Category : Graphic Animations - Lots of older FLI's
Archive : ANIMAG.ZIP
Filename : PATH.TUT
Output of file : PATH.TUT contained in archive : ANIMAG.ZIP
AniMagic Copyright (c) 1993 Kavik Software
All Rights Reserved
The following steps guide you through the process of creating an animation
by animating an "object" over a defined path. An object is equivalent to an
actor in a movie or a "sprite" in sprite-based animation.
Please refer to the file ANIMAGIC.DOC for information on manipulating
controls such as edit boxes and slider controls.
1) Start AniMagic:
Start AniMagic by typing ANIMAGIC at the DOS prompt and striking
If a message panel appears, left-click on the "OK" control. You are in
draw mode and the current frame is the scratch frame. The mouse cursor
has a crosshair shape.
2) Activate the Main panel by right-clicking the mouse.
The Main panel is displayed and the mouse cursor now has a hand shape.
3) Load the PCX file BACK.PCX:
A) Select "FRAME" from the Main panel.
B) Select "PCX" from the Frame panel.
C) Select "BROWSE" from the PCX panel.
D) Left-click on the file name 'BACK.PCX' to highlight the file name.
E) Left-click on the highlighted file name again to select the file.
F) Select "LOAD PCX" from PCX panel. This loads the PCX file and
displays it on the current frame.
G) Right-click to return to the Frame panel.
H) Right-click to return to the Main panel.
4) Define the background image:
A) Select "BKGRND" from the Main panel.
B) Select "CAPTURE" from the Background panel. This captures the current
frame image and stores it in the background buffer.
C) Select "PRELOAD" from the Background panel. This causes the background
image to be loaded onto the scratch frame whenever a new scratch frame
is created.
D) Right-click to return to the Main panel.
5) Move the blue rectangles of the background image to the front plane:
A) Select "COLORS" from the Main panel.
B) Select "GET" from the Colors panel. An eyedropper cursor will appear.
C) Position the "needle" portion of the eyedropper cursor within a blue
rectangle and left-click to select the color. This will select the
blue color as the current drawing color.
D) Select "PALETTE" from the Colors panel. This will display the active
frame palette colors. Notice that the current drawing color is
indicated by a surrounding red rectangle.
E) Strike the 'F' key on the keyboard. This will toggle the front plane
attribute for the current drawing color. Front plane colors are
indicated by a surrounding dashed rectangle.
F) Right-click to return to the Colors panel.
G) Right-click to return to the Main panel.
6) Load the object file 'CUBE.ANO' from the disk:
A) Select "OBJECTS" from the Main panel. Notice that the current frame
image disappears. If an object were defined at this point it would
appear in the upper left portion of the display.
B) Select "FILES" from the Objects panel.
C) Select "BROWSE" from the Files panel.
D) Left-click on the file name 'CUBE.ANO' to highlight the file name.
E) Left-click on the highlighted file name again to select the file.
F) Select "LOAD" from the Files panel. This will load the object
from 'CUBE.ANO' into the object buffer. The object is displayed in
the upper left portion of the current display.
G) Right-click to return to the Objects panel.
H) Set the Rotation Angle slider control to read "ROTATE 10 DEGREES".
This will cause the object to rotate 10 degrees whenever a rotation
action is selected.
7) Define an object path:
A) Select "MULTI" from the Object panel. This will activate the
Multi-Frame panel.
B) Select "SET PATH". This will return you to the current frame image.
C) Move the mouse cursor to the left until the coordinates at the top
of the display read "X 000 Y 100".
D) Hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse across the screen
horizontally until it reaches the right side of the display then release
the left mouse button. The path does not have to be perfectly
horizontal. The defined path is depicted on the screen by a dotted line.
E) Right-click to return to the Multi-Frame panel.
8) Animate the object over the defined object path:
A) Select "ROTATE" from the Multi-Frame panel. This will cause the object
to be rotated each time a new frame is generated. The rotation angle
was defined with the Objects panel in step 6-H.
A) Enter the number 1 in the "START FRAME" edit box.
B) Enter the number 36 in the "FRAME COUNT" edit box.
C) Select "PREVIEW" to view the animation without actually generating
the frames. Notice the object is rotated 10 degrees in each frame as
it advances along the path.
D) Select "GENERATE" to generate the frame sequence.
9) Rebound the current animation:
A) Select "REBOUND" from the Multi-Frame panel. This will create a
reverse of the series of frames and add it to the end of the animation.
The first and last frames are not repeated so that the rebounding
effect is smoother.
B) Right-click to return to the Objects panel.
C) Right-click to return to the Main panel.
10) Display the animation:
A) Select ">>" from the Main panel. This will display the animation.
The playback speed can be adjusted with the left and right arrow
keys during playback. The left arrow key decreases the playback speed.
The right arrow key increases the playback speed. Make sure "Num-
Lock" is off if using the numeric keypad.
B) Click a mouse button or strike a key to stop the playback.
11) Save the animation to disk:
A) Select "FLIC" from the Main panel.
B) Replace the word 'UNTITLED' in the Flic panel edit box with 'CUBE'.
C) Select "SAVE" from the Flic panel.
D) Select "OK" from the message panel. This will save the current
animation as 'CUBE.FLI'.
E) Right-click to return to the Main panel.
12) Now you are ready to generate your own animation or play around
with some of the other features of AniMagic. Try 'FLASH.TUT'
if you haven't already.
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