Art Review: Various Animations
VIXENKITTY
There have been several new animations done since Itamar released his tlb
utility (and to some great extent, Autery's tlb2pcx has helped). I will take a
look at the three files I know about. One, from Rasnil, is at Giga. The other
two, from Halfscan and John Rudy were included in UANL19 (though I was
privileged to have previews of both long before they were released).
============================================================
a-drag1.zip (by Halfscan)
============================================================
Rating: 9.5 (of 10)
(1rst= 28, Intrst= 9, Use = 18, Clear= 10, Color= 10, Clean= 10, Mood= 9)
Type: Animation
Content: 1 Small Animation
Size: 6kb
Info File: no
Halfscan has created an awesome animated dragon image for your use. It is a
greenish colored dragon that blinks and flares it's nostrils. Pretty
impressive, even better than most of the default animations. It was very crisp
and clean, with great color. Useable in any adventure with a need for a
dragon!
============================================================
dwf2drac.zip (by Rasnil)
============================================================
Rating: 9.0 (of 10)
(1rst= 26, Intrst= 10, Use = 17, Clear= 9, Color= 9.5, Clean= 10, Mood=
10)
Type: Animation
Content: 1 small Animation
Size: 73kb
Info File: Yes
Rasnil gives us a companion piece to the default Dwarf King. Only this one
transforms into a snarling Draconian (though I suppose you could say it's a
doppleganger if not in Krynn).
The animation was comparable, if not better, than many of the default
animations, and I can forsee many uses of this particular image. The
composition of the image was excellent and smoothly translated from one
"scene" to the next.
============================================================
Animate!.zip (by John Rudy)
============================================================
Rating: 7.0 (of 10)
(1rst= 19, Intrst= 7, Use = 13, Clear= 7.5, Color= 8, Clean= 7.5, Mood=
8)
Type: Animations
Content: 6 Small Animations
Size: 132kb
Info File: Yes, comprehensive
To my knowledge, this was the first set of user animations released (even if
only to a small portion of the community, at first). Considering how recent
the animation utilities were released to the date I first saw these particular
images, they were fantastic. The scores are lower than Half's and Rasnil's due
to one image in particular (chaos.tlb).
I'm going to break with tradition for this review as animations are a bit
different than normal images (even other hacked ones). That, and the fact that
the first two animation reviews above had single images and could be better
reviewed that way:
Chaos.tlb:
Terrible image. Not clear, unsure what is supposed to be. I don't see
a use for it, either.
Moon.tlb:
Decent image. Good mood and coloring, but the jerky way the shadow
moves across the moon's surface then retreats almost kills the whole thing!
Litnin.tlb:
Good image. I like the way John illuminates various portions of the
image in respect ot the lightning's position. Coloring could have been a tad
better on the clouds...
Spcport.tlb:
This is a remake of one of the Buck Rogers scenes. Very smooth and
well done (and it's sci-fi, too!).
Terrine.tlb:
This is another remake of a Buck Rogers image. Coloring is terrible,
but that is not John's doing. The animation is a bit jerky, but still very
useable in a SFUA design.
Rhinegd.tlb:
At first glance, I loved this image. But the animation is jerky. The
cape seems to disappear at times, and the book slides back and forth across
the table. If John could rework this so the book stays still, and maybe make
the candle flicker a bit, this would be my favorite animation.
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Well, as you can see, these animations ranked quite high. I recommend getting
them!
Vix
PCC JohnR
In a message dated 98-01-06 06:18:06 EST, VIXEN...@aol.com writes:
<< This is another remake of a Buck Rogers image. Coloring is terrible,
but that is not John's doing. The animation is a bit jerky, but still very
useable in a SFUA design. >>
I'd like to take note with this one: The animation appears here ***exactly***
as it appeared in Countdown to Doomsday. (Ditto for spcport.) Because it's an
exact duplicate, it is going to be as jerky as the original was.
As for the others; bear in mind that the real problem was (at that time) no
one seemed to know how to make an animation *stop*...Something that's terribly
important. The Rhinegaard animation is a throwaway; the Chaos animation is in
there just for fun (play The Crawling Chaos again; you'll see where it came
from); and the moon is going to be redone and optimized for pica1180.tlb.
(That's Lyzian; the one and only graphic slot that allows an animation to
completely, 100%, stop.)
John
VIXENKITTY
>>> I'd like to take note with this one: The animation appears here
***exactly*** as it appeared in Countdown to Doomsday. (Ditto for spcport.)
Because it's an exact duplicate, it is going to be as jerky as the original
was. <<<
Calm down there, buckaroo!
I have never played the two games for Buck Rogers. I only know where it comes
from due to your info file (and the fact that I have seen it in the Buck image
files you put together). Almost ALL animations in UA (yes, even the default
ones) are jerky. The larger the animation portion (whole body moving as
opposed to a single eye winking), the more jerky it will look. And it's not
like we are using something that allows smooth animation, anyways... :/ (I
had better animation abiltity on this great little c-64 game maker proggie...
I miss that Batman game I made... ::sigh::).
>>> As for the others; bear in mind that the real problem was (at that time)
no one seemed to know how to make an animation *stop*...Something that's
terribly important. <<<
This I know. But.. I still have to rate the animation on what is in the file,
not on what you would have liked it to do. I did mention that yopur animations
were the first released, and that, close to the release of the animation
utility. I think I also mentioned that they were great for not understanding
it like they are now...
>>> The Rhinegaard animation is a throwaway; <<<
Noooo! I like it better than the Dragon and Draconian!!! Just needs a little
work, is all.. and make the candle flicker... :)
>>> the Chaos animation is in there just for fun (play The Crawling Chaos
again; you'll see where it came from); <<<
I remember it from Chaos.. didn't like that sequence then either.. but, that's
just my opin...errr... optimal tasting ability.. or whatever James calls it!
:D
>>> and the moon is going to be redone and optimized for pica1180.tlb. (That's
Lyzian; the one and only graphic slot that allows an animation to completely,
100%, stop.) <<<
That'll be cool! It's a good image, if you can stop the receeding moonline...
:) Maybe add a step of eclipse in there, too...
Vix
Halfscan
> One, from Rasnil, is at Giga. The other
>two, from Halfscan and John Rudy were included in UANL19 (though I was
>privileged to have previews of both long before they were released).
>============================================================
>a-drag1.zip (by Halfscan)
>============================================================
Too privileged... this image has yet to be released ;)
This image was not released in the UANL as mentioned, and currently only
exists on my hard drive, and to my knowledge, the drives of four other UA'ers.
The image was (IMO) nothing more than a test file I had put together to see
how different looping animations could be accomplished without looking "too-
looping".
For those who haven't seen it (ie, most of you), the image is made from caps
of the animated Gold Dragon in Bards' Tale Construction Set. I cropped,
resized, optimized the pallette, and re-arranged the frame to an animation
closer to my liking.. but the "real" artwork credit belongs to whatever wage-
slave Interplay beat the image out of... he did some fantastic work on that
game.
This weekend I intend to update my web page (work had kept me from doing
that last weekend). If I find the additional time I may try to play with this
image a bit more and post it as well.
-Half
PCC JohnR
In a message dated 98-01-06 12:16:53 EST, VIXEN...@AOL.COM writes:
<< The larger the animation portion (whole body moving as
opposed to a single eye winking), the more jerky it will look. >>
Actually, the dwarf-to-draconian (from Dark Queen of Krynn) is as smooth as we
can get, I think. It's quite smooth. It's really an outstanding image. (It's
also 14 frames, so it's about as *big* as we can get, too. :D)
All of my animations are capped out of somewhere. The reason the clouds (on
lightning) were a bit blurry was trying to fit the screen caps from "EOB2" in
there. (I'm gonna reinstall that and do some more, I think.)
<<Noooo! I like it better than the Dragon and Draconian!!! Just needs a little
work, is all.. and make the candle flicker... :)>>
You're just saying that, trust me. Have you seen the ads for "Viva Variety" on
Comedy Central? At the end, when the image of the man is waving his arms back
and forth repetitively? It's the same effect. I ***really*** didn't want to
release that. It just ended up in the ZIP. :)
For the record, the image of Rhinegaard in question was a combination of a
modified screen cap from the intro to EOB2 and a screen cap from HUNTED. (I
had fun with the intro to EOB2 for The Guild.)
This animation isn't even going back *into* The Guild!
<<but, that's
just my opin...errr... optimal tasting ability.. or whatever James calls it!>>
LOL!
<<That'll be cool! It's a good image, if you can stop the receeding
moonline...
:) Maybe add a step of eclipse in there, too...>>
I can't add a step. I want to, but I can't. It's actually made from NASA
photos from the last lunar eclipse; only 3 (unfortunately) were available. And
you all like to think I'm some kind of artist? :-)
John
Charles White
Hello all,
In reply to Vixen's review of dwarf 2 draconian, I would just
like to add (I think I left it out of the info file) that the
images themselves came from DKK, and were not drawn by me. Also,
after I finished the conversion, I realized that all I had to
do was to use tlbbreak and it would of made the animation for
me, but it is good that I did this for 2 reasons:
1. It gave me practice for future animations, and...
2. Tlbbreak did not include the first pic of the normal
dwarf, thus having an ugly half-drac turning into a drac.
Also, as it says in the info file, I did *not* need to use
tlbbreak in order to animate the files, as someone first said
they had to do. I infact used Autery's tlb2pcx for the pics.
One last thing, I'd like to thank Autery and Itmar (I'm sorry
if I spelled that wrong) for 2 more great utilities that I
personally will get much out of.
Rasnil
--
The true voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new
landscapes, but in having new eyes.
-Myrddin Embrais.
Charles White
Hey JohnR,
About the 14 frames per animation, is that the official limit?
I tried to do the DKK ending with the mice eating the dwarf
cheese, spent about 5 hours on it, and it ended up being too big.
Also, how do you get *transparent* to work right? I tried to
do this with the above animation, but it started off big, then
just went to a bunch of green with mice :(. I had Transparent
color in the tlb.nfo file and the color I used was the last in
the palette (that ugly green color).
Rasnil (Yikes, you just can't shut me up tonight)
PCC JohnR
In a message dated 98-01-06 23:44:43 EST, aa5...@lcfn.org writes:
<< About the 14 frames per animation, is that the official limit? >>
I don't know. I haven't experimented, personally, with anything over 8.
<<I tried to do the DKK ending with the mice eating the dwarf
cheese, spent about 5 hours on it, and it ended up being too big.>>
I have (thanks, Dan Autery!) seen this in UA. I don't know how he did it, but
he did. It does go in a pic slot (not a bigpic), and you'll ***definitely***
want to use TLBCOMP on it.
<<Also, how do you get *transparent* to work right? I tried to
do this with the above animation, but it started off big, then
just went to a bunch of green with mice :(. I had Transparent
color in the tlb.nfo file and the color I used was the last in
the palette (that ugly green color).>>
I dunno. But you saved me the trouble of experimenting with it. :) (I think
transparency has to be on for all of the pics in the animation; though I could
be wrong. They definitely need to share a palette, I believe.
John
VIXENKITTY
Regarding Halfscans Animated dragon reviewed by me:
>>> Too privileged... this image has yet to be released ;) <<<
I had tucked this image away in a directory I rarely use. (I was going to tear
it apart and look at how Half did it). I unzipped the UANL19 into this
directory (John's animations were there, too... for eventual dissection and
research purposes). I guess I thought they were included in the NL as goodies
for us...
My apologies to both John, Half, and all you people out there...
>>> This weekend I intend to update my web page (work had kept me from doing
that last weekend). If I find the additional time I may try to play with this
image a bit more and post it as well. <<<
The image is awsome now... if you improve it... WOW!
You guys shoulkd be waiting with bated breath for his release of this
animation!
Vix