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dmg-5269
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fastanim.txt
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1989-12-31
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5KB
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THE THIRD DIMENSION DISKMAG
Ultra fast animations of 3D kit datafiles.
If you receive the Amiga version of the diskmag,you may have
noticed that we use a small animation created by Mieke for the
intro when disk space allows.An even larger animation of spinning
Third Dimension letters was also sent in by Antony Quinn.If disk
space allows,we will use this in the future too.These anims got
me thinking about creating one myself but using a 3D world.
At first i thought it impossible as it would have to be a
datafile that was created in kit 2 and used the kit video
sequence function.Then it would have to be saved off as a
standalone file and used in a disk intro sequence.This would be
undesirable as it would take up a large amount of disk space and
the final result would be a large sized file that you would not
be able to move around in any given direction as you can do
with the kits,but just to watch as you do with an animation.I
want the anim just to be watchable and i am not bothered about
the fact that the user cannot move where they want to because
it is just meant to be a watchable anim.The only trouble is
with the large size of the datafile and its slow movement.
There must be another way,I thought,and indeed there is!
I have found that i can move around in the 3D kits and save my
movements as an ultra fast animation.I already have a 3D datafile
of my house and street so i thought that i would use it to move
around and also to record the sequence.While doing it,it did seem
a little slow and i wasn't sure that it would work,but i was
pleasantly surprised and couldn't believe the very fast speed
of my animation and the relatively small size of the animation
when compared to a kit video sequence saved off as a stand alone
game with all relevant files.
The best thing was being able to play the anim from the
desktop,as an intro to the diskmag or even to alter it and add
other graphics to it.It even loads into my art package so that i
can rework it!Too good to be true? Well it is true and here is
how it is done.
What you have to do is to first load a decent screen
grabber that can save off your view screen as a picture file.
Mine saves pictures in IFF/LBM format.The Third Dimension PD
library has a screen grabber available on disk for Amiga and
Atari users.Next you then load one of the 3D kit programs up
as normal then load into it your datafile that you want to use
in your animation.Then all you have to do is to set the 3D view
up as your first frame/picture then take a screen grab of this.
Then move forward one step into your 3D world and then take another
screengrab.Keep doing this by taking a screen grab of the view
window everytime you move one step.You can use the right mouse
button (large movement steps) when you are moving forward or the
left button if you are panning around on the axis(looking
left/right).Eventually you should end up with a large amount of
screen grabs saved off into your ram disk ( preferably ) or hard
disk or even onto floppy.A good screen grabber will save these
grabs off with the same name and ascending numbers.E.g-
Picture.000 Picture.001 Picture.002 etc.
You then load these pictures into an art package.I used
DeluxePaint4.In Dpaint,you select load picture,click on the
first screengrab (Picture001) and change the frame number in the
same menu to the number of grabs that you have taken.Dpaint will
then load in all of the pictures ( memory permitting ) in
order.You can then view this sequence of pictures ( press 4 on
your keyboard on the Amiga ).If you are happy with it,save it as
an ANIM ( compressed ).You then end up with a fast anim of your
3D world that uses up a relatively small file size.Most anim
viewers can play the anim back at various fast/slow speeds.
Lack of RAM memory can be a problem for some users but there are
ways around this.You can get programs that can splice small anims
together to make one large one.If your floppy disk can only saves 30
pictures onto it,you could save the position that you are at in
your 3D world as an entrance,quit the program,start with another
empty disk in the drive after having loaded the grabber and 3D
program and files again and then carry on.You can then change the
grab numbers on the second disk and load all of them into your
art program as normal.
After having tried this form of animation,I thought about
creating a gut churning 3D animation of a flight between
buildings animation.I also realised that you could press the
F1 screen between grabs so that you don't get the kit icons on
screen.Expect a demo on disk soon and an anim on the new kit
video coming out this year.
If anyone tries this routine then send in your anim in exchange
for some free PD disks.
Tony ( nothing better to do than create anims all day ) Hartley.