CompuServe Thread

Tim, > I'm coming over from the Amiga, and looking for something to replace what > I've been doing with Art Department/MorphPlus. Obviously, I'm also looking into ER > as well. Fair enough. Here are your answers. If you have more questions as a result, please fire away. With regard to ER, the primary overlap between the two products is in morphing. Both have layered, powerful morphing capabilities. ER has a _very_ slight edge in features here, currently. 🙂 However, WinImages morphing capabilities are *considerably* easier to use, and it has a more powerful user interface (it does onionskin as does ER, but also does multi-window). ER comes with Transjammer, which is a nice tool for certain types of transitions. WinImages has a huge special effects and image processing capability for both single images and batches. WinImages is about 1/5th to 1/10th the price of ER, depending on street prices and so forth. WinImages is upgraded far more often, and frankly, far more significantly. ER has printed docs and some minimal online help, we have massive online docs and no printed manual at all. You should take the comparitive assertions with a grain of salt; I expect you to. 🙂 But these are conservative remarks – I could be a lot blunter, but there's no point. On with the rest of your issues: > 1. Can you compile 8-bit animation with good dithering and an optimized, locked palette from > 24-bit TIF renderings. Yes – either FLC or AVI… AVI's of course can be more than 8 bit if you like. We can pick an _excellent_ palette, and yes, you can lock it. > 2. Can you do multi-layer alpha-compositing, without using nasty scripting? Yes, you can do multi-layer alpha-compositing in WinImages, and there is no scripting whatsoever, even if you want to do it in batches.. > 3. Can you compile FLC 8-bit animation files? (I can currently get Imagine FLCs to play back > at 60 frames/second under DOS on my P90, and I don't want to loose that capability.) Yes, no problem. > 4. Is the Direct Access program still in affect, and does it apply to R3? If so, would you > accept a COD order? Yes, it's still in effect, yes, it applies to R3, and yes, we accept C.O.D. orders. > 5. How do you set up a series of operations for a batch of images, for example, > Gamma Correction, Resampling, Alpha Compositing? The key to batch operations, and to multiple-operations (think "macro" without the work) is the Timeline. Here's how you would use the timeline in your suggested application: (A) You double click on a timeline cell, select "action image" from the dialog that opens from the double click, which in turn opens a file selection dialog. You use the usual windows methods (control-click for disjoint multiple files, shift-click for ranges of them). You can also choose one (or more) FLC's as input to process as multiple frames, or even mix FLC's and files if you need to. (B) You hit "ok" and the timeline fills from your selection(s). These are the images you will process. (C) You drag an area selection into the timeline that matches the region you want to process; for instance, an ellipse or the "entire image" icon. If the area is an ellipse or other method that requires further specification, you double click on the ellipse icon _where you dragged it into the timeline_ and specify the area you want processed for this particular instance. Sometimes it's handy to have some frames from the animation loaded so you've got references as to where things are… WinImages can load any frame, even if it's inside an FLC. (D) You drag the process(es) you want to happen to the area selected in step C into the timeline. If you want the effect of the process(es) to vary, you double click on the process icon in the timeline and you can set splined curves for all parameters of just about every process available. The number of possible permutations is staggering using this capability alone. You can repeat steps C & D as many times as you like if you want more than one thing to happen, or to happen in more than one area, or more than one thing in more than one area. That's it – one button starts the procedure now. I should note here that there is _massive_ flexibility available within the timeline tool: If in step C you drag _more_ than one area into a single timeline rank, then the area selections automatically tween – for instance, if you dragged an ellipse into frame one of the timeline, and selected its region as the upper left of the source image(s), and then dragged a rectangle into frame 30 of the timeline and set its region to the lower right of the source image(s), over the thirty frames, the area select would move from the upper left to the lower right while smoothly changing shape from an ellipse to a rectangle. > Through some type of Macros? No macros. Exactly as I described, although it's more flexible – that was only one example of what you can do, and because I tried to describe some of the options available along the way, it looks more complicated than it really is. > Or is your program fully and completely designed for batch processing (unlike some of the nasty > arexx junk I've had to deal with on the Amiga)? I think it's fair to say that it's 100% designed for batching. As well as single images. > 6. Ben, do I know you? What's your last name? I'm a friend of Dan Lutz, and used > to work at Creative in Santa Monica. I'm also the designer of Humanoid, and should > be getting my own forum set up in ANVENA soon, I hope. Ben Williams. I don't think we know each other, but we might… I've met a lot of people from both the Amiga and the Windows communities, and sad to say, I remember only a few of them. No reflection on you, I have a lousy memory in this kind of volume. I don't remember a Dan Lutz, either. > If your Direct Access plan is still in force, I'll probably go ahead with an order regardless of your > answers to the other questions. Based on what I've already heard, it's a steal. Many of the Imagine > users over in GUGRPA seem to be fans of WinImages. DAP is still in force and I think from what you asked here WinImages should suit your needs. Ben Williams for Black Belt Systems