of TSR that traps the screen in animator format. I haven't used animator for a while, I need to know whether the idea is feasable before I bother trying to do it.

#177537From: dave aguilarJun 28, 1995 2:50 AM

>> Is there any wasy to capture DOS text screens into Animator, so as to add animated annotation to them. Probably need some kind of TSR that traps the screen in animator format. I haven't used animator for a while, I need to know whether the idea is feasable before I bother trying to do it. << Animator, Animator Pro or Animator Studio? In Animator Pro, there is. there's a utility called PixelPop… does this very well. -dave

#177561From: Mark GerhardJun 28, 1995 9:43 AM

For Windows we use Ulead ImagePals. For DOS we used to use TIFFANY, or camera. Don't know if you can still get those. –Mark

#177630From: dave aguilarJun 28, 1995 3:41 PM

#177721From: Bob RadcliffeJun 28, 1995 10:51 PM

I have Animator Pro. I checked and found the screen capture program, and it works fine. In fact, I checked with one program that so far has failed any attempt to capture its graphic screens, and it worked fine with that too. Now the next step is to solve the following. I want to annotate the screens with a box of text and a pointer/arrow. I can get the text on the screen, but there does not seem any easy way to change the size and position of the box after the text has been entered. (Note that I'm usually working with Corel Draw, and I tend to think everything should work the same way). In fact I really want to put a box of text down, then re-adjust the postion and borders for the best appearance, then add a solid box of colour UNDER the text, with the size of the box slightly bigger than the size of the text block. I can draw a line from the text box to the item on the captured DOS screen, but I'd prefer an arrow. It would also be nice if I could keep the DOS screens in one layer, and the annotation in another layer. Would upgrading to Animator Studio make any of this easier?

#177749From: dave aguilarJun 29, 1995 2:48 AM

>> I have Animator Pro. I checked and found the screen capture program, and it works fine. In fact, I checked with one program that so far has failed any attempt to capture its graphic screens, and it worked fine with that too. << great. PixelPop is one of those sweet little gems we hardly ever hear about round these parts. <g> >> Now the next step is to solve the following. I want to annotate the screens with a box of text and a pointer/arrow. I can get the text on the screen, but there does not seem any easy way to change the size and position of the box after the text has been entered. << if you're refering to the text you are typing in (or have typed in) using the TEXT tool, this is very easy to do… as you are typing in the text, get it all in there (importing it from an external ASCII file is very helpful in this) and position the text boundary box where you like. if the dimensions of the boundary are not suitable, simply pick another point to define the new text boundary diagonal and pick the other diagonal point again. in other words, the boundary box is stretchable until you apply the text. i strongly advise you to clip the "untexted" image to the swap screen in case you need it back (or save it as a file… most steps i work through get saved as UNDO0001.GIF, UNDO0002.GIF etc so that i can undo back to any stage of development.) even after you've applied the text, if you find you don't like its position, size, etc, no problem. undo back to the previous unannoted screen (using undo process mentioned), and then reload text from external file, resize window and reapply. new size, new font, new justification… this is all possible at any given time. arrows can be easily applied with cels. >> I can draw a line from the text box to the item on the captured DOS screen, but I'd prefer an arrow. << create arrow of choice, save as cel, viola. use as needed with LINE tool to connect arrow header to text boundary box. piece o cake. >> It would also be nice if I could keep the DOS screens in one layer, and the annotation in another layer. << keep them separated by swap screen. if you need multiple layers, save swap screens as images SWAP0001.GIF, SWAP0002.GIF, etc for retrieval at any time. the key to full control in AniPro is modularity in all components. >> Would upgrading to Animator Studio make any of this easier? << AStudio has single layer capability, but (in the intertest of not trying to sound like a plug), AniPro is supremely adequate at doing this too. -dave