These scripts require ADPro version 2.5 or later. Some of them will work with earlier versions but I have used the new requesters in many places.
Apart from their main uses, they provide working examples of the use of various ADPro requesters and commands, especially the tricky ones like Text Visual, and examples of solutions to "Quotemark" problems.
FRAMES TO ANIM
This is for assembling numbered single frames into an anim file. If you want to run ADPro at the same time as a program which is generating the frames, such as Imagine or VistaPro, the script will wait for the next frame to appear. You have to enter an estimate for the time interval between frames so that it knows how long to wait. If the next frame hasn't appeared within a reasonable time, you will be invited to wrap up the anim file.
Some animation programs, such as DPaint, cannot handle anims with different palettes for each frame. To deal with this, the palette can be locked after the first frame. However, the first frame may not be typical - it could be an empty stage awaiting the entry of a colorful figure. In this case, render a typical frame singly before running the script and lock the palette on that.
The script does not ask you to set up the screen rendering mode: it is easier to do this from the normal screen controls before you start. The same applies to balance and dither.
Frames can be scaled to any size and also centred on a black background. Frames in 320x200 size from PCs often seem to look better when padded in this way than when scaled to fill a PAL screen.
Frames from a PC may have the numbers embedded in the middle of the file name: e.g. IMAGE001.LBM This script can deal with them.
FITS Loader
These files are to be found on CD-ROMs and Bulletin Boards dealing with astronomy. They are raw data files with detailed headers describing the image size and experimental setup.
FLIC to Anim
Converts FLIC files (from PCs) into anim files.
MASS CONVERSION
Script to use ADPro to convert and/or scale a whole directory of files, including subdirectories. If a file is an anim, only the first frame is converted. Images can be scaled to a uniform size. If it jams up while trying to load in a binary file which it thinks (wrongly) is a Targa or PCX image, just click on Abort. (Logically, any Universal loader will sometimes mistake binary files such as programs for Targa or PCX files.)
PCD to IFF
Program to run the Public Domain PhotoCD converter from Xetec and load the resulting file. The program PCDtoIFF must be in your "c:" directory.
SCREEN PRINT
Program to use ADPro to separate a picture into a selected number of colours, suitable for screen printing. Unlike normal colour separation, this uses whichever colours are most suitable for the image, not CMYK. Note that white will often be offered as a separation but can be left as blank paper - you do not need white ink. A colour chart is generated to help you to mix the inks.
THUMBNAILS
Program to use ADPro to make sets of thumbnail miniatures of all the pictures in a directory, including subdirectories. They can be in a variey of formats. They will be rendered in Hi-Res Interlace, 16-colour or Ham-8.
The dither mode currenly in force is used.
If it jams up while trying to load in a file which it thinks (wrongly) is a Targa or PCX image, just click on Abort.
Near the beginning of the file is a list of variables which can be customized by the user, using a suitable text editor. (Be careful with Ed as it cuts short any lines longer than 256 characters. Long lines are quite common in ARexx scripts.)
As supplied, the script is set up to produce pictures 640x512 pixels and to use the font Folio Medium, which must be in your fonts: directory. If you don't have Folio Medium or want an NTSC shaped picture, change the variables.
This script was originally written for Errol at EMC.
ANIMCUBE
This uses the Perspective operator from Morph Plus to generate an animation of a rotating cube with a still picture or an animation on each side. It takes a long time to render - about 15 minutes per frame. (About the same time as a similar animation generated by Lightwave.)
Black can be set to be transparent so that the cube has a skeletal appearance.
Another image or animation can be used as a backdrop, making seven altogether. All images and animations are automatically scaled to fit. It is best to use animations with a number of frames that matches that of the final animation, if you want it to loop cleanly. When it gets to the last frame of an input anim, the program stats again at the beginning.
