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MOVIE MASTER Superb animation with NO programming There must be many users of the Atari ST who have seen some of the superb animation produced and wished to be able to create something similar, but lacked the necessary programming ability. Well now you can with Movie Master! With Movie Master it is possible to load a number of background screens, and define movement of multiple sprites over those backgrounds.The movement of all sprites is defined simply and easily using the mouse.Backgrounds and sprites can be changed at any time, colour cycling and spot sound effects are also available. Movie Master can load screens created with most of the art software currently available for the ST, providing that the resulting picture files can be saved in, or converted to, Degas/Degas Elite, NEOchrome, or Art Director formats. Although Movie Master is primarily designed to display animated sprites produced with Sprite Master, it is also possible to cut blocks from a screen produced with any of the art packages compatible with Movie Master. Blocks are single frame sprites which are cut from a picture file. These blocks function exactly the same as sprites within Movie Master, except that because they only consist of a single frame the only animation possible is movement of the block around the screen. Animation produced in this way may be all that you require, however you may want to produce more sophisticated animation. For this you will need to animate the sprites by cycling the sprite image through a sequence of frames. For example, a man walking across the screen will look much more impressive if his arms and legs are moving at the same time as the image moves across the screen. Superb animated sprites can be created with Sprite Master,either the original Animatic Sprite Master produced by Soft Bits, or the new improved Sprite Master GOLD, also produced by Soft Bits. Not to be confused with the Sprite Master produced by Budgie and available from many P.D. libraries. Very good though it is, files produced by the Budgie Sprite Master are NOT compatible with Movie Master. PLEASE READ THIS BIT ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Movie Master is being distributed as shareware. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of shareware this means that you are able to give copies to your friends, upload it to bulletin boards or include it in Public Domain libraries providing the this text file is included on the disk, together with any demonstration animation files and none of the files are altered in any way. However, if you use Movie Master you are expected to pay for it just as you would pay to buy a commercial program. Naturally there is no way you can be made to pay, but if you consider the advantages to you, the user, then perhaps you will see that it makes sense. First a brief explanation of why we have decided to release Movie Master as shareware. A few years ago we produced a sprite editor (Sprite Master), it received generally very favourable reviews in the computer press, but sold very few copies. The cost of packaging and advertising, especially advertising, took all the profits from sales (and more), so we ended up having put in a lot of effort and losing money into the bargain. We have put a lot of thought into where we went wrong, we think it comes down to several factors. 1. The price. The price of Sprite Master was set at around twenty five pounds. This sounds a lot, but there is very little of that which actually gets to the writers of the program. Distributors expect a around about a 65% discount off the ex-VAT price, in the case of Sprite Master this left us with about seven pounds fifty for each copy sold. Out of which we had to pay for the disk duplicating, packaging, printing of the manual and advertising plus odd miscellaneous items, stationery, postage etc. In our case this meant, because it wasn't selling in any numbers we were losing money on the deal. Our original rather naive intention was to sell it at a lower price, but we found distributors very reluctant to take a utility any lower than the price it was eventually sold at. 2. The type of software. Sprite Master, as a utility could never be expected to sell the same quantities as a game, and the more copies you sell, the lower the cost per copy is for the previously mentioned items, packaging, printing, etc. This means that it is not feasible to expect to make enough money to cover the work and costs involved in producing that type of software. This presents us with a problem, there must be Atari ST users who want utility software, but not enough of them to make it a commercial proposition to produce. We think the answer can only be to eliminate the costs involved in production and distribution. That must be good for you the user, it means you can get the software you need at a very low cost, you can try it out without paying, and you only pay if you consider it worth paying for. It does mean that you don't get any fancy packaging, and the manual is only a text file on the disk, but do you really need all that? After all it is what is on the disk that you will be using. It must also be good for the programmer, once the program is written all he has to do is send out copies to Public Domain libraries, and they take care of all the initial distribution. Hopefully then it will spread among users all over the country, and perhaps even around the world. As long as those of you who use the software send payment to us we will be happy, and will produce more shareware, that way everybody benefits. As an added incentive a when you register enclose a blank formatted disk with your name and address on the label and we will copy onto it Sprite Master GOLD. This is also shareware and the same requirements apply as with Movie Master. Try it out and if you like it and use it then send us the registration fee of five pounds for Sprite Master. The registration fee for Movie Master is just five pounds, please send to:- SOFT BITS 5 Langley Street London WC2H 9JA Tel 071-836 2533 Registering will ensure that we are able to continue to improve and support Movie Master and Sprite Master, and maybe we will be able to produce more software for distribution as shareware. ANIMATION LIBRARY ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ We are also hoping to collect a library of of animations produced by users of Sprite Master and Movie Master. This library will be free only to registered users of either Movie Master or Sprite Master, or both. All you need do is send your animations with a stamped self addressed envelope and we will send back your disk with a selection of the best animations we have received. MANUAL ¯¯¯¯¯¯ While stocks last, the first registered users will also get a 40 page Sprite Master manual containing extensive information for producing animation within programs. So that you can write your own programs which include animation, for example games. Those of you who are a little slow in registering will still get full instructions, but they will only be in the form of a text file on the disk which you will have to print out yourself. EXISTING OWNERS OF SPRITE MASTER ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Existing owners of Sprite Master do not need to register as Movie Master users, we have decided that the price they paid for Sprite Master was sufficient to include the registration fee for Movie Master. However they can take advantage of the offer of a free upgrade from Sprite Master to Sprite Master GOLD. Just by sending back the original Sprite Master disk with a stamped self addressed envelope and we will send a copy of Sprite Master GOLD absolutely free. The main improvements incorporated into Sprite Master GOLD are:- 1. Greater enlargement of sprite. 2. Movable edit window. 3. Insert and delete functions. 4. Faster, easier editing. 5. Compatible with a greater range of picture files. This copy of Movie Master includes some sprites produced with Sprite Master, so you will be able to see for yourself the type of animation which can be produced. It is recommended for use with Movie Master and for more advanced programmers who want to include animated sprites in their own programs. FIRST STEPS WITH MOVIE MASTER ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ To run Movie Master just double click on MMASTER.PRG. The first screen you will see is the title screen, with a box containing the message LOAD SCRIPT and two buttons Y and N. Two further options are available from the title screen, they are accessed from the keyboard. If you wish to change the current disk drive, you may select either drive A or B, press D and choose the drive from the Alert box. If you want to change the screen Hertz press H. The default is 50Hz, changing this to 60Hz increases the depth of the the screen image. Note that some televisions and monitors will not function properly at 60Hz. EXAMPLES ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ If you would first like to see an example of the type of animation which can be produced you need to load the script file which is on the disk. Click on the "LOAD" button on the title screen and you will be presented with the file selector box showing all Movie Master Script (.MMS) folders containing scripts. Open a folder and select a file and it will load. If it is an auto- run file it will load and run, otherwise it will load and the control panel will be displayed. In which case click on the button beneath RUN on the control panel. There are two example animations,one for those of you with one meg or more and one for half meg machines. They are basically the same, but because of memory restrictions the half meg demo has less sprites and one less screen than the one meg demo. The animation will run continuously, to stop it click on the RIGHT mouse button or press the space bar. The control panel will appear at the base of the screen. You may want to play around with the control panel now, but a full description of each of the functions available is given shortly. But first a description of how parameters need to be set ready for creating a script. SETTING PARAMETERS ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ If you want to set up your own animation it is necessary to first set the parameters relating to which files to load, whether sound is required, etc. The parameter screen will be displayed if you click on the button next to "MAKE" on the title screen. If you have just run the demo script and now have the control panel displayed press the Q key on the keyboard and you will be presented with an alert box with the options QUIT, CANCEL. Select QUIT and re-run Movie Master from the desktop, this time select N. Now you should have the PARAMETERS box with six options displayed. These are used for setting all the initial parameters for animation, as follows. All parameters must be set from this screen before loading of sprites and screens can begin. The options for selection are as follows:- SPRITES ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Sprites produced with Sprite Master can be loaded directly into Movie Master. The number of Sprite files, if any must be set in the parameters box. Position the mouse pointer over the right or left pointing arrows and click the left mouse button. The number of files is shown in the window alongside the buttons. Click the right mouse button to move to the next selection. BLOCKS ¯¯¯¯¯¯ Blocks are single frame sprites which are cut from a previously drawn and saved picture file in either Degas, NEOchrome or Art Director format. Only one screen can be loaded, but any number of blocks can be cut from it as long as you have sufficient free memory. The number of blocks required is set in the same way as for sprite files. Click the right mouse button again to move to the next selection TIMER ¯¯¯¯¯ This is used to set the maximum length of an animation sequence. It doesn't really matter if this is set to too great a value, it will just waste a little free memory which is only likely to be a problem with half meg. ST's when, because graphics use such a lot of memory it is wise to save every possible byte of memory. There are no hard and fast rules, but as you gain more experience with Movie Master you will be able to judge the number of frames required. A brief explanation of how an animation sequence (which from now on will be referred to as a script) is set up will probably be of use here. The default setting of the timer is 500. This will give a maximum of 500 screens of animation. Think of it as though you had a length of movie film with 500 frames. Each individual frame can have the positions of a number of sprites set and those positions are retained so that the sprites will always appear in the correct place as each frame is shown when the script is run. The timer setting is increased or decreased in the same way as sprite and frame numbers. If the timer is set to more than the figure actually used when setting up a script Movie Master will automatically adjust to the required length, but you will not be able to exceed the initial timer setting. SCREENS ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ This sets the number of background screens required for the script. The number which can be loaded varies, depending on the number of sprites and blocks loaded. This will probably only be a problem with a half meg. machine. As a rough guide, on a 520 ST it should be possible to load 3 or 4 screens, but this will drop rapidly if a large number of sprite files are loaded The screens need not all use the same colours, Movie Master will set the screen colours as each screen is displayed. However the sprites will take their colours from the screen, so you need to work out carefully the range of colours when designing your screens. Click right. SET DRIVE ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Click here to change drives. Click right for the last time. START ¯¯¯¯¯ If you are ready to begin, click on Y. To reset any of the parameters click on N to begin again. LOADING ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Now the loading procedure begins, first sprites. Use the file selector to select the files one at a time. First Movie Master will count the frames in each of the files. The maximum number of frames allowed in any single sprite file is 30. If your sprite file consists of more than this number, you should use Sprite Master to split it into 2 separate files. Once the files have been counted, Movie Master will load them. The panel at the base of the screen will tell you the number of the sprite file, the filename, the number of frames and the amount of free memory left. You may find it worth keeping track of this last figure, as it may give some indication of the memory left available for loading blocks and background screens. Movie Master will keep track of the amount of free memory and will inform you if there is likely to be insufficient memory to load screens. Movie Master only uses Sprite Master sprite and mask files, the colour and co-ordinate files are not needed when saving a file created with Sprite Master. BLOCKS ¯¯¯¯¯¯ Once all the sprites have loaded, if a number of blocks was previously selected, the next step is to load a screen and cut blocks from it. Select the screen file from the file selector box, the screen will load and you will be able to cut blocks. To cut a block point to the top left corner of the required area, click and release the left mouse button and dragging out a box to surround the required area. Click again with the left mouse button to cut the block, or with the right button to cancel and try again. Continue cutting blocks until the pre-selected number has been reached. The block cutting procedure will terminate if you do not have sufficient memory left available for the number of background screens selected. Although the area of the block is defined by a square, the shape of your block can be any shape contained within that square. Movie Master will make the background colour within the block transparent,providing that the background is the default background colour for Neochrome, Degas etc. SCREENS ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Once all blocks have been cut you will be prompted to specify the the type of screen for the first background. As each screen has loaded it will be stored and you will be prompted to load another. It is possible to mix the types of screens loaded. Once loaded the screens will be stored as Screen 1, Screen 2 etc. The method for using screens in a script is described later when instructions for the use of the control panel are given. __________________________________________________________________ THE CONTROL PANEL ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ When the loading procedure is complete screen 1 will be displayed with the control panel overlaid at the base and frame 1 of sprite 1 at the top left . The various options available are as follows:- COLOUR SCROLL SELECTOR BAR ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ This is displayed across the top of the control panel, it shows all the colours in the current background. A range of colours can be scrolled during animation and editing. The colours are set by pointing to the boxes at each end of the bar, holding down the left mouse button and moving the box. Any users of Neochrome will find this method quite familiar. The colour scroll function is turned on and off by clicking on the 'ON' box beneath the heading 'COLOUR SCROLL'. The direction of scroll can be set by clicking on the right or left facing pointers with the right mouse button. The small arrow between between them shows the current direction. When colour scroll is enabled the set range of colours is scrolled continuously during animation or editing. Click on the pointers with the left button to alter the speed of scrolling. SCREEN ¯¯¯¯¯¯ Any one of the previously loaded background screens can be displayed at any time during an animation sequence. When editing a script the current timer count is shown in the top left corner of the screen. This, in conjunction with the screen setting function controls when a screen is changed and which screen is displayed. Full details of how this is done are given later under the heading EDIT. You may notice that the colours may not be exactly the same as the original picture. Movie Master changes the palette slightly so that the control panel is always legible. Don't worry about this, the correct colours will appear when editing or animating a script. To see the entire picture in the correct colours click on the box between the pointers which has the screen number in it. Next to the arrows in the 'SCREEN' box there is a the reset button. When a script has been fully or partly edited you may want to adjust the timing of some of the screen swaps, clicking on reset will delete all the screen swap data. All sprite position data is retained enabling you to run the script and insert changes at the correct point. You will find this much easier than trying to over-write existing data. You will need to set the sprite number to 0 and run through the script by holding down the right mouse button, selecting screens as you go. It is advisable not to change screens while editing a script in reverse (see 'BACK'). SPRITE ¯¯¯¯¯¯ The current sprite for use when editing a script can be set by clicking on the arrows in the 'SPRITE'box. The number of the sprite is shown between the arrows and the sprite image can be seen in the top left corner of the screen. Blocks cut from a picture file are treated exactly as sprites within Movie Master, the sequence of blocks are assigned sprite numbers running consecutively after the numbers of the actual sprites. The current animation can be viewed and stopped at any point by setting SPRITE to zero and holding down the right mouse button. FRAME ¯¯¯¯¯ Sprites produced with Sprite Master will generally consist of a number of frames. While editing a script these sprites will normally cycle through each frame automatically. You may wish to start with a specific frame, if so click on the left or right pointers in the 'FRAME'box. The frame number appears between the pointers and the image of frame appears in the top left of the screen. It is possible to turn off the automatic cycling, (for further information see 'CYCLE'). In which case the frame selected will be the only one plotted. While editing the number of the current frame of the current sprite appears at the top right of the screen. You will see it after F= until the mouse button is pressed, while the mouse button is pressed the number only will be displayed. DELAY ¯¯¯¯¯ The speed at which Movie Master runs a script can be adjusted. Normally you will probably want it to run at full speed, i.e. with a delay of zero. To slow down the animation, increase the delay setting using the pointers. TRAIL ¯¯¯¯¯ Any one of the sprites can have a trail assigned to it. This takes the form of a number of identical sprites which follow the course of the initial sprite. Only one sprite can have a trail assigned and it remains operative throughout the entire script. Select the sprite for a trail in the same way as described for 'SPRITE' and 'FRAME'. Setting the sprite trail number to zero will turn off this function. SOUNDS ¯¯¯¯¯¯ Movie Master has a library of sound effects. Any one of these effects can be inserted at any point in the script. Use the right and left pointers to select the sound number, which will appear between the pointers. To set a sound effect click on 'SET'. You can set as many sound effects as you wish throughout a script. The sound will be set for the current timer number and will replay each time the timer reaches that number, while either editing or running a script. RUN ¯¯¯ Click on this to run a script. This can be either a complete script loaded from disk or it can be used for testing one which is in the process of being edited. While a script is running it can be slowed by repeatedly pressing the minus - key, and speeded up by pressing the plus + key. It can be returned to full speed at any time by pressing the zero 0 key. To stop the animation and return the control panel press the right mouse button. When the animation stops the timer is set to 1 and all the sprites, blocks and the background are those specified for timer 1. SAVE ¯¯¯¯ To save a script click on this button. Movie Master scripts are saved as a number of files within a folder, first enter in the dialog box the name which you wish to give to the folder, pressing the return key without entering a name will cancel the save procedure. Next you can either enter the name of the script, or just press return to give the script the same name as the folder. Each file within the folder will be given the correct extension, so you don't need to enter any extensions. Also in the dialog box are icons showing whether you are naming either a folder or a file, together with an indication of the current drive. AUTO ¯¯¯¯ Clicking on the AUTO button will cause a tick to appear within it, any script saved while this function is activated will run automatically when it is loaded from the 'LOAD SCRIPT'box. ZERO ¯¯¯¯ Click on this to set the timer back to zero prior to adding another sprite, or re-defining an existing sprite path. STEP ¯¯¯¯ When this is activated sprite positions are plotted one timer count at a time. Press the left mouse button to plot, and release it to move to the next screen. BACK ¯¯¯¯ While this is activated the timer will run in reverse while editing. This is useful for exact positioning of sprites. You may find that background screens will not change at exactly the right point when running in reverse. Just go past the point at which you want to edit and then edit forwards again. CYCLE ¯¯¯¯¯ Normally multi-frame sprites will cycle repeatedly through the entire sequence of frames. If cycle is turned off only one frame will be plotted. This can be selected using the 'FRAME' selection box. This function can be turned on and off at any time during editing and the effects will be recorded exactly as they were while editing. LOOP ¯¯¯¯ While editing a script, you may want to shorten its length. To do this first set the sprite number to zero and run through the script up to the point at which you want it to end by holding down the right mouse button. When you have reached the required screen press the space bar to replace the control panel. Then click on 'LOOP', and confirm your choice in the alert box. This procedure only sets the point at which the script will end and loop back to the beginning again, any existing position data will still be retained and can be recovered by extending the loop again by editing in the normal way. EDIT ¯¯¯¯ This is where you begin to set up your animation. Clicking here removes the control panel, sets the correct palette colours and get ready to record sprite position data. The current sprite will be displayed in "ghosted" form, this "ghost" image can be moved around the screen using the mouse, but no position data will be entered until the left mouse button is pressed. You will also see, in the top left corner of the screen the timer indication showing the number 1. Alongside this are the X and Y co-ordinates of the "ghosted" sprite, use these when changing sprites if you want the new sprite to follow on in exactly the same position. Sprite movement is defined simply by holding down the left mouse button and moving the sprite. When defining movement the sprite will appear in solid form and the timer will increment. Release the mouse button to stop. To replay the movement of the sprite, press the space bar and the control panel will re-appear. Point to 'RUN' and click the left mouse button. The movement just defined will be played repeatedly. Now you might want to add a second sprite to the script. Stop the animation by pressing the right mouse button. The control panel will re-appear, change the current sprite and click on EDIT again. This time while defining movement for sprite 2 you will see sprite 1 displayed to enable you to synchronise with its movement. Stop before you reach the end of the previously defined movement for sprite 1 and hold down the right mouse button. Sprite 1 will continue to follow the defined path but sprite 2 will not be plotted. Release the right button, hold down the left button again and move the mouse and sprite 2 will be plotted. You can continue defining sprite movement in this way until all loaded sprites have been plotted, you can break off to test run the script at any time. It is not necessary to run the script between setting sprites, just click on reset to return the timer to 1 If you want to change any previously defined sprite movement, it can be simply be over-written by selecting the same sprite again and defining new movement. A section of movement data can be deleted just for the current sprite by holding down the right mouse button for the duration of the movement you want to delete. Screen changes and sound effects can be inserted at any point in the script just by selecting them from the control panel. KEYBOARD ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Most functions of Movie Master are available using only the mouse. There are some however which are available solely or optionally from the keyboard. They are as follows:- Q=QUIT. Only from the keyboard, quit and return to the desktop. D=DRIVE. Set current disk drive A or B. SPACE. Replace the control panel while editing. ------------------------------------------------------------------ OTHER INFORMATION ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ PRIORITY ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ When a sprite is displayed during a script it appears on top of the background, in other words it has priority over the background. So, what happens when two sprites pass over each other? Movie Master assigns priority to sprites in the opposite order to the sequence in which they are loaded. For example, sprite 2 has priority over sprite 1, sprite 3 has priority over sprite 1 and 2 and so on. This may have to be considered when working out the sequence in which the sprites are loaded. Of course this means that blocks have priority over sprites. Using this feature it is possible to hide sprites behind blocks and therefore make it seem as though a sprite appears from behind a section of background. Just cut a section of background and when creating your animation place it over its original position. you won't see the block in place, but if you place a sprite in the same position and then move it, it will appear as though it has appeared from behind the background. Of course, once the sprite has appeared the block can be dispensed with. Priorities will only appear correctly when a script is RUN. While editing the current sprite has priority over all other sprites.