Monster Media 1994 #1

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AniMagician Version 1.2c AniMagician Copyright (c) 1994 KAVIK Software All Rights Reserved KAVIK SOFTWARE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES RELATING TO THIS SOFTWARE WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND FUNCTIONALITY, AND ALL SUCH WARRANTEES ARE EXPRESSLY AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMED. NEITHER KAVIK SOFTWARE NOR ANYONE WHO HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN THE CREATION, PRODUCTION, OR DELIVERY OF THIS SOFTWARE SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THIS SOFTWARE. IN NO EVENT SHALL LIABILITY FOR ANY DAMAGES EVER EXCEED THE PRICE PAID FOR THE LICENSE TO USE THIS SOFTWARE. THE PERSON USING THIS SOFTWARE BEARS ALL RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. This agreement shall be governed by the laws of the State of Alabama and shall inure to the benefit of KAVIK Software. Any action or proceeding brought by either party against the other out of or related to this agreement shall be brought only in a state or federal court of competent jurisdiction located in Madison County, Alabama. CONTENTS 1...............INTRODUCTION 1.1.............SHAREWARE 1.2.............WELCOME 1.3.............CONTACTING THE AUTHOR 2...............REQUIREMENTS 3...............THE FLI FORMAT 4...............INSTALLING AniMagician 5...............GETTING STARTED 5.1.............STARTING AniMagician 5.2.............MAKING SURE YOUR MOUSE WORKS 5.3.............QUITTING AniMagician 6...............USING THE MOUSE 6.1.............PROBLEMS WITH THE MOUSE 6.2.............ACTIVATING A CONTROL 7...............USING THE CONTROL PANELS 7.1.............EXITING A CONTROL PANEL 7.2.............BUTTON CONTROLS 7.3.............DEFAULT CONTROLS 7.4.............SLIDER CONTROLS 7.5.............EDIT BOXES 8...............WORKING WITH FRAMES 8.1.............DRAW MODE 8.2.............THE SCRATCH FRAME 8.3.............ADDING FRAMES 8.4.............POSITIONING THE CURRENT FRAME 8.5.............MODIFYING AN EXISTING FRAME 8.6.............INSERTING A FRAME 8.7.............DELETING A FRAME 9...............WORKING WITH COLORS 9.1.............PALETTE COLOR ZERO - THE INVISIBLE COLOR 9.2.............THE SYSTEM PALETTE 9.3.............THE FRAME PALETTE 9.4.............SELECTING A COLOR 9.5.............DEFINING A FRONT PLANE COLOR 9.6.............MODIFYING A PALETTE COLOR 9.7.............SAVING THE PALETTE 9.8.............LOADING A PALETTE 9.9.............GETTING A COLOR FROM THE SCREEN 10..............THE FLASH FRAME OPTION 10.1............FLASH INTERVAL 10.2............FLASH PERSISTENCE 11..............OBJECTS 11.1............WHAT IS AN OBJECT ? 11.2............CREATING AN OBJECT 11.3............THE "PUT SETTINGS" 11.4............POSITIONING AN OBJECT ON THE FRAME 11.5............THE BACKGROUND PLANE 11.6............THE OBJECT PLANE 11.7............THE FRONT PLANE 11.8............THE OBJECT HOOK 11.9............OBJECTS AND MULTI-FRAME GENERATION 11.10...........DEFINING AN OBJECT PATH 11.11...........PREVIEWING THE ANIMATION 11.12...........GENERATING THE ANIMATION 11.13...........SAVING AN OBJECT 11.14...........LOADING AN OBJECT 11.15...........REBOUND 12..............THE BACKGROUND BUFFER 12.1............DEFINING A BACKGROUND 12.2............DISPLAYING THE BACKGROUND 12.3............BACKGROUND SETTINGS 12.4............BACKGROUND PRELOAD 12.5............BACKGROUND CARRY 13..............DRAWING TOOLS 14..............FRAME EDITING 14.1............UNDO 14.2............ERASE 14.3............CUT 14.4............COPY 14.5............PASTE 15..............SPECIAL EFFECTS 15.1............MAPPING A FRAME IMAGE ONTO A BRESENHAM CIRCLE 15.2............MIRROR IMAGES 15.3............PIXELATE 15.4............SKEW 15.5............FLIPPING A FRAME IMAGE 16..............PCX FILES 17..............VIEWING THE ANIMATION 17.1............ADJUSTING THE PLAYBACK SPEED 18..............ERRORS 19..............CONTROL PANELS AND CONTROLS 19.1............HOT KEYS 19.2............THE MAIN PANEL 19.3............THE EDIT PANEL 19.4............THE COLORS PANEL 19.5............THE COLOR SELECT PANEL 19.6............THE COLOR MIX PANEL 19.7............THE FRAME PANEL 19.8............THE TOOLS PANEL 19.9............THE SPRAY TOOL SETUP PANEL 19.10...........THE OBJECTS PANEL 19.11...........THE MULTI-FRAME PANEL 19.12...........THE BACKGROUND PANEL 19.13...........THE FLIC PANEL 19.14...........THE OPTIONS PANEL 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 SHAREWARE AniMagician is ShareWare. You are allowed to try AniMagician for 30 days. After the 30 day trial period you must either remove it from your computer or pay the registration fee. See the file "REGISTER.DOC" for the registration order form. By registering AniMagician, you encourage the development of future products and encourage further enhancement of AniMagician. You are free to give the ShareWare version of AniMagician to your friends and upload it to electronic Bulletin Boards as long as all files are present and original. DISTRIBUTORS : You may distribute the ShareWare version of AniMagician provided the only fee charged is a nominal fee for the distribution media and/or copying the files to the media. 1.2 WELCOME Welcome to the exciting world of computer animation. AniMagician is an animation design tool that allows you to create and edit colorful 256-color computer animations. Create animations from scratch using the provided set of drawing tools or turn a series of images rendered by an external ray-tracer into a frame-based animation. AniMagician will allow you to define a complete 256-color palette for each frame of your animation. This allows an almost unlimited array of colors. AniMagician is designed to get you "up and running" immediately. A little imagination is all you will need to create spectacular animations. 1.3 CONTACTING THE AUTHOR If you have problems or comments you may send Post Mail to : KAVIK Software P.O. Box 261 Huntsville, AL 35804 Or on CompuServe : Duane Violett ID #71371,3046 2 REQUIREMENTS The requirements for AniMagician are : IBM-compatible 286 or higher DOS 3.0 or higher VGA card VGA color monitor 590K free low memory A Microsoft-compatible mouse and driver Hard Disk - about 2 Meg free 3 THE FLI FORMAT First of all, what is the .FLI (flic) file format ? The .FLI file format is a frame-based animation file format. The flic file format provides a means of storing a series of frames by saving only the portions of each frame that differ from the previous frame. This includes palette differences and will allow for a new 256 color palette for each frame. These frames, when played back, appear to be animated. The effect is similar to movie reels where each frame differs slightly from the previous frame. Of course, if your frames differ greatly you will not have an effective animation. We chose the .FLI format because of the numerous .FLI flics available on BBS's and because we do not wish to introduce yet another file format. AniMagician allows you to edit existing .FLI animations or assemble your own animation and store it as a .FLI animation file. 4 INSTALLING AniMagician To install AniMagician : 1) Create a directory to hold AniMagician : MKDIR ANMAG 2) Move to the new directory : CD ANMAG 3) Copy the files from the supplied disk to the directory. COPY A:*.* . Note that if your disk is on drive B: use the command : COPY B:*.* . 4) AniMagician is now installed in the directory "ANMAG". 5 GETTING STARTED 5.1 STARTING AniMagician First, change to the directory containing AniMagician. If the directory containing AniMagician is named \ANMAG type "CD \ANMAG". You must run AniMagician from the directory in which it has been installed since there are files which AniMagician looks for at startup. To start AniMagician type "ANMAG". This will start AniMagician and display the startup screen. You may also be presented with a notice panel. To get rid of the notice strike the <Enter> or <Esc> key. You will now be in draw mode and your current frame will be the scratch frame. Your current drawing tool will be the "brush" tool. Right-clicking the mouse will bring up the Main panel. 5.2 MAKING SURE YOUR MOUSE WORKS Now let's see if your mouse is working correctly. First make sure you are in draw mode. If any panels are displayed strike <Esc> until all panels have been cleared. If no panels are displayed you are in draw mode. To verify that your mouse is functioning correctly perform the following steps. 1) Right-click the mouse to activate the Main panel. 2) Activate the Tools panel by positioning the mouse in cursor in the "TOOLS" button and left-clicking the mouse. 3) Select the "LINE" button from the Tools panel. 4) Right-click the mouse to exit the Tools panel. 5) Right-click the mouse to exit the Main panel. 6) Position the mouse cursor to the upper left corner of the screen. 7) Left-click the mouse to set the starting point of the line. 8) Drag the mouse cursor to the center of the screen. 9) If the line appears to be connected to the center of the crosshair cursor your mouse is functioning correctly. Right-click to cancel the line draw operation and you are ready to create your animation. If the line is not connected to the center of the crosshair right- click the mouse to cancel the line draw operation and perform the following steps. 10) Right-click the mouse to activate the Main panel. 11) Activate the Options panel by selecting the "OPTIONS" button. 12) Select the "MOUSE CHECK" button from the Options panel. This will toggle the "MOUSE CHECK" setting and create the file "anm.cfg". The new setting is active until toggled or until the file "anm.cfg" is deleted. 13) Right-click the mouse to exit the Options panel. 14) Right-click the mouse to exit the Main panel. 15) Repeat the line draw operation to verify the new setting. If the line is still not connected to the center of the crosshair cursor your mouse is not compatible with AniMagician. 5.3 QUITTING AniMagician To exit from AniMagician select "EXIT" from the Main panel or strike the <Esc> key when in draw mode. A notice panel will verify that you wish to exit. 6 USING THE MOUSE AniMagician requires that you have a Microsoft-compatible mouse driver loaded. If you do not have a mouse, AniMagician will terminate and display the message : "Error - Mouse disconnected, not installed, or unsupported" If you have installed a mouse driver and still get this message, make sure the mouse is connected to the proper port. See your mouse installation manual for directions. 6.1 PROBLEMS WITH THE MOUSE Occasionally the mouse cursor may become "invisible" or hard to see after loading a PCX file. This occurs when the palette color for the mouse cursor (palette index 16) is too close to the background color. The mouse cursor color is also modified when the RGB components of palette index 16 are modified using the color mix panel. 6.2 ACTIVATING A CONTROL A control is selected from a control panel by positioning the mouse cursor over the control and left-clicking the mouse to select the control. You left-click by depressing the left mouse button and releasing it. 7 USING THE CONTROL PANELS The control panels are designed such that related functions are contained on the same panel. The panels may contain push buttons, click buttons, slider controls, or edit boxes. A panel is active when it is the topmost panel displayed. The mouse cursor will be limited to the region defining the active panel. 7.1 EXITING A CONTROL PANEL You may exit an active control panel any of the following ways. 1) Right-clicking the mouse. 2) Striking the <Escape key> 3) Striking the <Enter> key. This method will activate the default control upon exiting the panel. Not all panels have a default control. 7.2 BUTTON CONTROLS Button controls are activated by positioning the mouse cursor within the button and left-clicking the mouse. Some click buttons allow only one button in a group to be selected at a time. These buttons are used for setting mutually exclusive attributes. 7.3 DEFAULT CONTROLS Some panels contain a button with red text. These are default controls and are automatically selected by striking the <Enter> key when the panel is active. 7.4 SLIDER CONTROLS Slider controls are activated by positioning the mouse cursor within the slider control tab, the part that would move on a real slider, depressing the left mouse button, then dragging the mouse left and right. The mouse cursor will turn off when the slider control is activated and turn back on when the mouse button is released. 7.5 EDIT BOXES An edit box is activated by left-clicking the mouse cursor within the edit box window. The text cursor will appear in the edit box at the point where the mouse was clicked. The text is modified by typing in corrections and/or using the <Delete> and <Backspace> keys. The <Delete> key will delete the character at the text cursor, the <Backspace> key will delete the character in front of the text cursor. To remove a region of text, select the region by positioning the mouse cursor over the first character in the region and hold down the left mouse button while dragging the mouse cursor over the characters to be included in the region. This will highlight the selected region. Type a valid character to replace the region with the character. To delete a selected region strike the <Delete> key. 8 WORKING WITH FRAMES The frame is the basic unit from which an animation is created. An animation is nothing more than a series of frames played in sequence. The positioning of items in each frame and the speed at which the frames are displayed determine how realistic the animation appears. Frames are created by drawing a frame then "shooting" it or by creating a series of frames using an "object". See the tutorial file "FLASH.TUT" for the lesson on creating an animation by shooting individual frames. See the tutorial file "PATH.TUT" for the lesson on creating an animation using object paths. 8.1 DRAW MODE You are in draw mode when there are no active panels displayed. Draw mode allows you to modify the current frame image with the current draw tool. 8.2 THE SCRATCH FRAME The scratch frame is the work sheet on which you create images to be used as objects or create frame images that are to be added to an animation. When stepping through the frames of an animation the scratch frame is located after the last frame in the animation. The scratch frame is actually an AniMagician buffer and is not really part of the animation until it as added with the "SHOOT" function. 8.3 ADDING FRAMES To add a frame to your animation, first create the image on the scratch frame then select "SHOOT" from the Main panel. This will add the frame to the end of the animation and create a new scratch frame with the currently defined background. See the section "THE BACKGROUND BUFFER" for a descrip- tion of background images. 8.4 POSITIONING THE CURRENT FRAME The current frame is the animation frame which is displayed when you are in draw mode. To step through the frames of an animation use the "<" and ">" controls from the Main panel or use the left and right arrow keys when in draw mode. If using the arrow keys on the numeric keypad be sure "Num Lock" is turned off. 8.5 MODIFYING AN EXISTING FRAME To modify an existing frame, position the current frame to the frame to be modified. Make the changes to the frame image then select "SHOOT" from the Main panel. This will overwrite the frame image in the animation with the new image. 8.6 INSERTING A FRAME To insert a frame, first position the current frame to the point in the animation where the new frame is to be located. The frame will be inserted before the current frame. Select "FRAME" from the Main panel then select "INSERT" from the Frame panel. This will insert a new frame in the animation before the current frame. The inserted frame will contain the currently defined background image. See the section "THE BACKGROUND BUFFER" for a description of background images. 8.7 DELETING A FRAME To delete a frame select "FRAME" from the Main panel then select "DELETE" from the Frame panel. This will remove the current frame from the animation. 9 WORKING WITH COLORS The palette is the currently available set of drawing colors. AniMagician allows an active palette of 256 different colors. Each frame of an animation may have a different palette. 9.1 PALETTE COLOR ZERO - THE INVISIBLE COLOR Palette color 0 (zero) is considered an invisible color. This color is used to define transparent regions in an image or transparent regions in an object. The transparent regions will appear to be "holes" in the object through which the background image is visible. 9.2 THE SYSTEM PALETTE The system palette is the default palette. Modifying a frame palette color does not affect the corresponding system palette color. The system palette can only be modified by loading a palette, loading a flic file, or selecting the "SYS PALETTE" control from the Color Mix panel. 9.3 THE FRAME PALETTE The frame palette defines the active drawing colors for the current frame and may be modified using the Color Mix panel. The current frame palette is displayed by selecting "PALETTE" from the Colors panel. 9.4 SELECTING A COLOR Select a drawing color by selecting "PALETTE" from the Colors panel and left-clicking the mouse cursor inside the box containing the desired color. 9.5 DEFINING A FRONT PLANE COLOR Front plane colors are used in object animation. They define the palette colors that comprise the front plane. See the section "THE FRONT PLANE" for more information. To define a front plane color select the "PALETTE" control from the Colors panel to display the current palette. Position the active color cursor to the desired color and strike the "F" key to toggle the front plane attribute for that color. A dashed-line rectangle drawn around the color square indicates that the color is a front plane color. To clear all front plane colors strike the "C" key while the color palette is displayed. Position the active color cursor to the desired drawing color before leaving the palette display panel. Front panel colors are active in all frames in the animation not just the current frame. 9.6 MODIFYING A PALETTE COLOR A frame palette color is modified using the Color Mix panel. The Color Mix panel is activated by selecting "MIX" from the Colors panel or by double-clicking on a palette color square. A frame palette color may be reset to the system palette color or the entire frame palette may be reset by selecting the appropriate control from the Color Mix panel. The Color Mix panel contains three slider controls defining the Red, Green, and Blue color component values. Modifying the component values alters the active drawing color of the current frame palette. See the section describing the Color Mix panel for more information. A palette color may also be modified by "picking up" a palette color box and "dropping" the color onto one of the other palette color boxes. To pick up a color box, position the active color cursor to the color which will be picked up and strike the "P" key. To drop the color onto another color box, position the active color cursor to the desired color box and strike the "D" key. This will replace the color in the color box at the drop location with the color that was picked up. A color may be dropped onto any number of color boxes. This will only modify the active frame palette and does not affect the system palette. 9.7 SAVING THE PALETTE Save the current frame palette to disk by selecting "FILES" from the Colors panel. Enter the palette file name to be created in the edit box and select the "SAVE" control to create the file. The file written to disk will have the extension ".APF". 9.8 LOADING A PALETTE Load a palette file from disk by selecting "FILES" from the Colors panel. You may browse available files or enter the palette file name in the edit box. Select the "LOAD" control to load the palette file. This will replace the system palette and the current frame palette with the loaded palette. 9.9 GETTING A COLOR FROM THE SCREEN Sometimes it may be necessary to set the drawing color to a color displayed in the current frame. To do this select "GET" from the Colors panel. Position the end of the "needle" (the narrow part at the bottom of the cursor) over the desired color and left-click the mouse to get the color. Right-clicking the mouse abandons the get function. 10 THE FLASH FRAME OPTION The flash frame option will flash the last frame of the current animation onto the scratch frame. Flash frame is only active when the current frame is positioned to the scratch frame and the user is in draw mode. Flash frame is useful when positioning an object relative to the last frame. To set flash mode on/off select "OPTIONS" from the Main panel and select the appropriate "ON"/"OFF" control for "FLASH FRAME". 10.1 FLASH INTERVAL The flash interval is the time delay between flashing of the previous frame. The smaller the time delay value, the shorter the time delay between flashes. Define the flash interval by activating the "FLASH INTERVAL" slider control. 10.2 FLASH PERSISTENCE The flash persistence is the length of time the "flashed" image stays on the screen. The smaller the persistence value, the shorter the length of time the flashed image is displayed. Large persistence values may prove to be annoying. Define the flash persistence value by activating the "PERSISTENCE" slider control. 11 OBJECTS The use of objects is a complicated subject and may be better presented by going through the tutorials "FLASH.TUT" and "PATH.TUT". 11.1 WHAT IS AN OBJECT ? The object is the principal element of animation. It is similar to an actor in a movie or a sprite in sprite based animation. Object manipulation involves two panels, the Objects panel and the Multi- Frame panel. The Objects panel contains controls for manipulating the current object's size and rotation. The Multi-Frame panel contains controls used for multi-frame object manipulation. Upon activating the Objects panel, the current frame image will be cleared and the currently defined object will be displayed in the upper left corner of the display. If the object is partially covered by the panel select the "VIEW" control to view the entire object. Upon exiting the Objects panel the current frame image will be restored on the display. An object does not retain palette color settings. Objects are displayed from the current frame palette. Object animation involves three color planes, the background plane, the object plane, and the front plane. See the sections "THE BACKGROUND PLANE", "THE OBJECT PLANE", and "THE FRONT PLANE" for descriptions of the color planes. 11.2 CREATING AN OBJECT An object is created by selecting the "GET" control from the Objects panel and selecting a region from the current frame. Remember that the palette color zero is considered transparent. The background of the current frame image will always show through the regions of an object that are of palette color zero. After selecting an object control is returned to the Objects panel and the object is displayed in the upper left corner of the display. 11.3 THE "PUT SETTINGS" The interaction of the object image with the background plane of the current frame image is defined with the "put settings". These are controls on the Objects panel labelled "OVR", "UND", "OR", "XOR", and "AND". Only one of the "put settings" may be active at a time. The put settings are only used when the object image is applied to the current frame. The default setting is "OVR", which causes the object image to be displayed over the background plane. Selecting "UND" causes the object image to be displayed behind the background plane. Selecting "OR" will "or" the pixel values of the object image with the pixel values of the image on the background plane. Selecting "XOR" will "exclusive or" the pixel values of the object image with the pixel values of the image on the background plane. Selecting "AND" will "and" the pixel values of the object image with the pixel values of the image on the background plane. 11.4 POSITIONING AN OBJECT ON THE FRAME The currently defined object is placed on the current frame by selecting the "PUT" control from the Objects panel. Position the object on the frame by moving the mouse then set the object by left-clicking the mouse. Cancel the put operation by right-clicking the mouse. The interaction of the object with the frame image is determined by the "put settings" and the colors in the front plane. 11.5 THE BACKGROUND PLANE The background plane contains all pixels of the current frame image not containing front plane colors. The background plane is behind the object plane unless the "put setting" "OVR" has been selected. 11.6 THE OBJECT PLANE The object plane contains the object image. The background plane is behind the object plane unless "OVR" has been selected. 11.7 THE FRONT PLANE The front plane contains all pixels of the current frame image containing front plane colors. The background plane and object plane are always behind the front plane. 11.8 THE OBJECT HOOK The hook is the point where the mouse cursor attaches to the object and is used when applying the object image to a frame. The hook does not have to be a point directly on the object image. The default position for the object hook is the center point of the rectangle defining the object image. The object hook is modified by selecting "SET HOOK" from the Objects panel and left-clicking the mouse cursor at the desired hook position. Right- clicking the mouse will abandon the set hook operation. 11.9 OBJECTS AND MULTI-FRAME GENERATION An alternative to creating animation frames by hand is the use of object paths to define the path of an object over multiple frames. The Multi-Frame panel is activated by selecting "MULTI" from the Objects panel. The FRAME START edit box defines the starting frame position of the multi-frame operation and must be greater than zero. The FRAME COUNT edit box defines the number of frames to be generated along the object path. NOTE : If the FRAME COUNT value is greater than the number of points defining the object path, the last frames will position the object at the end point of the path. At each point along the object path the object will undergo the operations specified in the Multi-Frame panel. For example, if the "ROTATE" and "SHRINK" controls are selected, the object image will undergo a rotation and a shrink operation after having been applied to the frame. The parameters for the object manipulation functions and the "put settings" are defined in the Objects panel. 11.10 DEFINING AN OBJECT PATH The object path defines the path an object will follow during a multi-frame operation. Define the object path by selecting "SET PATH" from the Multi- Frame panel. Position the mouse cursor at the position where the path is to start and depress the left mouse button. Hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse cursor over the path you wish to define. This will draw a series of points defining the path. Release the left button to end the path. Click a mouse button to return to the Multi-Frame panel. The object path is defined over the current frame image but the frame at which the animation will begin is defined by "START FRAME". 11.11 PREVIEWING THE ANIMATION After defining an object path and setting the desired object manipulation controls you may want to preview the animation without creating it. This is accomplished by selecting the "PREVIEW" control from the Multi-Frame panel. The animation will be displayed without modifying the frames so that further adjustments can be made. The playback speed during preview does not reflect the actual speed of the animation. To halt the preview at any point strike the <Esc> key. 11.12 GENERATING THE ANIMATION When you are satisfied with the animation you may generate it by selecting the "GENERATE" control from the Multi-Frame panel. This will actually generate the frame images and enter them into the animation. To halt the generation at any point strike the <Esc> key. 11.13 SAVING AN OBJECT To save the currently defined object to disk select the "FILES" control from the Objects panel. Enter the name of the object file in the edit box, without an extension. Select the "SAVE" control from the Browse panel. This will create a file with the extension ".ANO". 11.14 LOADING AN OBJECT To load an object file select the "FILES" control from the Objects panel. Enter the name of the object file in the edit box, without an extension. Select the "LOAD" control from the Browse panel. This will load the object file into the current object buffer. NOTE : When loading an object from disk remember the object will be displayed using the current palette. 11.15 REBOUND The rebound operation will generate a reverse sequence of the current animation and add it to the end of the animation. This will create a smooth "rebounding" effect. The first and last frames are not duplicated when rebounding. 12 THE BACKGROUND BUFFER The background buffer is used to store a frame image over which an object can be animated. The background buffer is also useful for temporarily storing an image or for transferring images between frames. Portions of the background having colors defined as front panel colors will be moved to the front panel. 12.1 DEFINING A BACKGROUND To define the background image, position the current frame to the desired frame and select "CAPTURE" from the Background panel. This will load the currently displayed frame image into the background buffer. 12.2 DISPLAYING THE BACKGROUND To replace the current frame image with the background image select the "PUT" control from the Background panel. This will overwrite the frame image with the background image. To apply the background image behind the current frame image select the "UNDERL" control from the Background panel. The background image will be visible through any regions of the current frame image having the transparent color value zero. To apply the background image over the current frame image select the "OVERL" control from the Background panel. The current frame image will be visible through any regions of the background image having the transparent color value zero. 12.3 BACKGROUND SETTINGS The background settings determine the default image for newly created scratch frames. Whenever you "shoot" a scratch frame a new scratch frame is created. You may wish the new scratch frame to be cleared or contain a specific image. The default background setting is "NONE". This means that each time a new scratch frame is created it will be erased. 12.4 BACKGROUND PRELOAD Selecting "PRELOAD" from the Background panel will cause the background image to be loaded onto the new scratch frame. A new scratch frame is created after "shooting" the scratch frame. 12.5 BACKGROUND CARRY Selecting "CARRY" from the Background panel will carry the current scratch frame image to the new scratch frame after "shooting" the frame. 13 DRAWING TOOLS AniMagician provides a complete set of drawing tools. Select a drawing tool from the Tools panel. The drawing tool will use the current drawing color when activated. To activate the drawing tool press the left mouse button when in draw mode. See the section describing the Tools Panel for more information. 14 FRAME EDITING Frame editing controls are accessed from the Edit panel. To activate the Edit panel select "EDIT" from the Main panel. 14.1 UNDO To undo the last frame-modifying operation select the "UNDO" control from the Edit panel. This will restore the current frame to the image prior to the modification. Selecting "UNDO" again will cancel the undo operation. NOTE : Moving to a new frame and selecting "UNDO" will apply the image prior to the last frame-modifying operation to the current frame. 14.2 ERASE To erase the current frame image select "ERASE" from the Edit menu. Erasing the frame image has no effect on the actual frame in the animation. It only affects the currently displayed image. 14.3 CUT To cut a rectangular region from the current frame image select "CUT" from the Edit panel. This will write the selected region into the paste buffer and remove it from the current frame image. To cut a region : A) Select "CUT" from the Edit panel. B) Position the mouse cursor to a corner of the rectangular region to be cut. C) Left-click the mouse. Right-clicking the mouse at this point will cancel the cut operation. D) Drag the mouse cursor to enclose the region in the cut box. Right-clicking the mouse at this point will cancel the cut operation. E) Left-click the mouse to cut the selected region. Right-clicking the mouse at this point will cancel the cut operation. 14.4 COPY To copy a rectangular region from the current frame image select "COPY" from the Edit panel. This will write the selected region into the paste buffer. To copy a region : A) Select "COPY" from the Edit panel. B) Position the mouse cursor to a corner of the rectangular region to be copied. C) Left-click the mouse. Right-clicking the mouse at this point will cancel the copy operation. D) Drag the mouse cursor to enclose the region in the copy box. Right-clicking the mouse at this point will cancel the copy operation. E) Left-click the mouse to copy the selected region. Right-clicking the mouse at this point will cancel the copy operation. 14.5 PASTE To apply the paste buffer to the current frame image select "PASTE" from the Edit panel. To paste the image in the paste buffer : A) Select "PASTE" from the Edit panel. B) Position the buffer image by moving the mouse cursor. Right-clicking the mouse at this point will cancel the paste operation. C) Left-click the mouse to paste the image. Right-clicking the mouse at this point will cancel the copy operation. 15 SPECIAL EFFECTS The Frame panel contains seven controls that manipulate the current frame image : "B MAP", "L MIRR", "R MIRR", "PXLTE", "SKEW", "H FLIP", and "V FLIP". 15.1 MAPPING A FRAME IMAGE ONTO A BRESENHAM CIRCLE The "B MAP" control on the Frame panel maps the current frame image onto a Bresenham circle. This effect is similar to mapping the image to a sphere. 15.2 MIRROR IMAGES The "L MIRR" control on the Frame panel replaces the right half of the display with a mirror image of the left half of the display. The "R MIRR" control replaces the left half of the display with a mirror image of the right half of the display. 15.3 PIXELATE The "PXLTE" control on the Frame panel "pixelates" the current display image. The unit of pixelation is defined with the "PX UNIT" slider control located at the bottom of the Frame panel. The greater the value of the unit of pixelation - the greater the size of the rectangles. The maximum value for the unit of pixelation is 50. 15.4 SKEW The "SKEW" control on the Frame panel will enter skew mode. The skew factor is controlled using the left and right arrow keys while in skew mode. The current skew factor is displayed in the upper-left corner of the display. To exit skew mode and retain the image hit the <Enter> key or click a mouse button. To exit skew mode and restore the original image strike the <Escape> key. 15.5 FLIPPING A FRAME IMAGE The "H FLIP" control on the Frame panel flips the current frame image about the Y axis. The "V FLIP" control flips the current frame image about the X axis. 16 PCX FILES AniMagician allows you to load and save PCX files. The PCX files must be 256-color images for AniMagician to load them. Images with resolution greater than 320x200 will be reduced to 320x200, which will result in loss of detail. Only resolutions of the same aspect ratio as 320x200, like 640x400 for example, can be loaded without distortion. At this time, AniMagician only supports the PCX file format. There are several ShareWare packages available that will resize images and convert other image formats to PCX format. To load a PCX file select "PCX" from the frame panel. Enter the name of the file in the edit box, or select the file with "BROWSE", and select "LOAD PCX". The PCX image will be loaded onto the current frame. If the PCX image must be reduced, loading will be slower. The PCX palette will be loaded into the frame palette but will have no effect on the system palette. The system will adjust the panel colors to attempt to match the original panel colors after a PCX file has been loaded. If the file cannot be loaded an error panel is displayed. To save the current frame image select "PCX" from the frame panel. Enter the name of the file in the edit box, without any extension, and select "SAVE PCX". This will create a PCX file containing the current frame image and frame palette. The file will have the extension ".PCX". 17 VIEWING THE ANIMATION To view the current animation select the ">>" control from the Main panel. This will display the animation at the current playback speed. Strike any key or click a mouse button to stop the playback. 17.1 ADJUSTING THE PLAYBACK SPEED The playback speed can be adjusted by selecting the "OPTIONS" control from the Main panel and adjusting the "PLAYBACK SPEED" slider on the Options panel. Note that the playback speed increases as the "PLAYBACK SPEED" value decreases. Playback speed can be modified during playback using the arrow keys. The left arrow key and the down arrow key slow down playback. The right arrow key and the up arrow key speed up the playback. 18 ERRORS You may experience "strange" behavior if you try to execute AniMagician with less than 590 Kbytes of DOS memory available. One of the familiar error messages that will appear with insufficient memory is the message "ERROR - did not terminate correctly". You may also get an error message stating that a control panel could not be created. Please make sure that you have sufficient memory available before executing AniMagician. 19 CONTROL PANELS AND CONTROLS 19.1 HOT KEYS By default, the user is placed in "draw mode" on the current frame. In draw mode the following keys are active. "Left Arrow" - Go to previous frame in animation. "Right Arrow" - Go to next frame in animation. "F1" - Activate Main panel. "F2" - Activate Palette panel. Same as "PALETTE" on Colors panel. "F3" - ACtivate Objects panel. Same as "OBJECTS" on Main panel. "F4" - Play the current flic. Same as ">>" on Main panel. "F5" - Shoot the current frame. Same as "SHOOT" on Main panel. "F6" - Activate the Tools panel. Same as "TOOLS" on Main panel. "F7" - Activate the Edit panel. Same as "EDIT" on Main panel. "F8" - Get a color from the current image display. Same as "GET" on Colors panel. "F9" - Quick exit - get out now - no prompting. Please be sure Num Lock is turned off if using the arrow keys on the numeric keypad. 19.2 THE MAIN PANEL The Main panel is activated by clicking the right mouse button when in draw mode. The name of the active flic will be displayed at the top of the panel. If no flic is active the word "UNTITLED" will be displayed. The current frame number is displayed in an edit box at the bottom of the main panel. The total number of frames currently in the flic is displayed below the edit box. To go to a specific frame in the flic, left-click in the edit-box, enter the frame number, and right-click to go to the frame. If an invalid frame number or any non-numeric entry is input the flic will advance to the Scratch frame. If the Scratch frame is the active frame the letters "SCR" will appear in the edit box. The following controls are available when the Main panel is active. "EDIT" - Activates the Edit panel. The Edit panel contains frame editing controls. "COLORS" - Activates the Colors panel. The Colors panel contains palette-related controls. "FRAME" - Activates the Frame panel. The Frame panel contains frame-related controls. "TOOLS" - Activates the Tools panel. The Tools panel allows the user to select a drawing tool. "OBJECTS" - Activates the Objects panel. The Objects panel allows the user to create and manipulate animation objects. "BKGRND" - Activates the Background panel. The Background panel allows the user to define a background image. "FLIC" - Activates the Flic panel. The Flic panel allows the user to save, load or reset the flic. "SHOOT" - Loads the current frame into the active flic. If the user "shoots" a frame that is within the active flic, the new frame will replace the corresponding frame in the flic. If the user "shoots" the scratch frame, the frame is appended to the end of the flic and the flic frame count is incremented. Note that if the user shoots the scratch frame, the current frame is advanced to a new scratch frame. "<" - Sets the active frame to the previous frame in the flic. Note that the scratch frame is between the last and first frames. ">" - Sets the active frame to the next frame in the flic. Note that the scratch frame is between the last and first frames. ">>" - Plays the currently active flic. Flic play is interrupted by striking any key or clicking a mouse button. "OPTIONS" - Activates the Options panel. The Options panel contains controls that affect the performance of AniMagician. "EXIT" - Terminate and return to DOS. The user is prompted for verification before terminating. 19.3 THE EDIT PANEL The Edit panel provides frame editing functions. The following controls are available when the Edit panel is active. "UNDO" - Undo the last frame-modifying operation. The undo operation can also be undone. "ERASE" - Erase the current frame. "CUT" - Cut a rectangular region from the current frame and put it in the paste buffer. "COPY" - Copy a rectangular region from the current frame and put it in the paste buffer. "PASTE" - Apply the paste buffer to the current frame. 19.4 THE COLORS PANEL The Colors panel provides palette-related functions. The following controls are available when the Colors panel is active. "PALETTE" - Activate the Color Select panel. The Color Select panel allows the user to select a color from the current 256-color palette. "GET" - Get a color from the current frame. A color is selected by positioning the "needle", the narrow portion at the bottom of the cursor, over the desired color and left-clicking the mouse. Right-clicking the mouse will return to the Colors panel without selecting a color. "MIX" - Activate the Color Mix panel. The Color Mix panel allows the user to custom mix the selected color. "FILES" - Load/Save a color palette file. A browse panel will allow the user to load an existing ".APF" palette file or save the currently defined palette as a ".APF" palette file. Loading a palette will replace the default system palette with the loaded palette. 19.5 THE COLOR SELECT PANEL The Color Select panel allows the user to select a drawing color. The current drawing color is marked by a surrounding active color cursor. The active drawing color is selected by left-clicking the mouse within the box containing the desired color. The color may also be selected by positioning the active color cursor with the arrow keys. Please be sure "Num Lock" is turned off if using the numeric keypad. A custom color may be created by left-clicking the mouse pointer within the active color box which activates the Color Mix panel. The Color Mix panel may also be activated by pressing <Return> from the Color Select panel. The "Front Plane" color attribute for the active color is toggled by striking the "F" key. Striking the "C" key will clear all Front Plane colors from the palette. A Front Plane color is marked with a surrounding dashed-line rectangle. Palette color zero is considered transparent and cannot be assigned to the front plane. A color box may be assigned a different color value by "picking up" a color and "dropping" the color onto another color box. Pick up a color by positioning the active color cursor to the desired color box and striking the "P" key. Then, position the active color cursor to the position where the color is to be dropped and strike the "D" key. This will replace the color in the color box at the drop location with the color that was picked up. A color may be dropped onto any number of color boxes. This action only works on the active frame palette and has no effect on the system palette. 19.6 THE COLOR MIX PANEL The Color Mix panel allows the user to define a custom color. The active drawing color is modified by increasing or decreasing the Red/Green/Blue color components. Modifying the RGB color values only affects the frame palette and will not alter the system palette. Locking slider controls together causes the controls that are locked together to move in unison. The following controls are available when the Color Mix panel is active. "RG" - Lock the Red and Green slider controls together. "RB" - Lock the Red and Blue slider controls together. "GB" - Lock the Green and Blue slider controls together. "RGB" - Lock the Red, Green and Blue slider controls together. "IND" - Move the Red/Green/Blue sliders independently. "SYS PALETTE" - Define the current frame palette to be the system palette. "RESET COLOR" - Reset the RGB color values of the current color to the values of the system palette. "RESET PALETTE" - Reset the RGB color values of each color in the current palette to the values of the system palette. 19.7 THE FRAME PANEL The Frame panel provides frame-specific functions. The following controls are available when the Frame panel is active. "B MAP" - Map the current frame image onto a Bresenham circle. "L MIRR" - Copy a mirror-image of the left half of the display onto the right. "R MIRR" - Copy a mirror-image of the right half of the display onto the left. "PXLTE" - Pixelate the current frame image. The unit of pixelation is defined using the "PX UNIT" slider control at the bottom of the Frame panel. A value of one for the unit of pixelation will leave the image unchanged. "SKEW" - Enter "skew mode". This option will skew the image. The skew factor is displayed in the upper-left corner of the display and is adjusted using the left/right arrow keys while in skew mode. To exit skew mode, and retain the skewed image, strike the <Enter> key or click a mouse button. To exit skew mode, and restore the original image, strike the <Escape> key. "H FLIP" - Flip the current frame image about the Y axis. "V FLIP" - Flip the current frame image about the X axis. "INSERT" - Insert a frame before the current frame. The new frame will contain the default background. "DELETE" - Delete the current frame from the animation. "PCX" - Load/Save a PCX file. A browse panel will allow the user to load an existing ".PCX" file or save the current frame image as a ".PCX" file. "PX UNIT" - Define the unit of pixelation value used by the "PXLTE" control. 19.8 THE TOOLS PANEL The Tools panel allows the user to select the active drawing tool. The drawing tool can only be activated in drawing mode. The following controls are available when the Tools panel is active. "BRUSH" - Select the brush drawing tool. This tool draws a freehand line when the left mouse button is held down. "LINE" - Select the line drawing tool. To draw a line, first position The mouse cursor to the start of the line segement and left- click the mouse to set the point. Position the mouse cursor to the desired end point and left-click the mouse to set the point. A new line segment will be active with the starting point defined as the end of the last line segment. To cancel the line drawing operation right-click the mouse. "WIPE" - Select the frame wipe drawing tool. This tool will "wipe" The current color over the entire frame. "FILL" - Select the area fill drawing tool. This tool will fill a region with the current color. To fill a region position the mouse cursor in the region to be filled and left-click the mouse. "TEXT" - Select the text tool. This enables the user to place text of the current font size on the current frame. A flashing cursor marks the current text position. The "Delete" key and arrow keys are not active with the text drawing tool. The current text position can be adjusted by moving the mouse cursor to the desired position and left-clicking. "SM" - Select the small text font. This has no effect unless the text tool is active. "LG" - Select the large text font. This has no effect unless the text tool is active. "CIRCLE" - Select the circle drawing tool. This tool will draw a circle of the current color. The circle is filled if the "FILLED" option is active. To draw a circle, position the mouse cursor to define the center of the circle, left-click to set the center point, then move the mouse to define the radius. To set the circle left-click the mouse. To cancel the drawing operation right-click the mouse. "ELLIPSE" - Select the ellipse drawing tool. This tool will draw an ellipse of the current color. The ellipse is filled if the "FILLED" option is active. To draw an ellipse, position the mouse cursor to define the center of the ellipse, left- click to set the center point, then move the mouse to define the ellipse. To set the ellipse left-click the mouse. To cancel the drawing operation right-click the mouse. "RECT" - Select the rectangle drawing tool. This tool will draw a rectangle of the current color. The rectangle is filled if the "FILLED" option is active. To draw a rectangle, position the mouse cursor to define a corner of the rectangle, left-click to set the corner point, then move the mouse to define the rectangle. To set the rectangle left-click the mouse. To cancel the drawing operation right-click the mouse. "FILLED" - Toggle the filled option for drawing closed shapes. "SPRAY" - Select the spray drawing tool. The spray tool will apply a circular pattern of pixels to the current frame. To use the spray tool, position the mouse cursor to the region to be sprayed and hold down the left mouse button. The spray tool will apply the current color unless "Confetti" mode is on. If "Confetti" mode is on, a random distribution of the current palette colors is applied. "SETUP" - Activate the Spray Tool Setup panel. The options specified in the Spray Tool Setup panel are only active if the spray tool is active. 19.9 THE SPRAY TOOL SETUP PANEL The Spray Tool Setup panel defines settings for operation of the spray tool. The following controls are available when the Spray Tool Setup panel is active. "AIR PRESSURE" - Defines the density of the spray pattern. The density is increased by moving the slider to the right and decreased by moving the slider to the left. "SPRAY WIDTH" - Defines the width of the spray pattern. The width is increased by moving the slider to the right and decreased by moving the slider to the left. "CONFETTI" - Toggles "Confetti" mode. If confetti mode is on (Button down) a random distribution of the current palette colors is applied while spraying. If "Confetti" mode is off (Button up) the current color is applied while spraying. 19.10 THE OBJECTS PANEL The Objects panel allows the user to define and manipulate "objects". An object is an entity, similar to a sprite, that can be manipulated across a series of frames. The object can be comprised of a single color or as many as 256 colors. Object animation involves three planes: the background plane, the object plane and the front plane. The "OVR", "UND", "OR", "XOR" and "AND" switches define interaction of the object with the background plane. The object itself is contained in the object plane. The palette colors defined as "front plane" colors make up the front plane. The object is always applied behind pixels containing a front plane color. All pixels of value zero are transparent. When the Objects panel is activated the current frame is removed and the current object displayed. If no object is currently defined, the screen behind the Objects panel is blank. The original screen is restored after exiting the Objects panel. "H FLIP" - Flip the current object about the Y axis. "V FLIP" - Flip the current object about the X axis. "SQUEEZE" - Shrink the current object in the X direction to the percentage specified by the Shrink Percent Slider while expanding the object in the Y direction by the percentage specified by the Expand Percent Slider. The effect of this action is similar to compressing a balloon from the sides. "SQUASH" - Shrink the current object in the Y direction to the percentage specified by the Shrink Percent Slider while expanding the object in the X direction by the percentage specified by the Expand Percent Slider. The effect of this action is similar to compressing a balloon from the top and bottom. "X STRETCH" - Expand the current object in the X direction by the percentage specified by the Expand Percent Slider. "Y STRETCH" - Expand the current object in the Y direction by the percentage specified by the Expand Percent Slider. "SHRINK" - Shrink the current object to the percentage specified by the Shrink Percent Slider. "EXPAND" - Expand the current object by the percentage specified by the Expand Percent Slider. "ROTATE" - Rotate the current object by the angle specified by the Rotation Angle Slider. Shrink Percent Slider - Specifies the shrinkage percentage to be used by object shrinking functions. A value of 100 specifies that no shrinkage will occur. A value of 50 specifies the object will be reduced to 50 percent or 1/2 of the current size. Expand Percent Slider - Specifies the expansion percentage to be used by object expanding functions. A value of 100 specifies the object will be expanded by 100 percent, which is twice the size. A value of 0 specifies no expansion will take place. Rotation Angle Slider - Specifies the angle, in degrees, to be used by object rotation functions. The current rotation angle is displayed in the box to the right of the Rotation Angle Slider. "GET" - Get an object from the current frame. The current frame will be displayed and the user may capture an object from the display. To define an object, move the mouse cursor to a corner of a rectangular region that will contain the object, left-click and then drag the box to enclose the object. Left-clicking the mouse will capture the object. Right-clicking the mouse will cancel the process. Control is returned to the Objects panel and the captured object is displayed. The current frame is not altered by this process. "PUT" - Apply the current object to the current frame. The current frame will be displayed and the user may position the current object on the frame. The interaction of the object with the frame is defined by the "OVR", "UND", "OR", "XOR" and "AND" switches along with the "front plane" colors. To apply an object to the frame, position the object to the desired location and left-click the mouse. To abandon the "PUT" function right-click the mouse. "UNDO" - Undo the last object-modifying function. "VIEW" - Clear all panels to view the object. This is useful for viewing large objects. Strike any key or click a mouse button to return to the Objects panel. "OVR" - Apply the object over the background plane when a put function is initiated. "UND" - Apply the object under the background plane when a put function is initiated. "OR" - "Or" the object with the background plane when a put function is initiated. "XOR" - "XOr" the object with the background plane when a put function is initiated. "AND" - "And" the object with the background plane when a put function is initiated. "MULTI" - Activate Multi-Frame panel. "FILES" - Allow the user to Load/Save a ".ANO" object file. The object does not contain palette definitions, therefore the object is viewed relative to the current palette. "SET HOOK" - Define the object attachment point. This is the point on the object by which the object is moved. The default hook is defined as the center of the object. "<" - Sets the active frame to the previous frame in the flic. ">" - Sets the active frame to the next frame in the flic. "RESTORE" - Restore the current object to its original size and zero angle of rotation. "SHOOT" - Loads the current frame into the active flic. If the user "shoots" a frame that is within the active flic, the new frame will replace the corresponding frame in the flic. If the user "shoots" the scratch frame, the frame is appended to the end of the flic and the flic frame count is incremented. Note that if the user shoots the scratch frame, the current frame is advanced to a new scratch frame. 19.11 THE MULTI-FRAME PANEL The Multi-Frame panel allows the user to create multi-frame effects using the current object. The effect(s) selected are applied to the frame sequence starting at "START FRAME" and continuing for "FRAME COUNT" frames. The sizing operations "SQUEEZE", "SQUASH", "X STRETCH", "Y STRETCH", "SHRINK", "EXPAND" and "NORMAL" are mutually exclusive. Rotation may be applied in conjunction with the sizing operations. "SQUEEZE" - Squeeze the object each time a frame is generated. "SQUASH" - Squash the object each time a frame is generated. "X STRETCH" - Stretch the object in the X direction each time a frame is generated. "Y STRETCH" - Stretch the object in the Y direction each time a frame is generated. "SHRINK" - Shrink the object each time a frame is generated. "EXPAND" - Expand the object each time a frame is generated. "NORMAL" - Do not size the object each time a frame is generated. "ROTATE" - Rotate the object each time a frame is generated. Can be used in conjunction with the sizing operations. "SET PATH" - Define the path along which the object is to be animated. The points defining the path will be marked by alternating color pixels. If the number of points defining the path is less than the number of frames generated, the last frames remain at the last point in the path. There is no interpolation between path points. The path may be defined as a single point. "REBOUND" - Generate a reverse sequence of the current flic and append it to the flic. "START FRAME" - The first frame in the animation at which the object animation will start. If there are currently no frames in the flic enter frame "1" as the start frame. "FRAME COUNT" - The number of frames to be created for the object animation. "PREVIEW" - Preview the currently defined object animation. This will not modify the flic. To cancel the preview strike the "Escape" key. "GENERATE" - Generate the defined object animation. This will add/ modify the specified frames in the current flic. 19.12 THE BACKGROUND PANEL The Background panel allows the user to define a background image and control the way the image is used during the creation of an animation. By default, the new scratch frame is cleared after shooting the current scratch frame. By creating a background image and selecting "PRELOAD", the user can animate an object over the defined background. The background buffer can also be used to temporarily store images. "CAPTURE" - Capture the current frame image and store it in the background buffer. "PUT" - Replace the current frame image with the background image. "UNDERL" - Underlay the background image behind the current frame image. "OVERL" - Overlay the background image over the current frame image. The following background settings are only useful when shooting new frames. They have no effect when re-shooting an existing frame. "PRELOAD" - Put the current background image on the new frame after shooting the scratch frame. "CARRY" - Carry the scratch frame image to the new frame after shooting the scratch frame. "NONE" - Clear the new frame after shooting the scratch frame. 19.13 THE FLIC PANEL The Flic panel displays the name of the current flic in the flic file edit box. If the flic is new, "UNTITLED" will be displayed in the edit box. To change the name in the edit box, first left-click the mouse cursor within the edit box to activate edit mode, edit the name, right-click the mouse to exit edit mode then select "SAVE". This will save the current flic under the name specified in the edit box. "BROWSE" - Display a list of available flic files. "LOAD" - Load the flic file displayed in the flic file edit box. "SAVE" - Save the current flic under the name displayed in the flic file edit box. The disk file saved will have the extension ".FLI". "RESET FLIC" - Reset the current flic. This will clear all frames in the flic. All other settings such as background image and object settings remain unchanged. "RESET ALL" - Reset AniMagician to the default settings. The current flic will be cleared and all current settings lost. 19.14 THE OPTIONS PANEL "PLAYBACK SPEED" - This slider control sets the flic playback speed. The playback speed can also be adjusted using the arrow keys during playback. "MOUSE CHECK" - This control toggles the mouse centering module. If your mouse crosshairs are not centered during drawing try toggling this control to center the mouse. "FLASH FRAME" - The "ON"/"OFF" controls determine whether the "flash frame" option is active. If flash frame is on, the previous frame image will be "flashed" onto the screen when in draw mode or when positioning an object This is useful when positioning an object relative to the previous frame. "FLASH INTERVAL" - This slider control is used to set the number of clock "ticks" between the frame "flashes". "PERSISTENCE" - This slider control is used to set the number of clock "ticks" the "flashed" image is displayed before the original image is restored.