Tutorial on animated sliders, knobs etc.

[imekon]

Is there a tutorial on how to create animated knobs, buttons etc.? What I'm looking for is something with a vertical or horizontal strip of images that show a knob animated for 32 or 64 steps. Is this possible with Xara Xtreme?



Note this isn't for a website but for an application.

[gwpriester]

I'm not sure I know the answer but just out of curosity, what is the application? And what format does the animation have to be in?

Xara can create a GIF animation if that is any help.

If so, there is a very simple animation tutorial in The Xara Xone Workbook 36 and a more complex tutorial January 2001 Xara Xone Tutorial and a Flash tutorial in February 2001 Xara tutorial and a more complex Flash tutorial in [url=http://www.xaraxone.com/tutorials/mar01/index.htm] the March 2001 tutorial.

Gary

[John Rayner]

Hi Imekon,

Welcome to Talkgraphics! I would say xara Xtreme can do the task you require. Most likely the output has to be a bitmap (.bmp) for a windows application. I would suggest an 30 bitmaps one for each position of the dial. Unless you can now layer graphics and use transparencies. then you could get away with 2.

[MerryOtter]

It seems to me like the poster wants to be able to export 32 (or 64) discreet images, each showing a knob at a different rotation. I know only two ways to accomplish this:

a) have all permutations laid out in a grid, overlay them with slicing rectangles, then "Export as slices" or,

b) contruct it as an animated GIF, export the animated GIF, then use a program like "Animation Shop" to save out the frames from that GIF individually.

If the poster needs a single "strip" of images, then he would have to duplicate the original image 31 (or 63) times, then rotate the permutations one by one.

Merry

[imekon]

Is there no way to automate the rotation, or do I have to do that by hand?

[imekon]

I'm not sure I know the answer but just out of curosity, what is the application? And what format does the animation have to be in?

Various knobs and controls for VSTi - virtual instruments or soft synths.

A good example of this would be here .

Any format - GIF, PNG, BMP...

[MerryOtter]

Is there no way to automate the rotation, or do I have to do that by hand?

To the best of my knowledge, you would have to do them individually. There is no "transform again" command or macro feature in Xara Xtreme.

Merry

[jclements]

MerryO;

Not sure I really understand what is wanted, but couldn't you make two identical objects, rotate one, do a blend X times between them, then recolor one of the end objects of the blend?

[MerryOtter]

...couldn't you make two identical objects, rotate one, do a blend X times between them, then recolor one of the end objects of the blend?

That is one of the first things I tried when I first got Xtreme... the program will translate each item in the artwork "linear-ally" as opposed to applying the rotation incrementally (see picture). I have a suspicion that blending a bitmap that is rotated would work, except there seems to be a bug associated with this.

[John Rayner]

If you do a 0 to 90 degree blend then copy and flip em you can get all 360 degrees. Here are some quickies. 5 degrees rotation...