No Fragments Archive 12: Textmags & Docs/nf_archive_12.iso/MAGS/TEXTMAGS/3RD_DIM/3RDDM21.MSA/ANIMBRUS.TXT

Text File | 2004-06-27 | 11KB | 197 lines

                      THE THIRD DIMENSION DISKMAG

Lock Mode,Screen grabbing,Brushanims,Animbrushes,Animations,
Picture mattes and colour mapping/remapping.

Previously I did a tutorial on using a screen grabber to make
intros of kit areas.Now I will explain how to create 3D kit
object brushanims for use in the 3D kits/art packs,screen
grabbed kit object animations and more! Imagine the Starship
Enterprise kit object flying over your favourite picture
background.Imagine your very own best kit object being used
in your game intro moving ultra fast! All this is possible!
Read on.......Tony

This is a tutorial on how to use 3D kit objects E.g- the Starship
Enterprise, as an animbrush in 3D kit 2 or for use in a paint
package,for a game intro and as a matte placed in front of a
picture to create full animations.You can use the BACK_PIC
picture (this is in .IFF/LBM form but it will convert to other
formats .Atari users look on disk 12B for convertors) supplied
on this disk as a backgroud picture.The brushanim would not fit
onto the disk but if anyone would like a copy then please send
a SSAE (Only available for the Amiga as that was used for this
tutorial) and blank disk and I will then copy all the files
onto it for you including a full animation!

USING THE LOCK FUNCTION IN KIT 1 OR 2
This function allows you to lock onto a certain object in the
3D kit and is very useful for getting the right position for
taking a screengrab.It also allows you to zoom right out of an
area to see everything in the viewscreen.First load up a kit
object or area etc then (in kit 2) goto the GENERAL menu,click on
MODE,then LOCK and a menu of all the areas objects will
appear.Select any (it does not matter which one),another menu
will appear,simply ignore everything and just click on the OK
button.You will now probably see a strange viewpoint.Use the
movement controls to position the view exactly as you want it.Try
moving right out backwards away from an object/area.While you are
in LOCK MODE you can move off the ground,below ground or even
move through objects.Ideal for screen grabbing!

CREATING AN INTRO USING A KIT AREA/OBJECT

     What you have to do is to first load a decent screen
grabber that can save off your kit 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.They are also available for PC users too.
     Next you then load one of the 3D kit programs up
as normal then load into it your kit object or area that you
want to use in your animation.Next colour the ground and sky a
black colour if you only want to use an object and not a whole
area as your animation/brushanim leaving only the kit object
coloured.Then all you have to do is to set the 3D kit view
window up as your first frame/picture (you can do this with or
without the edit controls of the kits showing.Then take a
screen grab of this view by pressing the keys on your computer
that active the screen grabber.You can use the LOCK object
function in the kits to move even further away from your object
to get the best view possible.Then move forward (or whichever
direction you want) one step into your 3D world by using the kit
movement controls 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 use the left
mouse button if you are panning around on the axis(looking
around to the 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
Deluxe Paint4 on the Amiga.A version of deluxe paint is
also being given away on the front cover of Atari ST Format
but I have not tried this version as  of yet.
In Dpaint,you select load picture,click on the first
screengrab (Picture000) and then change the frame number
in the same menu to the number of screen grabs that you have
taken.Dpaint will then load in all of the pictures ( memory
permitting ) in the order which you took them.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 ).If not edit each frame until you are happy with
it.You can recolour or touch up each frame and then save it.
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.

CREATING A 3D KIT ANIMBRUSH/PAINT PROGRAM ANIMBRUSH,ANIMATION
OR INTRO SEQUENCE USING A 3D KIT OBJECT.
----------------------------------------------------
     If you want to use a kit object as an animbrush to matte
over a background picture to create animations or to use as an
animbrush in the 3D kits then you must make sure that the sky
and ground colours of your areas are coloured black as previously
mentioned.You must also carry out all of the above previously
mentioned tutorial to first create an anim as above but this
time you cut each object animation frame out to make a brushanim.
     The easy way to do this is to go to the Anim menu
then Animbrush menu in Deluxe paint and then choose the PICKUP
option.A set of crosshairs will appear and you then hold the
mouse button down to drag a box (rubberband) around the object to
be used as the animbrush.Make the box as large as the black area
as all the black colour will be omitted afterwards.A menu should
appear asking for the amount of brushanimation cells to be
used.Leave it at its default setting and just click on the OK
button.The computer will then grab all of the animbrush frames
for you.You can then save this as a brushanim and use it with a
background picture to create an animation ( More details below
on how to use brushanim colour and background picture colour
remapping techniques ) . Now to use this same animbrush in the
3D Construction kit 2 requires you to create a black picture
in your paint package,load in your brushanim and you then have
to stamp each frame of the brushanim down onto this black
picture side by side (cartoon comic frame style) filling up the
entire black screen until you have a series of little pictures
starting from the top left row continuing to the bottom right.You
should then end up with one screen full of tiny little
pictures.Next use this picture in kit 2 as you would with normal
brushes/brushanims by cutting out each picture in the kit to
create a brushanim.
     So you have got your brushanim saved off of your kit object
and you want to use it for an intro to your game.If you are
adding loading instructions to this intro simply create an anim
in DPaint set the frame count to say 30 frames and then stamp
down the first frame of your brushanim and add the text to the
frames where you need it.You can use the  1 and 2  numbered
key buttons on your computer to advance or retard each frame.
That's easy enough but if you want to add your favourite picture
as a background then you are going to have to remap the colours
of the brushanim to your background colours.To do this first load
up your background picture then set your desired number of frames
up.This will then copy the background picture to all of the other
frames of your animation.You should then end up with say a 50
frame animation showing the same picture throughout.If the
colours in the palette are all over the place and you would
prefer them to be in some form of order (all the shades of
the blues together,all the reds together etc) you could try using
the remap option from the colour menu but it may not work
properly and could corrupt the pictures colours.Best to probably
leave this for the moment.After you have your desired amount of
frames set you then load in your brushanimation (which you
previously saved, didn't you? Yes? Good!) Now you will notice
that you will probably see a black rectangle (yes this is your
animbrush!).Now go to the Colour menu and select the Brush menu
and then the Remap option.Note! the Colour then Remap menu option,
and the Colour then Brush then Remap options are different! Use
the latter one as we want to remap the brushanim colours to the
background colours.You should then hopefully end up with the same
or very similar colours of the kit object being used for the
brushanim.By pressing the key J on your computer you can flip to
the spare drawing screen and stamp down a few frames of your
braushanim to try it out.This won't affect your animation.When you
are happy press the J key again and then start to stamp down each
frame of your brushanimation while advancing an animation frame
using the key 1 or 2 on the main set of computer keys over the
normal QWERTY letters.Press the mouse button down once to stamp a
brushanim frame down then press key 2 then stamp another frame
down then key 2 again and so on and so forth.If your brushanim
starts half way through when you start off stamping each
brushanim frame down onto the start of your animation simply flip
to the spare screen (press J on your keyboard) and then keep
stamping down each animbrush frame until you get to the start
then flip back to your anim again and start from there.This
method works better with a 256 colour background picture.
     I ended up having the Starship enterprise (Thanks Pete for
the kit object.) flying over Huddersfield railway station (a
photo CD picture) using the above method.I also added some lines
for a zooming effect and liitle bits of flames etc to get the
finished result.Totally amazing!

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 please send in your anim in
exchange for some free PD disks.

Tony ( nothing better to do than create anims and now brushanims
and intros all day ) Hartley.