More animationz available

[GooRoo]

I have animated a few more previously static imagez, such as and .

The same filename was used for each image, so existing documentz and postingz here on the Forum will display the animated image. Today I just learned a technique that will greatly speed up the task of capturing animationz and converting them for display on the Forum and in walk-throughz, etc. The most time-consuming past of capturing an animation is in doing a screen grab of a different frame than any previously captured. Duh! Gruntz providez us with "Pause Game" ... which doez wonderz for stopping an animation in a useful place!!! (I had been doing a screen grab "on the fly" ... and frequently was either a bit too soon, or a bit too late. ... Why is it we grow so soon old, and so late smart ) This technique will also allow me to smooth out some animationz that seem to be short a frame or two.

Making these imagez transparent, so they look as good as possible on any background remainz a bit of a problem, since stray pixelz that are only partially made transparent do not show up in the paint and animation programz ... but show up very well on the Forum's background. So I will go back into the editorz and fix the imagez that cause dot flashez, as in and .

What I want to capture next is the Gauntletz and Shovel imagez, as animationz ... but Shovel disappearz on both the dark and light Gruntz In Space ground tilez, and Gauntletz have so much background to be removed ... and frequently has the same colorz as the background tile, making it difficult to pare away the chaff and leave just the Tool.

[GooRoo]

Today's additionz:

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

(I had daughter #2 here for six dayz, and a temporary crown put on today (2 hourz in the Dentist's chair!) so have not accomplished as much as I could have.) I may be able to do before bedtime today.

P.S. It seemz that most of the Gruntz animationz have 15 cellz to them ... makez sense ... 24 degreez change from cell to cell. They probably had powerful animation toolz that did most of the real work ... and the proprietary format is because of logicz associated with the imagez ... that were not supported with 'standard' image formatz.

[GooRoo]

Now all of the letterz and all of the Zap Cola are animated, as well as a few Toolz and Toyz. I have all of the cellz captured for Baby Walker , Jump Rope and Monster Wheel ... it is just a matter of making each cell transparent (that is not Toy) and then placing them into the GIF animation. But that part of the effort is the most tedious (and boring!) part, so I am going to take a break for a few hourz. Removing the "not Toy" pixelz is more of a problem when the background is nearly the same color as the pixelz that are part of the Toy, so I search for examplez with the image I want existing on as mono-color (and different!) a background as possible.

[GooRoo]

Today's creationz (so far):

• 
  
• next is
  
• then (probably)
  

[GooRoo]

Today's creations (so far):

• Resurrection Scroll
  
• next is Rolling Ballz Scroll
  
• then probably Health Scroll
  
• then I will focus on Toolz for a while
  

GoDaddy had site maintenance scheduled for today, and I cannot upload my changez.

[GooRoo]

Three more animationz today:

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

I doubt that there will be any more today, since I have to prepare for tonight's rehearsal of the entire play "Murder on the Nile" by Agatha Christie, and the rehearsal itself will likely take at least three hourz ... plus half an hour (round-trip) travel time.

[GooRoo]

Six more animationz today:

• ... Freeze Wand
  
• ... Teleporter Wand
  
• ... Resurrection Wand
  
• ... Teleporter Scroll
  
• ... Random Toyz Scroll
  
• ... Rolling Ballz Scroll
  

And the InGameIconList is almost complete!

[GooRoo]

Today's animationz:

• 
  
• next is
  
• then (probably) (too tough on the background I had ... need to re-capture)
  

[GooRoo]

Today's animationz (so far):

• Go-Kart
  
• Monster Wheel
  
• Squeak Toy (not good enough, IMHO)
  
• Spy Gear
  
• Sword (aka "butter knife" )
  
• Wingz ... for this, I am going to try another technique (may not duplicate the game animation)
  

My 'shortcut' method for the Wingz is nowhere near the same as the game animation, so I will have to go back and do thingz "the hard way" ... including re-capture of several InGameIconz that were captured on a background with colorz too similar to the required objectz ... I am unable to determine which pixelz belong to the object, and which onez are part of the background, in those casez. So I will change the background to an appropriate switch with colorz as different as possible from the object I want to capture.

P.S. At this rate, I should have the InGameIconList complete by Monday (just 11 iconz left to animate).

[GooRoo]

Today's animationz (so far):

• GunHat (finished)
  
• Bricklayer (to do)
  
• Wingz (to re-do)
  

[GooRoo]

Well, it turnz out that many of the imagez that are largely grey tonez with open spacez are almost impossible to make transparent. It seemz that Monolith (or the graphicz desigenrz, actually) made the imagez semi-transparent around the edgez, so whatever the background color is 'bleedz through' the desired image. Removing anything with the background color resultz in an image that doesn't look a thing like the desired object. For example, the GunHat (gun barrel) and Bricklayer (handle between the wood and the blade) imagez were onez that I had to reconstruct large portionz of each of the fifteen cellz in order to make them look at all realistic. The remaining imagez are just too involved for me to do (at this time). If anyone wantz to make the attempt at creating some animationz, I will provide the fifteen cellz with about eight different backgroundz (already arranged in the proper sequence, A to O) in JPG format. I have a folder for each image, and the raw material consistz of 576X448 pixel JPGz containing all of the objectz I wanted to animate. Each JPG runz between 165Kb and 170Kb, so the total storage requirement is about 2.5Mb ... a bit too much for many e-mail account providerz. So if anyone is interested, I will upload them to the web host, and provide linkz to the fifteen cellz. I crop a single tile (32X32 pixelz) and do a Save as.. a two-digit number (01 through 15) for use in my animation program. The advantage of that is all of the 'processed' cellz appear in the Windowz display before any of the unprocessed cellz ... and are properly named for inclusion in the finished animation.

The remaining troublesome imagez are:

• Shield
  
• Springz
  
• Wingz ... this is a poor 'shortcut' version
  
• Baby Walker
  
• JumpRope
  

I will see about doing just one more animation ...

[GooRoo]

I guess it is time to "bite the bullet" and tackle that pesky Jump Rope. Most of the effort will be to supply pixelz to fill in a complete toy ... you know, as it is before it breakz. Right now, most of the imagez look like the rope has already broken. Since I can only draw a straight line if you let me use a ruler (virtually ZERO artistic talent), I believe this will turn out to be the worst animation ever.

I keep looking at the Baby Walker and can't help but think there may be one or two missing cellz in the animation ... it seemz to dip faster at a point where it is tilted toward the viewer. If I get frustrated with the Jump Rope, I will switch over to see what can be done to smooth it out.

[GooRoo]

Thanks to the REZ Extractor program from kijanek6, I now have a curse animated!

I didn't think it would work ... but it did ... that is, to use the various sized imagez as they were (without expanding them to a constant size, and meticulously placing them within the image size of the largest width and largest height. I used the "centered" option of GIF Advanced Animator, and the animation lookz correct. The only thing I really had to do was convert the PNGz into GIFz, and the rest was a "slam dunk". Knowing that, my next animation will be the JumpRope, using the PID->PNG->GIF method, without the re-sizing step. (I can't help but feel that my very manual process of screen grabz, trim to size, erase everything not obviously JumpRope was unable to capture the real animation ... and all of the framez.)

[GooRoo]

All four Cursez are now done:

• 61 - Random Colorz
  
• 62 - Screen Shake
  
• 63 - Black Screen
  
• 64 - Mini Cam
  

[GooRoo]

Cursez! I've been slimed!

[GooRoo]

You don't want to get too close to this guy!