Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mephisto!mcnc!decvax!zinn!ditka!qiclab!baer From: baer@qiclab.UUCP (Ken Baer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: ANIM converter? Message-ID: <4484@qiclab.UUCP> Date: 26 Mar 90 00:09:20 GMT References: <957@orange9.qtp.ufl.edu> Reply-To: baer@qiclab.UUCP (Ken Baer) Distribution: na Organization: Animators Anonymous, Portland, OR. Lines: 49 In article <957@orange9.qtp.ufl.edu> sutherla@qtp.ufl.edu (scott sutherland) writes: >However, there is one serious flaw. Both products are from Aegis, >and thus they only support AEGIS/SPARTA format ANIMS. Now, I do most >of my animations with TS and SculptAnimate 3D, neither of which create >A/S ANIMS. I believe the latest version of TS and Sculpt/Animate4D have the option to save in ANIM. Impulse is even using our ANIM player (with permission). > Now, there is a program to exchange between the various OBJECT >formats of these programs (Interchange, an invaluable aid to anyone using >the Amiga for animation), but I cannot find any program which will convert >between the various ANIM formats. Is this even possible? Sure it's possible. My program, Animation:Editor was originally going to just convert animation file formats. However, obtaining code for some of the proprietary formats turned out to be a near impossible task. I lost count of how many times Byte-by-Byte told me "it's in the mail." Luckily, we came up with a solution. We wrote a utility that runs in the background while you use your player program. Our program waits for the screen to change (which varies from player to player), freezes the player, and saves the frames as ANIM. It works with Sculpt4D, TS, Forms-in-Flight, and other formats. The only formats it doesn't work with are ones with players that take over the system (VideoEffects3D for one). The utility is called Capture, and has 2 version. Version 1.0 is in the public domain and saves in the Hash PAC format (not ANIM, but can be played with Display, our ANIM player), and the other is V1.2 that comes with Animation:Editor V1.2 (which saves in ANIMop5). Editor V1.2 is recent, so if you pick it up at a local dealer, you might need to send in for the upgrade ($10), but you also get a non-protected version of Editor that way too. Capture is not copy-protected. > If it is, I would >think that someone out there could make quite a bit of $$ for writing an >"INTERCHANGE"-style program (by that I mean Modular, with modules for TS, >SA, VideoScape, etc.) that will do just that. That's what I used to think. It'd help if someone made the effort to review it. >Scott Sutherland >sutherla@qtp.ufl.edu