On the screen you can see a menu bar and some buttons together with the "Animation Window". This window will show any recorded drawings according to your instructions.
The menus will enable you to record, store and recall drawings, set the timing, edit your drawings and adjust the camera and aspect ratios. The buttons give you several ways of looking at your drawings.
Many menus have keyboard equivalents that are used by pressing the command key (the "clover" or "Apple" key to the left of the space bar) together with another key. See your Macintosh manual for details.
The Main Display menu bar
The menu bar contains the following menus:
 
Pressing the mouse button on one of the menus opens up a list of the available commands in that menu. Drag the mouse down to the appropriate command and release the mouse button to activate the command. The different commands are described below.
The File menu:
 
Save scene / Save as… store the drawings currently in memory on disk in a compressed file format. In addition, if the option is chosen (see "Option" menu), any exposure sheet that also exist in memory are saved as a separate file, with the same name as the animation, plus the appendages "-xs". When you choose "Save as" (or "Save" for the first time), a dialog box appears prompting for the name of the file to be saved, just as in any other Mac program. Note that the ANIMAC's image file format is not compatible with other Macintosh programs, so if you wish to use your recorded pictures in other documents, you have to use the Mac "Clipboard" or "Scrapbook". See the "Options" menu.
An average animation line drawing requires about 2.5 Kb of disk space. A rasterized halftone picture will require up to 11 Kb. If you have a very large number of scenes that you wish to have available continuously, a large-capacity hard disk is very useful. This is especially true for images of blue-pencil sketches, which may have to be heavily rasterized to bring out weak lines. If you are using floppy disks for storage or for transporting animation files to another Mac, you may have to consider the space limitation imposed by these large file sizes. A 1.4 Mb disk will hold up to 500 drawings, but only a little over 100 halftoned pictures. If you need to store more than that on floppy disk, record and save fewer images at a time.
Open scene… recalls a file of saved drawings from disk into the computer's memory A list of the available animation files in the current folder will be shown. By double-clicking one of the names that file will be opened. If your file is located in another folder or disk you will have to choose the correct folder/disk. See your Macintosh manual for detailed instructions on how to use the file dialogs.
If available, any x-sheet and/or sound file with the same name as the drawings (plus the suffix "-xs" or "-snd"), will be loaded if that is chosen in "Save & open settings" in the Options menu.
Open/append frames… works just like Open, except that the picture memory is not cleared before loading, nor are any x-sheet or sound loaded. The appended drawings are added to the ones already in memory. The program will warn you if this requires more memory than is available, in which case the operation is aborted. This command does not load an x-sheet, since the drawing numbers of the appended scene will not be the same as on the scene's original x-sheet. You will have to load the x-sheet separately and use the "Add offset" command in the x-sheet edit menu to adjust the drawing numbers. Neither does this command load any sound. This is useful if you have several pencil tests that use the same sound file.
Clear scene erases the picture and exposure sheets currently in memory, but first displays an alert box requiring you to confirm or cancel the command.
Quit exits the program if the command is confirmed.
NOTE: The "Open", "Clear" and "Quit" commands will display this warning message if there are any unsaved drawings or x-sheet in memory:
 
Press the "Cancel" button if you want to save your pictures and then use the "Save scene" menu command. Then try "Open", "Clear" or "Quit" again. If you already have saved, or don't want to save the drawings, press the "Proceed" button.
The Edit menu:
 
Edit background (NOT IN LE VERSION) jumps directly to the "Retouch" mode, with the background set as the current picture. See the "Retouching Drawings" chapter.
Display and mark frame… will take you to the "Filmstrip" display, and mark the currently displayed frame for subsequent editing. To change the current frame, use the Flip button (see Main Display Buttons chapter).
Display frames … to … will take you to the "Film- strip" display showing the 20 frames chosen. See the "Editing Drawings" chapter.
The Timing menu:
 
24 and 25 fps chooses the basic frame rate for the display. 24 fps is the standard motion picture frame rate, and is also used for American NTSC TV animation. 25 fps is used for animation to be produced for the European PAL TV system.
Other… (NOT IN LE VERSION) enables you to choose a base speed from 1 to 30 frames per second. All displaying will then follow this base speed, i.e. if you have set the speed to 30 fps, the drawings will cycle at 30 per second, but an x-sheet with a drawing every second frame will display the animation at 15 drawings per second. Please note the difference between frames per second and drawings per second in this case.
NOTE: The "Timing" menu is also available in the x-sheet, and performs the same functions. However, it is a good idea to set the base speed before you start shooting your animation.
 
The Help menu gives you useful information on commands and functions. It is present at all times, and its contents changes depending on what you currently can do in the ANIMAC program.
The Camera menu:
 
Adjust camera displays the camera controls.
(NOTE: Also see the chapter "Tips on lighting and exposure", and if you have a color camera, the special COLOR CAMERA HELP file.)
 
Use the mouse to drag the slider knob to adjust the brightness. You can also use the keyboard B and D keys to adjust brightness. The three small buttons change the contrast. (If your display cannot handle some of the normal grayscale bit depths, one or two of the contrast buttons will be inactive. This happens, for instance, on older Power Books with a screen that cannot display color or grayscale.)
The controls may feel slow, but this is normal, due to the constant scanning. To make the brightness adjustment faster, click the mouse on the brigtness slider bar (the black line) in the position where you want to have the slider. With the mouse button down, wait for one scan, and the slider will jump to that position.
Choose the contrast setting that gives the best result, depending on your subject. Click the OK button when you are satisfied.
Choosing the "Line" button lets ANIMAC "pick up" weak lines and strengthen them, and also bring out detail in heavily drawn areas. This only works with a color camera, and is somewhat slow on less powerful Macs. The image will be slightly grainy, but this is normal.
Cleaned-up artwork can usually be shot with a higher contrast setting, as well as a brighter background – remember, the more raster dots in the background, the larger your files wil be, and the slower they'll save and load.
"Pause between scans" button facilitates adjustment on certain PowerBooks with a slow display. When this button is selected, there will be a 2-second pause between successive scans.
Keyboard setting of brightness: In "Adjust Camera" or "Record" mode, typing an uppercase "B" or "D" (shift key + letter key) lets you adjust the camera brightness by 10 steps with every key press. A lowercase "b" or "d" will adjust one step at a time.
Record starts the digitizing process. After choosing the Record command, the normal display disappears, and the incoming picture from the video camera is displayed instead. By pressing the space bar once, a frame is recorded. Do not record several identical frames (as you would do when shooting on film), instead use the automatic x-sheet function described below. This saves a considerable amount of picture memory, and allows you to record longer animation sequences. If "Record" is chosen when there already are frames in memory, the new frames will be added to the end of the previously recorded sequence. In this case the x-sheet will be updated from a marker (if present) on the x-sheet — see x-sheet chapter for details.
Pressing the "P" key will disable/enable the rasterized preview when recording. When enabled, a rasterized image will be displayed after every scan. When disabled, scanning is faster, and the image is rasterized only when recorded. You should disable the preview especially when you use the "Filter" setting. Filtering takes a few seconds per scan, and having the preview enabled will slow down your recording substantially.
 
Under the image there is a display of the frame number, as well as information regarding Combine and Insert modes, as well as the position and incrementing step of the X-sheet. A "BG" is shown preceding the frame number if a background is currently in use:
When you have finished recording, or if you wish to look at what you've recorded so far, press the E key on the keyboard to get back to the main display. To continue with the recording, choose Record from the Digitizer menu again.
AUTOMATIC X-SHEET GENERATION:
An exposure sheet is automatically generated, with a default interval of 2 frames between the drawings. By pressing a number key during recording, this default value can be changed, even on a frame-by-frame basis. For example: If you want the next drawing to occupy 3 frames on the exposure sheet, just press number key 3, and then record the drawing by pressing the space bar. The interval of 3 will stay in effect until changed. In this way the exposure sheet can be automatically generated with the right timing.
Insert before frame… is similar to the Record command, but places the new frames before the current frame whose number is displayed on the menu. To change the current frame, use the Flip button (see Main Display Buttons chapter).
NOTE: This operation changes the numbering of all subsequent drawings, so the exposure sheet will not refer to the intended frames any more. For this reason, use "Insert" only before you start working on the x-sheet, and do not use it at all if you generate your x-sheet with the correct timing during "Record" as described above.
Compare Camera & frame xx brings up the "Adjust Camera" screen, but alternately displays the camera image and an previously recorded frame. (Choose this frame in advance by using the flip buttons.) The align command allows you to accurately position a drawing in relation to a previously recorded one, so that you may append new drawings to a scene recorded earlier. When aligning, minimize the "jumping" action between the camera image and the recorded drawing. (This feature is extremely useful if you use ANIMAC for testing claymation during actual shooting!)
Use background will superimpose the recorded back- ground onto the frames to be recorded.
No background will suspend the background. It can be re-enabled with the "Use background" command.
New background records a new background in the "Combine" mode (see below) when the space bar is pressed. The E key returns you to the Main Display. The D and B keys will adjust the picture brightness, just as in the Record mode.
Add to background enables you to add elements to a previously recorded background. Press the space bar once for every new element, and press the E key when finished.
Positive/Negative image reverses the video signal from the camera. These commands are used when you want white lines on a black background (when animating snowflakes, for instance).
Combine allows you to simulate a light box where several drawings are put one over another. A light box usually severely blurs the drawings on the lowest levels, but with this method all the drawings stays crisp and sharp since they are all recorded separately. When you choose this command, you go into Record mode, but the "frame counter" is not advanced. Every time you press the space bar, the drawing under the camera is added to the ones already "combined", and in this way a single frame can be "built up" from many separate drawings. When you're finished with the frame, hit the "Return" key to store the combination and continue with the next frame to be combined, or press the E key to exit this mode. Combine cannot be used after drawings have been "Cut" or "Pasted" in "Edit". Another way of combining drawings (actually, whole scenes) is available with the menu "Combine files…" (NOT IN LE VERSION).
Time lapse recording (NOT IN LE VERSION)
When choosing this command, you will be asked to input the interval between frames (3-3600 seconds). After pressing the "Return" key, the shooting will start. Additional frames can be shot manually anytime during time-lapse shooting by pressing the space bar. The E key exits time-lapse shooting. Note that the recording of frames into ANIMAC will stop when memory is full.
The Options menu:
 
Aspect ratio… chooses between standard academy and TV 1:1.35, or wide-screen 1:1.66 (NOT IN LE VERSION) frame formats. If there already are some frames in memory, you will get a warning that they will be lost unless they're saved first. Also please note that stored drawings with different aspect ratios cannot be appended to each other.
Store settings writes the current digitizer settings, aspect ratio, exposure sheet settings and timing into the "ANIMAC DATA" file . When the program is started the next time, these adjustments will remain in effect even if the computer has been powered off in the meantime. Whenever this command is used, any previously stored settings are overwritten.
Combine Files… (NOT IN LE VERSION) enables you to superimpose two separately recorded and saved files of drawings, both timed according to their respective exposure sheets. After activating this command, you must choose the files in the following order: animation 1, its x-sheet, animation 2 and its x-sheet. The program will then combine the x-sheets and the drawings into memory. It is then possible to save the combination as new animation and x-sheet files if you want to add yet another level of animation. Important: use a new file name to avoid overwriting the old files! Note that the amount of picture memory needed for the combination may be significantly greater than the sum of the number of drawings in the separate files would indicate. A way to alleviate this is to make certain that the x-sheets are synchronized, so that changes happen simultaneously on both x-sheets. It is also important that the x-sheets contain an S (stop) at the end, and no other special commands, except B (blanks).
Print frame xx (NOT IN LE VERSION) will print the displayed image on your printer, if you need a paper copy for later reference.
Print marked frames (NOT IN LE VERSION) prints, on one or more pages, the frames chosen while flipping drawings with the "<" and ">" buttons. A frame is chosen for printing by pressing the space bar when that frame is shown in the Main Display. "PRINT" will be displayed after the frame number. Also, in the "filmstrip" display, a mark will appear after the numbers of the chosen frames. If a frame is selected in error, another press of the space bar will deselect it.
Copy frame xx to clipboard (NOT IN LE VERSION) will capture the currently displayed frame to the Mac clipboard. You can then open the Scrapbook from the "Apple" menu and paste the picture into it. (Use Command-V from the keyboard since the Edit menu has no Paste command.) If you want to transfer several frames, repeat these steps again. You can then open the Scrapbook from any other Mac application, and use your pictures in your Mac documents. Refer to your Mac User manual on how to use the Clipboard and Scrapbook.
Save & Open settings… lets you determine whether you want to include the x-sheet and/or sound when saving and loading a file of drawings from the main display's File menu. If not, x-sheet and sound can be saved/loaded from their respective displays.
Show/Don't show frames while loading
will either let you see the frames as they load, or prevents them from being displayed during loading (practical if you need to load a scene in front of a client and don't want the frames to be shown without the correct x-sheet timing).
"Show scene Info" will first display a window like the one used to open a scene, but instead of loading a scene you will get a list of information about the chosen scene, including aspect ratio, number of images, and if there are properly named x-sheet & sound files present in the same folder, the length and timing of the x-sheet, sound length etc.
Color / B&W Camera: You can adjust the settings to correspond with either a B&W or a color camera.
