#WI arrived
3 messages in this thread
WI finally arrived. Looks very promising. Also looks kind of shaky. Here's some
random notes from a few hours of poking at it.
Some Help buttons in dialogues give me Invalid Keyword errors from help. A few
I found just offhand are
Area|Transparency Controls|Help (I dislike dialogues with no Cancel, BTW )
Timeline|Frame Rate|Help
Timeline|Generate|Note Message 091(file exists)|Help
Timeline|Sequence Controls|Specify|Help
Section 4. Getting Started | The Basics help section errors near the end with
Unable to locate AVIFILE.DLL. This locked the machine up tight once, but I
haven't been able to reproduce the lockup.
Section 5.3, Invert Alpha tool jumps to Key to Alpha help.
Soften Alpha tool jumps to Harden Alpha help.
If I load a sequence of 640 x 480 24 bit TGAs into the Timeline and go to save
as 8 bit AVI, I get a 24 bit AVI. If I select FLI, and go back to AVI, it says
24 bit. Then if I select 256 colors again, I get an 8 bit AVI. I think. None of
my DOS AVI players will play it. Nor will my DOS FLC players play the FLC.
Diagnostics say "Magic number for frame 0 of 38 is not $f1fa, but $0000"
Is there a way to tell a FLC (or an AVI, for that matter) to ping pong?
Z sometimes gives + zoom and sometimes gives – zoom. This is my erratic typing
style doing me wrong, since you seem to be checking the shift key when the z is
released instead of when it's pressed. I expect actions on the downstroke.
Area selections, Area tool rectangle didn't work when I selected Area |
Rectangle From Corner. I was adding to an area with ^click. The rectangle would
draw, and then it would just disappear when I let go. Deselecting and
reselecting Rectangle From Corner seems to have cleared that up. Nope, when I
restart the program, Rectangle From Corner doesn't work.
Can I save an alpha channel as an 8 bit file? Or copy an alpha channel from one
image to another?
I don't understand the Size Windows menu at all. Need more docs, perhaps.
-The docs say "This control allows you to specify the resolution." How ?
-"The view windows may not be sized beyond your maximum screen resolution."
I have 3 640 x 480 images open on a 640 x 480 screen. When I deselect Maintain
Aspect Ratio and do Match Image, I get about a quarter of the window. Both
scroll bars are off screen. With Maintain Aspect Ratio checked, Match Image
boots the right scroll bar off the screen. Diamond Speedstar 24X in 24 bit 640
x 480 mode. Is this a driver issue?
-"There are also several preset resolutions (in the form of ratios) for the
view windows." What are the ratio buttons? I don't understand what they're
doing or what they're for.
Can I do a 1:1 100% zoom so I can see pixel for pixel what's in the file? I
don't like on the fly scaling. Picture Publisher behaves in a way I like very
much. The Home key scales a view into the biggest window possible, like your
Size Windows does. Then the Page Up and Page Down keys bumps it to the nearest
even scaling, i.e. 100%, 50%, 25%. Thereafter, Page Up and Page down scale the
magnification by 50%. It's very fast, and the view is less subject to
misinterpretation, because the computer's not trying to deal with things like
1.257 times magnification.
When I deselect Display | Maintain Aspect Ratio and resize a window, I get the
whole image, squashed. Is there some use for that? I want to resize a window
without altering the image, so that part of it is visible with scroll bars to
move it. I can zoom in and get scroll bars, but when I resize the window it
insists on maintaining the aspect ratio, even though it has no relevance in a
zoom.
I am unable to get Area | Save and Load Area Select File to work. I select an
area, and save it to an ASF. I change to another image, select Redo from the
area tools, and do a Load Area Select File. Nothing happens. I click on the
image and I get an apparently random oval selected.
Here's a current project, which I've been hoping WI would help me with. I have
an animation, a series of 20 scans in which a few elements move a little each
frame. Because they're scans, they're not exactly identical. As far as FLI
compression is concerned, there's almost no delta compression available. I want
to mask off the areas that change, using a very soft edged alpha channel, and
copy the rest from one frame to all of them. Then when I go to FLI, those
pixels will be identical throughout the anim and I should get much better
compression. I loaded a few key frames, and stacked the windows right on top of
each other. I can flip through them with the v and V keys to see which parts
change. I want to zoom in identically to the same spot in all the frames and
check the motion visually while I add and subtract from the selection area in
one of the key frames. When I have it right, I would like to save that
selection and copy it to the other keyframes so I can be certain it's correct.
Then I want to convert the selection into an alpha channel, copy the static
part and composite it on top of all the frames. Seems like F/X was born to do
this job, but I'm having a devil of a time getting it to work. I can't zoom
predictably, and I can't copy the selection area.
That's enough message for now, I think. <G>
Dan,
Thanks for the reports – this kind of detail is very useful, and although I'm
truly sorry you've run into these things, it gives us a chance to show you how
fast we can respond…
> Some Help buttons in dialogues give me Invalid Keyword errors from help.
I think most, or all, of this has already been fixed. Call us: (800) 852-6442
and they'll fix you right up.
> Section 4. Getting Started | The Basics help section errors near the end with
Unable to locate
> AVIFILE.DLL. This locked the machine up tight once, but I haven't been able
to reproduce the
> lockup.
This is an error within the help system, unfortunately – we have notified them
and they say they are working on it. It doesn't happen with most systems,
thankfully. When they fix it, we will take responsibility and make the update
available to our customers.
> Section 5.3, Invert Alpha tool jumps to Key to Alpha help.
> Soften Alpha tool jumps to Harden Alpha help.
I'll pass these along, thanks.
> If I load a sequence of 640 x 480 24 bit TGAs into the Timeline and go to
save as 8 bit AVI, I get
> a 24 bit AVI. If I select FLI, and go back to AVI, it says 24 bit. Then if I
select 256 colors again, I
> get an 8 bit AVI. I think. None of my DOS AVI players will play it. Nor will
my DOS FLC players play
> the FLC. Diagnostics say "Magic number for frame 0 of 38 is not $f1fa, but
$0000"
Hm. Works here… both ways. The AVI's in the lib where made using this version
(R3). Maybe something else is wrong here… Let's see what tech support says (I
should note here that I'm mostly familiar with what the program does, but other
than what I'm told online, I'm not in the direct tech support path… I hand
off all new technical bug reports to the tech people each morning, with the
appropriate level of scowling… 🙂
> Is there a way to tell a FLC (or an AVI, for that matter) to ping pong?
Not that I know of – it's a limitation of the players. Our filmstrip can pong,
but no player (other than ours) can… again, that I know of. You can generate
your effect in reverse, of course, but that does result in twice the frames,
which (I guess?) you wouldn't want.
> Z sometimes gives + zoom and sometimes gives – zoom. This is my erratic
typing style doing me wrong,
> since you seem to be checking the shift key when the z is released instead of
when it's pressed. I >expect actions on the downstroke.
Well, this is pretty much a user issue… others will expect it on the
upstroke, right?
> Area selections, Area tool rectangle didn't work when I selected Area |
Rectangle From Corner. I was
> adding to an area with ^click. The rectangle would draw, and then it would
just disappear when I let
> go. Deselecting and reselecting Rectangle From Corner seems to have cleared
that up. Nope, when I
> restart the program, Rectangle From Corner doesn't work.
I'll pass this along as well… I take it you were in the second working
method, select and then click the icon to trigger the effect?
> Can I save an alpha channel as an 8 bit file?
No. I take it this would be useful to you? Can you give me an example?
> Or copy an alpha channel from one image to another?
Again, no. Can you give me an outline of usage I can take into a design meeting
so it'll be in the next upgrade?
> I don't understand the Size Windows menu at all. Need more docs, perhaps.
Um, enter values, the windows change size. ?
—————————–
On all of these issues (except the help system one which is out of our hands,
unfortunately), we will address them within a day or so and get the fix right
to you. On a couple of these, like the AVI generation issue, tech support may
need to interact with you a bit. I'll pass the description along, of course,
but there may be more data needed. So if you will please give us a call in a
day or so, they'll have had time to fix everything that we can duplicate and
they'll know just what to ask you.
In addition to the things you've mentioned, we have identified some other items
and fixed those already, everything that is reported is fixed immediately. We
do work a bit fast for our own good sometimes, but that works for us when we're
fixing things up, too.
Ben Williams
for Black Belt Systems
>>You can generate your effect in reverse, of course, but that does result in
twice the frames, which (I guess?) you wouldn't want.<<
No, that's exactly what I want when I say pingpong. Run backwards through the
same frames on the way out to the second half of the animation file. DTA can do
this. That's how you get a smooth cycling morph, instead of the typical jump
frame hiccup when it starts over. I did it by hand in WI once, since it was
only a 20 frame sequence, going back and loading images 19-2 into frames 21-38.
Not interesting in a 200 frame sequence. <G> There are players that can
pingpong, but doing it in the anim makes it player-independent. A good thing.
Saving an alpha channel allows you to apply it to different revisions of the
same image, or to other similar images. Loading an arbitrary 8 bit image into
an alpha channel also has its uses. One of the other things I like to do is
work on an alpha channel with other tools, like the various Unsharp Mask and
blur tools available in some programs.
The zoom and window sizing issues are more irritating the longer I work with
it. Maintain Aspect Ratio affects the window frame when I'm zoomed in. Why
should I care about the aspect ratio of the window? I want it to maintain the
aspect ratio of the pixels inside an arbitrary window. If I resize the window
without it, the image distorts. Is that intended? Why? For example, I want to
work on a long horizontal detail in a 100 x 500 _vertical_ image. I want a 200%
pixel for pixel magnification, so I can see exactly what I'm getting. I want a
horizontal window so I can see as much of my working area as possible. I see no
way to get either my desired zoom or my desired window.
Look, Play, DFV, and Display all choke on your 640 x 480 FLCs. DFV and Display
both report the same error, there's a value of 0000 where there should be a
frame chunk. DFV says it's expecting f1fa.
Am I correct in thinking the .ASF file only contains the last selection
operation? The time I want to save an area selection is when I've spent half an
hour adding and subtracting to the selection area using countless operations
and 7 or 8 different tools. If I could save the alpha channel, I might be able
to use that as a workaround. I'd like to see the area selection savable as an 8
bit graphic file.
In the project I described in my last message, where I was flipping through
stacked keyframes while adding and subtracting on the selection in one of the
frames, at some point the selection duplicated itself onto another frame. I'll
keep an eye out for that one, see if I can reproduce it. Especially since it
could be useful. <G>
On the Zz issue, perhaps you could check for the shift key on both downstroke
_and_ upstroke, and consider it set if it was present at either time.
>>everything that is reported is fixed immediately. We do work a bit fast for
our own good sometimes, but that works for us when we're fixing things up,
too.<<
I really appreciate that approach. It beats the heck out of the typical "we'll
fix that next year in our next release, which will also introduce twice as many
new features and 5 times as many new bugs."