This document describes how to create an animation for Uli's Moose. To do this, you need a resource editor like ResEdit, Resurrection or Resorcerer. Make a copy of an existing animation file and give it a name of your choice.
Installing the templates
Before you can edit some resources needed for a Moose animation you have to copy the 'TMPL' resources from the "Uli's Moose" extension to a place where your Resource editor will find them. These resources tell your resource editor how to display the contents of the Moose-specific resources.
Before modifying any files you should make a backup copy of those in case you make a mistake or accidentally delete or replace someting. Resource editors can easily cause damage in applications if used the wrong way.
ResEdit: copy them into the "ResEdit Preferences" file in your system folder, or into the ResEdit application itself. If you are asked whether you want to replace any existing resources, instruct ResEdit to assign the pasted resources a Unique ID.
Resorcerer or Resurrection: Copy the 'TMPL' resources into a new, untitled file, name it something like "Moose Templates" and drop it into the "Resorcerer Templates" resp. "Support Resources" folder.
Quit your resource editor and save your changes. Then open it again (it will now know about the Moose's resources) and open your animation file from the resource editor.
Base Icon
Draw your animation's complete image into the color icon ('cicn') resource ID 300. Make those parts in the mask white that contain the mouth and eyes. This icon is called the "Base icon" of the animation and supplies the character and its background.
Eyes
Then create the icons with the eyes. They must have the same size as the white area you spared out for them and the mask's black parts must be the same as the white parts in the base icon. IDs 500 to 503 are the moose's eyes looking straight ahead and the other three contain the images used when the moose blinks.
510 is the eyes looking up, 514 looking down. 511 is the moose looking to the upper right, 512 just to the right, 513 to the lower right and 515 to 517 are the left-side equivalents.
Mouth
The mouth icons begin with ID 400, which is the normal mouth used when the moose isn't speaking.
For the other mouthes you have two choices. Either draw the simplified mouth positions, which consist of four different ones, or use the new method which allows much more realistic lip-synchronization using 41 different mouth positions.
To create the appropriate icons, add either the new opcode (1-41) or the old opcode (1-4) for the phoneme to 400 to calculate the ID number for the mouth icon for that sound. Note that the old opcodes share one icon for several phonemes, which means you must make a phoneme that is generic enough to look acceptable for all of them. Here is a list of all opcodes and what sounds they represent:
Symbol Example New Opcode Old
% silence 0 0
@ breath intake 1 1
AE bat 2 1
EY bait 3 1
AO caught 4 1
AX about 5 1
IY beet 6 4
EH bet 7 4
IH bit 8 4
AY bite 9 1
IX roses 10 4
AA cot 11 1
UW boot 12 2
UH book 13 2
UX bud 14 1
OW boat 15 2
AW bout 16 1
OY boy 17 2
b bin 18 3
C chin 19 1
d din 20 3
D them 21 3
f fin 22 3
g gain 23 1
h hat 24 1
J jump 25 1
k kin 26 1
l limb 27 1
m mat 28 3
n nat 29 1
N tang 30 1
p pin 31 3
r ran 32 1
s sin 33 2
S shin 34 2
t tin 35 1
T thin 36 2
v van 37 3
w wet 38 2
y yet 39 2
z zen 40 2
Z measure 41 2
If you intend to use the new mouth icons, you have to create a "PHOs" resource of ID 200 in your phrase file where the "supports all phonemes" option is checked to signal to the Moose that your animation supports them. If this resource is missing or the "supports all phonemes" option in the resource is off, the Moose will expect 4 mouth icons (=old opcodes).
Moose Arrangement
Now you have to add a resource that tells the Moose where to draw which icons. To this end, create a 'DITL' resource and create three user items in it. Make the first one the size of the base icon, the second the size of the mouth and the third one the size of the eyes, and place them accordingly on top of each other.
Tip: To arrange the icons more easily, you can create the items as Icon items in Resurrection first, and assign the icons 300, 400 and 500 to them. But remember to turn them into User Items again when you are finished, since Uli's Moose assumes user items in the DITL and might crash if they are something else.
Background Color
If you want your animation to support the background color the user selected in the Moose panel, create a 'bCOL' resource ID 200 and enter the index of the color in your icon's color table into the resource. The index is determined by simply counting how many colors preceed the color you are using in the color palette.
For this to work appropriately you may have to go by trial and error since some resource editors only include those colors that are actually used in the icon. Also, you have to make sure all icons use the same color table.
