[36mI have been animating on the Amiga for'four years now. Unfortunately, the'software has been a bit thin even'though the Amiga is THE Animation'computer. This problem has completely'stopped me from releasing and often'creating animations until recently. You'will probably be disagreeing with me at'this point, noting DPaint, Brill-'iance, Disney Anim Studio, MovieSetter,'and a plethora of PD Anim players. I'agree, there are plenty of titles, but'they all do the SAME THINGS or have'huge faults. I will give a complete'list of all of the features that are'needed in an Animation Utility/s at the
end of this article.
'First things first. I will system-'atically rip to bits and humiliate'every main Animation program that I
have used.
$
[32mDeluxe Paint.
'* NO PALETTE SWAPPING! This fault is'almost unforgivable. I still use DPaint'to create most of the shots in the'animation, but it is impossible to'append these shots without leaving'DPaint for another programme. This also'limits the special effects like titles
fading in and out.
'* NO FRAME TIMING! Having separate'timing for each frame saves time
and memory.
'* NO SOUND! Self explanatory. Any'decent production NEEDS sound. It would'also be nice to be able to "lay" the'sound track first. This makes animating
speech a whole heap easier.
'* PROGRAMME SIZE! The large size of'DPaint limits the size of the
Animation.
'* ANIMATION SIZE! DPaint has been'getting better at shrinking animations,'but the size is still much bigger than'the animations that are created by PD
and Shareware software.
'* FORCED LOOP ANIMS! I prefer to leave
loops off Animations
'* NO VIRTUAL MEMORY! The uses that this'could be put to could not be listed
here.
#
[32mBrilliance.
'* TO EXPENSIVE! I cannot comment much'more than this as I cannot afford this'programme. I suspect that it has'problems similar to DPaints (Brilliance
may support palette swapping).
)
[32mDisney Animation Studio.
* NO FRAME TIMING!
'* DODGY SOUND! This may only be the'copy I purchased but I was given no'help from the importer. The Programme'dumps the sound after approximately two'seconds, and refuses to play more than'one sample during the entire animation.
'* NO 64 COL AND HAM ANIMS! The extra colours are sometimes necessary.
'* NO BRUSHES! It is impossible to pick'up or use brushes/animbrushes in "Ink
and Paint".
&* RAM HANDLING! Disney Anim Studio&does not handle large animations at&all. The limit seems to be approx-&imately 180 frames in low res on a&machine that has the best part of
three Megs free.
&* NO VIRTUAL MEMORY! this would alleviate the poor ram handling.
#
[32mMovieSetter.
* NO FRAME TIMING!
* RAM HANDLING!
* NO 64 COL AND HAM ANIMS!
* NO VIRTUAL MEMORY!
'* ANIMATION SIZE! Try this one out for'yourself. Convert any animation to'MovieSetter and check the size, it will'look like you suddenly have an IBM
animation file on disk.
* NO PALETTE SWAPPING!
'* SPEED! The speed of any decent'animation is pathetic. One anim I'created using MovieSetter only just'scraped 15 frames per second on my'68030 based Amiga and ran at one to two'frames per second on a friends 68000
based A2000.
'* SIZE OF MOVEMENT! No professional'animator would take you seriously if'you asked them to animate movement'using less than a quarter of the screen
at a time.
'* COMPATIBILITY! This would not have'been a problem if there had been a conversion utility however slow.
[32m All of those pathetic PD anim players.
'I have not used them all, so I'apologise if anyone has written or'knows of any anim player that can
handle all of the requirements.
'* NO SOUND! There seems to be the'unwritten rule for anim player'creators "don't add sound it will'shrink your pen*s/clitor*s". I have1seen one that does,
[33m(What? Ed.)
[36m, but'the cumulation of impossible interface'and no documentation renders this
option useless.
* NO FRAME TIMING!
"
[32mMAIN ACTOR
'This is a partial solution to the'problem. This utility has been created'for shot appending, timing, adding'sound, animation format conversion, and'playback of most anim formats, sound,
and pictures.
FAULTS.
'Assume that this programme solves all'faults in the animation programmes
mentioned so far, EXCEPT:
* NO HAM ANIMATION'* NO VIRTUAL MEMORY. It may have this,,but I cannot get it to work.
[33m(Main'Actor doesn't have "virtual memory" but'according to it's docs it uses'"caching" which has to be turned OFF to'get the effect of virtual memory. With'caching ON the whole animation would be'loaded into ram while with it OFF the'frames will be pulled directly from the'animation file on your hard-disk. Well'that's what I THINK Main Actor does'from a quick glance at the docs. True'virtual memory is where a portion of'your hard-disk is set aside as an'extention of your computer's real'memory. ALL programs can use this so if'you set aside 20 mbs. as virtual memory'on a 2 mb. Amiga you will in'effect have an Amiga with 22 mbs. Made'up of perhaps 1 mb. chip, 1 mb. fast&and 20mbs. very slow memory. Ed.)
* ONLY ONE SOUND AT A TIME'* LOSS AND CORRUPTION OF SOUND FILE IN
LOW MEMORY'* NEEDS TO BE ASSIGNED (including
player)'* BUGGY. Random system locks and
crashes.
(
[32mTHREE LISTS OUTLINING NECESSARY
FEATURES.
[32mLIST OF FEATURES FOR CREATING ANIMS
'* SOUND. I would suggest MOD support.'This way, the MOD file could be made'before the animation was started, and'would give flexibility with sound'and/or music. MOD files can handle four
samples at once.
'* FRAME TIMING. Absolutely necessary to'add this early to time action to
sounds.
* PALETTE SWAPPING.
'* VIRTUAL MEMORY. Estimate that'amateurs have two to four megs of ram,'but want to create anims with sound
that take up five or six megs.
* BRUSHES/ANIMBRUSHES.
'* ONION SKINNING. Onion skin only one
selected colour.
'* ERASABLE COLOUR. One selectable'colour that is used to draw "roughs"'that can be filled or drawn over. After'the anim has been cleaned up, this'colour can be erased easily with part'picture, whole picture, and whole
or part animation.
'* IFF ILBM APPEND. See DPaint or Disney
Anim Studio.
NOTE. "BLUR"
'A separate utility could be created for
this effect.
'During fast action, animators like to'add blur to every second frame.'Likewise, Imagine, and I believe Real'3D have no motion blur option. This is'incredibly tedious to create by hand'and twice as hard to do with a limited
palette.
'A limited Morphing (or brush smearing)'programme would be perfect. I would'suggest an interface that asks the user'to draw an outline around the moving'character (and a slight edge of'background) on both frames. Maybe an'option to outline a number of frames'and leave the program to create the new
frames.'* PLEASE. If anyone actually wants to'create this useful utility, please try'to use palette swapping as this has the'highest quality and I believe will use
less memory than dithering.
'For a good example of this effect,'record "THE SIMPSONS" and watch it
frame by frame.
"
[32mLIST OF FEATURES FOR% APPENDING/ARRANGING ANIMS
* PALETTE SWAP.
* FRAME TIMING.
* APPEND.
'* LOOP SECTIONS. Loop a section a'specified number of times, or replay a%section again later in the animation.
* VIRTUAL MEMORY.
* MOD SOUND SUPPORT.
'* FRAME REARRANGING. Highlight a range'of frames and move them behind a
specified frame number.
* SMALL ANIM SIZE.
'Please have a look at "Main Actor" for
anything I may have missed.
[32mLIST OF FEATURES FOR PLAYING ANIMS
* SMALL PROGRAM SIZE.
* POWERPACKER SUPPORT.
* VIRTUAL MEMORY.
* MOD SOUND SUPPORT.
%* RETAIN SPECIFIED TIMING. And loops.
* PALLET SWAPPING.
'I know that I am demanding, but if an'animation package, or packages does not'appear on the Amiga platform soon, the'Amiga will start to loose its advantage%over the other systems on the market.
'If by chance, someone actually throws'themselves into one or all of these'projects, I will be happy to support'and/or showcase the software.
! To contact me (and abuse me)
Rodney Entwisle
8C Matai St
Whangarei
New Zealand
~~~~~,
[33mI made an anim once that was'supposed to be in sync with a MED'module. I got it near enough to right'on the A500, (with half meg. chip, half'meg. fast), but on the A600 with no'fast it was out of sync. Mod support's'a good idea and I think the solution to'timing problems is AREXX links between'module players and anim players. You'could then have the animation's timing'controlled by the module or visa versa.'Main Actor has AREXX support and so'has OctaMEDPro (and no doubt the later'versions too) but whether these are'good enough for the job I wouldn't know. Ed.
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