#2d animation
2 messages in this thread
Is the Director still being supported? The silence over in the Amigavendor
forum is deafening when Director questions are asked. The lack of an AGA
Director and rumors about Amiga4000 incompatibilities with Director 2.0 (see
the latest Amazing Amiga) have been THE biggest reason that I have been holding
back on buying a 4000. I use The Director heavily. I would be doomed without
it. I guess I should look at SCALA and stuff like that, but The Director was
just so darned convenient to use for playing back animations at a decent speed
and frame-triggering animation sounds.
Oddly, The Director has been a bit quirky with HAM animations for me. I do very
little HAM work. When I want "high-color", which is frankly not too often with
what I do, which is old-fashioned 2-D animation, I go to DCTV, which is pretty
easily handled by The Director, although even then there are some occassional
problems.
Is anyone out there using a 4000 to do animations, using frame- triggered
sounds? What programs are you using?
I really need a second Amiga. My 3000 is nice, but the way I rapidly shift
between programs, my memory starts to fragment and then the crashes start and
then I have to power-down for 15 or 20 minutes to let it settle. Frankly, it
slows me down. It would be nice if I could then switch over to a second
machine. I have one of the first 3000's, making me suspect that its
crash-prone due to reasons other than just memory fragmentation, but I
absolutely love this machine.
All of this is hobby. I do cartoon videos which are maintained in Medical
School libraries(I'm a doctor in Internal Medicine). They are not educational,
but humorous and do a good job of relieving the pressure-cooker atmosphere of
Med School. They have gone over extremely well.
Anyway, I'd like to hear more about what everyone uses for their sound 2-D
animations. 3-D is neat, but over-rated, IMO.
Steven,
Well, supported is a relative term, I guess. I sent email to Keith Doyle,
the programmer of the Director (CIS: 75300,3406, if you didn't know) and
got a reply within a few days. The first problem I had he helped me with
quite nicely but the second time I figured it out before he got back to
me. Back in March or February, when I was first learning D2 I spoke with
someone a Right Answers Group (who called me back long distance) and he
said there was an unofficial upgrade coming to provide AGA modes. Nothing
since. I haven't seen advertising since October'92 so I don't know if
they are still supporting it.
I suspect they may have been hurt by AMOS and similar products.
For my project I decided to go with a 64 colour palette in LoRes. HAM is
too slow to develop and I'm not happy with the results. The project is to
hand animate various cartoon characters for an educational program,
actually, it's a "proof-of-concept". I'm finding it extremely
frustrating to get decent movement combined with usable graphics. I have
just ordered a penmouse in the hopes that the increased control will let
me draw faster and more accurately. I've heard PenMice aren't that good
however, I tried one and it seemed ok. Another technique that seems to
help is to use a 3D plastercein replica and use it as a model for drawing.
(I guess you could call it analogue to digital conversion 8^).
What techniques do you use? What I started doing was creating all the
body parts separately. IE. first I'll draw the steps for the feet and
create an animbrush, then I add the torso, head, etc. It helps because
then I can focus on one movement but the result looks a little stiff.
It's nothing compared to the Disney animations that come with DAS. Do you
use one single animation file or do you use brushes to create the movement
on a static (or scrolling) BG. I was thinking of doing the latter but it
requires more work and there are limitations.
At the same time I have started to learn Imagine. It's easier than I
expected. Both 2D & 3D have their place. I want to learn to be a decent
2D animator because that is probably the best way to learn about the
nature of movement. 3D offen looks stiff, however.
By switching back&forth I assume you mean you have all the programs
running at the same time and you toggle between them? To my knowledge you
shouldn't have fragmentation problems in that case. As far as I know, the
frags happen on exiting programs, when the app doesn't clean up it's work
place after it. Maybe you need a newer ROM?
'Till next time,
Andrew