#Animation Video
20 messages in this thread
My son has a beautiful animation on his 3000 we would like to transfer to
video.
The animation is about 70 MB total in 25 files. How to play the segments in
sequence with no pauses between sequences? AmigaVision *almost* does it using
command sequences like: preload next segment while playing, play next segment,
unload last segment and preload the next – etc. – there's a half second pause
between segements. I have a Sony VCR with an S-control input. Is there some
way I could have AmigaVision (or some other software) use the S-control input
to make the VCR pause at the end of a segment and then resume exactly when the
next segment starts to play, therebye eliminating the pause. We've tried
several animation players but always experience the jerks and slowdowns which
comes when memory and disk transfer rate limits are reached. I've seen a
dedicated special high speed hard disk animation system which might be able to
handle it but it's out of our league at this time.
Many thanks for any suggestions.
Victor Pierce
Victor, You'll need to either…Single Frame the Animation or use a Personal
Animation Recorder to play the animation in real-time to a VTR. I'd check
around your local user's group or a local videoprofessional with Amiga Gear and
rent the time on their system. BTW, what format do you have the animations in?
Also what part of the world do you hail from?
Later, Jim
Looks like the control-S idea is a no-go <sigh>. What is "Single Framing" an
animation? How do you do it? I'll check around for someone with a PAR.
Thanks for the suggestions.
We are in Los Angeles. The animations are in either CFAST (Disney) or ANIM 5
format (we can convert betweeen these). We also tried ANIM 7 format with only
slightly longer runs before hitting the "jerks".
Victor
If you send me the files in anim-7 format or individual frames on disk and
a tape (VHS, S-VHS or 3/4" U-Matic) and return postage, I'll transfer them
for you. I have a PAR card and the necessary hardware and software to do
the job.
Jim R. Ollick
Using AP from Bergenfield, NJ
Victor…Edward?:
Unless your deck is single frame accurate it really doesn't matter what kind of
"Control" you have. You want to start and stop specifically on the EXACT frame
or you'll either overlap or have a blank jerk. Good luck finding a PAR.
Later, Jim
One more thought…you could lay the individual animations to tape in real time
and Edit them together on TAPE. That will save you the problem of trying to
manage 70 megs of animations all at once. Just take the tape to a local edit
suite and patch it together…probably an hour of editing time for 30 – 65
bucks.
later, Jim
Thanks. We are considering that though we'd naturally like to avoid the
generation loss if we could.
Vic
I would bet you Scala software could help with the animation speed and the
pause between anims, but you'll have to let Scala compile the animation in
its own anim format. What resolution/colors are you running in.
John Chang from Scala is usually around these forums.
John,
Yes, you called? Ah, the animation problem.
You can convert the Anim (OpCode 5) animation into our propriatary Anim32 or
Anim32i format using AnimLab in our Scala MultiMedia MM300 product. We also
have an animation playback method called DiskAnim. It essentially spools your
anim from the hard drive. Performance really depends on the speed of the
computer, amount of RAM available and transfer rate of your hard drive.
Defragging also does wonders for animation playback.
Going through the messages, Jim Ollick's offer to transfer the animation to PAR
is very generous! I would take it! OK, what's in the deal for you Jim? Amiga
Sainthood? ;-}
Regards,
John Chang
Technical Support Manager
Scala, Inc.
It's just that I have all this equipment and business is kinda slow right
now. There are also great rewards in helping others.
Jim R. Ollick
Using AP from Bergenfield, NJ
James,
Ah, I can hear the Angels praising you now! ;-}
Seriously, very generous of you to help Edward. Nice early X-Mas present. ;-}
Hopefully business will pick up after this saintly deed.
Regards,
John Chang
Technical Support Manager
Scala, Inc.
What do you mean by "Defrag" ?
Scala MM300 is Great s/w. Thanks for the support.
….John
John,
By "Defrag" I mean to defragment your hard drive. There are a number of
commercial and sharware products that will do this for you. The benefit is
that animations will playback more smoothly and consistantly.
Regards,
John Chang
Technical Support Manager
Scala, Inc.
So far I haven't had any luck playing anims from HDs, even on accelerated
Amigas. I guess SCSI 2 would help. Haven't messed much with MM300s
Animlab, Its a little too proprietory for me.
I don't imagine defragging a drive would speed up play from RAM, maybe
loading to RAM though.
Thanks,
….John
John,
>Haven't messed much with MM300s Animlab, Its a little too proprietory for me.
Too bad. Has some really great features that you should take a look at
sometime.
>I don't imagine defragging a drive would speed up play from RAM, maybe
>loading to RAM though.
Defragging a drive helps if you are using our DiskAnim feature. As you may
know, DiskAnim allows you to playback your animation from hard drive, by
spooling it to a RAM buffer in packets.
Regards,
John Chang
Technical Support Manager
Scala, Inc.
Not to change the subject(NTCTS) but are there any additional backgrounds
availabe for Scala MM300 from your co?
Can you just edit the segments together?
We could append them together with an AMIGADOS copy, but my son's animation
software keeps everything in memory and we don't have 70MB RAM. Though if we
did, we probably could pre-load all the segments and play without pauses
between segments.
VIC
Try Magic Lantern 2.0. It creates an optimized animation that can be
played back in real time even if it's larger than available memory. Very
powerful. Converts to a special format that's more efficient than standard
IFF-ANIMs. Commercialware, about $60, available from shops like Creative
Computers and Safe Harbor.
Thanks for the Magic Lantern suggestion.