Contents

Getting started

Step-By-Step animation tutor

Using the menus

File menu

New

Open

Save As

Quit

Animate

Start

Frame

Insert Graphics File

Insert Graphics From The Clipboard

Number of frames

Remove Frame

Show Frame Usage

Set Frame Spacing

Help

Contents           F1

About

Animating

Selecting Frame Number

Adding Graphic Images


Animation Scroll Bar

This scroll-bar scrolls in-between the different graphic animation frames. It stops as many times as frames were specified.


Animation Window
Animation Box

This is were Animation Studio puts the animation action. It also displays one of the frames (you select wich one with the scroll bar that is underneath the Animation Box.


File Menu

This menu has commands to load and save ANM files, and at the bottom contains the quit command


New ANM

This command, wich is found in the File menu, erases all current frames from memory, and starts a new Animation. If you select it, it will ask you how many frames you want in your animation, type in the number of frames you are going to use and hit enter (return), It then Asks you how many milli-seconds to pause
between each frame, 1000-1500 works best for most animations.


Open ANM

Use this command to open pre-saved animation files. If you want a very small demo of what amination studio can do, a .ANM file called: WALK.ANM comes with Animation Studio, select Open ANM, then select it from the open window,
It will then load a walking sequence, to view it, select the Animation Menu, and click Start. This command is found within the File menu.

Cool Animations


Save

Works like Save As, only if you save it with this method, you don't need to enter the filename, unless this is the first time you saved it.


Save As

This command is found in the file menu, it lets you save your .ANM file under a different name than the one you loaded, if you just started a New ANM, Save, and Save as will do the same thing.


Quit

This command is found in the File menu, when you select it, Animation Studio will abort and take you back to your current Windows session.
WARNING: As of this version (v1.0w), there is no prompt asking you if you wan to save first, so if you select Exit, your curent animation will be lost unless you saved it with the Save or Save As command.


Animate Menu

This menu contains the play command, which starts the animation.


Start

This command tells the computer to Start animating you current pictures. It is found in the Animation menu


Frame menu

This menu contains different tools for adding graphics to, editing, and viewing the frames. This is the most important menu.


Insert Graphics File command
Insert Graphics File

This command, found in the Frame menu, tells the computer to add a grapic file to the animation sequence.

After you select it, a window then comes up asking you to specify the name of the file to add. After you select the name of the file to add, it will then come up with a window asking what frame to insert it as. Type in the frame number and
hit the enter key. The next time you move the scroll bar, the picture will be added to the animation sequence


Show Fram Usage
Show Animation Usage

This command is found in the Frame menu, it brings up a box listing all the graphics files you currently have loaded in proper order.


Remove Frame command

This command removes a frame from your animation sequence. If you select it from the frame menu, it will then ask you Remove What Frame Number, type in the number of the frame to remove.
NOTE: This will not delete the graphics file containing the frame, only erase it out of your animation sequence.


Number of frames

Use this to specify the number of frames (or cells) to have in your animation.
A frame is a single picture out of your animation. When you select this, a window comes up and asks you how many frames you want.

Warning: Always do this part ahead of time, if you do it while 1 or more images are loaded into your animation sequence, they will be lost, and you will have to re-enter them from the Load Graphics File out of the frame menu.


Set frame spacing

This command is found in the frame menu, It sets how many milli-seconds to pause in-between each frame of animation. We recommend that you use 1000-1500 milliseconds, decrease the number for faster animations, increase for slower.


Help menu

This menu, wich is on the far-right of the screen, has two different help functions in it. The first one, Contents puts up the Contents of the Help System (just like pressing F1), The second one, About displays information about Animation Studio.


About Windows
About

This tells about Animation Studio. This was recently updated this version for the 3-D effect.


Status Bar

This bar tells you what \Animation studio is working on, and often reports progress, errors, and other special messages. When nothing is displayed that means that no action is currently taking place.
The Status bar dis-appears while The Animation Studio is minimized.


Step By Step Animation tutor
Step-By-Step Animation

This is sort of a "tutorial" for animating with Animation Studio. It tells you what you need to do to acheive great animations!

Step 1:  Think

The first step is to think of an animation. Funny animations are usually
best on Animation Studio. A good way to plan out what you are going to have, is to draw a few frames of it on a scratch pad, then go to your computer, and you're ready for:

Step 2: DRAW, DRAW, DRAW!

Now that you have you're idea, you need to make it work! Take the 	drawings you have on your scratch pad (see step 1), and start by opening
PC Paintbrush (the paint program that came with windows). Start by drawing the Title screen, then save it, then draw your first animation-frame and use Save As to save it to whatever name you want (use Save As so you don't over-write your first drawing) next change thepicture a little bit until it's the next
frame (Remember to use Save As, and different file-names for each frame).
Once you have drawn all the frames, quit PC-Paintbrush, load Animation Studio and:

Step 3: Make magic (ANIMATE!!)

Ok! Now that you're done planning and drawing, here's the fun part! Ok, now that Animation Studio is loaded, you need to start a new animation, so from the File menu, select New ANM (ALWAYS do this before starting a new animation). It will ask you how many frames you will use, for this, type in the number of frames you drew, and press the enter (return) key. It will then ask you how long to pause in-between frames, this is how many milliseconds to pause in-between each frame (picture), for most animations, 1000-1500 does fine (if you want faster animation, decrease the number, for slower animation, increase the number). Now, for every frame you drew, you need to load them into Animation Studio's clutches, to do this, from the Frame menu, select Insert Graphics file, it will then come up with a familiar open window, select the graphics file to add, then press the enter key, it will then ask you Insert at what frame number, type in the number of the frame to insert it in (the number of the frame is the sequence number of animation for example, the first picture you drew (frame 1) would be in slot 1, the second in slot 2 etc.), and press the enter (return) key.
NOTE: The first frame will not appear in the picture-window until you move the scroll-bar for the first time (move it forwards then back).

Step 4: What to do with your animation

Now that you have your animation, what do you do with it? Well there are several answers to that question.
#1: Upload it to America Online, CompuServe, or your favorite
       	       BBS or shareware distributor.
#2: Use it for office presentations
#3: Use it to show to your friends or family
#4: Use it to teach different CPR or first-aid manuevers in class.
#5: Programmers can use the .ANM format for thier programs 	       see also:

Programming With ANM

There are ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES with the POWER and
                           convenience of Animation Studio.

E-mail, Write, or fax me for the latest W Software catalog, containing the Latest version of Animation Studio!

W Software Productions
5075 E. C.r. 210
Knox, IN 46534

Fax: (219)772-5700
AmericaOnline users: Ben5784
Internet: Ben5784@aol.com

This is an unregistered copy of Animation Studio, To register, send the author
$6.00 and tell what size and format disk, he will then send you the latest version of animation studio (at least v1.2w) with TONS of added power and capabilities, for $15 registration, you will receive the latest version everytime I make a new release. For $40 you will receive the Visual Basic v3.0 Source code!


How to get other animations

On America Online, do a file search under ANM, Animation studio, or Ben5784, to see if you can get other .ANM files, try all of the above keywords!

Or send $4 a peice (cash, check, or  money order, i'm not responsible for cash lost in the mail) to:
         Ben Wampler
         5075 E. C.r. 210
         Knox, IN 46534

Here is the animations you can order (see above) please specify which one and disk size & density:

Mr Aliwiches Horn:  Doodling
Mr Aliwiches Horn:  Fake vacation
Car
Bus
Horse
Work-Day
Rubix Cubeix
Hot Day.
Haunted Mansion
A day in the life of  a Hot Dog

All the files are in .ANM format (animation studio v1.0w or higher)
for a catalog of W Software or a list of COOL animations, please write, or send
E-Mail to Ben5784@aol.com
America online users: Ben5784
Fax: (219)-772-5700


Programming with .ANM

For programmers: You can EASILY add .ANM file POWER to your applications. Here is how to get the official guide from the author:

About the .ANM file-format technical guide:

The ANM file-format Technical Guide, is a convinient book designed for any programmer, It tells about different kinds of headers, and how you can use the file-header to tell Animation Studio 5 different KEY THINGS, It also tells exactly how to locate and load all the different Animation Studio FRAME variables, and files.
The ANM File-format Technical Guide also includes many Visual Basic examples on how to load and work with .ANM files.

How to recieve the .ANM File-format Technical Guide.

To get the .ANM File-Format Technical guide, send $4 to:
                          Ben Wampler
                          5075 E. C.r. 210
                          Knox, IN 46534
please enclose cash, check, or money order for the proper amount (we aren't responsable for cash lost in the mail)
Or if you are in a hurry, send us the check for $5, and we will fax all the different pages of the guide, and still mail the bound-book.
NOTE: Please include your name, address, and $1 for postage.
For the lastest W Software catalog, Write, Fax, or E-Mail me:
AmericaOnline users: Ben5784
Internet: BEN5784@aol.com
Fax: (219)-772-5700


Insert Graphics From The Clipbaord
Insert Graphics from the Clipboard

Use this command, if you want to insert graphics you have stored in the Clipboard Image into a frame in Animation Studio. The Clipboard Image will be save automatically to a file named: CLIPB.BMP into the current directory. If you save that file into an ANM animation file, that frame's filename will be saved as CLIPB.BMP, but if you want it as a different file, you can take a Text Editor like DOS's EDIT, and edit the ANM file, the line that says CLIPB.BMP, change it to whatever you want to name the file, and then at the DOS prompt type this command to rename the CLIPB.BMP file.
REN CLIPB.BMP FILENAME.BMP
Where filename is the name you want to name the file.