#16 color animation
6 messages in this thread
Hi,
I have a client who wants me to do a bunch of simple animations in VGA
640X480-16 color. I usually use 3DS but the program only does 256 col.
I don't have Anipro yet.
The questions are, Is it possible to do limited palette animations with
Anipro? Can I do the animations in 3DS and then reduce the palette to 16
color through Anipro? If not, Is there any other program that can do the
palette reduction after the creation with 3DS or Anipro.
My client also wants the animations to be Mac compatible. Can this be done?
Lots of questions, uh?
Thank You
Jorge
Sure it can! I do 16 color animations with AniPro every day… Keep your
eyes open for an upcoming book on AniPro, I've submitted a couple of color
palettes I've used and a few programs that help out in that vein… To
convert to the Mac there are two ways: Save all the frames of the .FLC to
.GIF's, bring it over to the Mac, convert them to PICT's and then to
PICS…. or Buy a copy of Debabilizer that converts .FLC's to PICS and
Quicktime .MOOV
Paul Unterweiser, Unterweiser Studio-Animation
Jorge,
Many people who do this use a program called GRASP – sold by Paul Mace
Software and with it's own support forum on CIS – go GRASP.
It works best if you only use 16 colors in Animator Pro – then write out
the frames as GIFS, convert them to 640×480 16 color mode, and recompile
them into GRASP's animation format (which also support all other IBM PC
graphics modes (but you need a specific animation for each mode)).
Doing that's part of my business, if you need help.
Chuck Jameson Silver Tongue Software
Thanks,
I think I could use some help on some parts of the project, but we are at
the budget stage yet, so we don't even know if it's coming thru.
How about doin the animations in 3D?
I guess that you can still select a limited color palette from the 3DS .FLC
thru AniPro. Is that correct? or you have to render GIFs from 3DS and then
put together the .FLC in AniPro?
Thank You
Jorge
Hmm,
Using 3D studio for some of the animations would be okay. The complication
to consider is how the combination of lighting effects and 3d facets tends
to turn up lots of colors – then when you go to 16 colors what do you do
with them? Dither them? Eliminate them? 16 colors is not photorealistic.
Black and white (gray scale) is acceptable. Dithered stills are okay.
Cartoons are great.
Chuck Jameson Silver Tongue Software
"…16 color is not photorealistic"
No kidding (g).
Yes, unfortunately is not. I'm used to work at 24 bits and just finished a
project with 16 color only. Man, that was tough!
I was planning on using 3D because it really adds something to the
animations (espacially when is something mechanical, like in this case).
Maybe using some very basic colors and then dithering might work…
Maybe, as you say, sticking to grayscale and a couple of colors to hilite
some of the elements?
I guess I'll have to play around with it a little.
Thanks again
Jorge