Avi Background

[mark j]

Hi Guys

Im Another newbie to this forum Had 3D for while now just starting to get my Head fully Round it.

I wonderd if anyone could spread some light on couple probs i have.
Ive desiged some spinning logos n stuff no problem. But i wanted to use a Animated Background ether a avi or Giff just wondered if it can be done or do i have to covert it to somthing else. Not really to up with Flash.

And the other thing is when i save my logo to a Avi file i transfer it to proshow gold producer my logo only spins once when i want it to spin for 20 secs or so. Plus can you save the logo as a transparant avi which would cut out the 1st problem.

The giff side of it is ok its a shame pro show gold dont support Animated giffs.
Im sure one of you Talented guys out there can put me straight on what i can do. I do have Xara Xtreme as well still trying to get my full head round that. But then Half a head is better than none i suppose

[ankhor]

Hi Guys

Im Another newbie to this forum Had 3D for while now just starting to get my Head fully Round it.

I wonderd if anyone could spread some light on couple probs i have.
Ive desiged some spinning logos n stuff no problem. But i wanted to use a Animated Background ether a avi or Giff just wondered if it can be done or do i have to covert it to somthing else. Not really to up with Flash.

And the other thing is when i save my logo to a Avi file i transfer it to proshow gold producer my logo only spins once when i want it to spin for 20 secs or so. Plus can you save the logo as a transparant avi which would cut out the 1st problem.

The giff side of it is ok its a shame pro show gold dont support Animated giffs.
Im sure one of you Talented guys out there can put me straight on what i can do. I do have Xara Xtreme as well still trying to get my full head round that. But then Half a head is better than none i suppose

Hmmm, I don`t think a moving background is possible in xara3D, although
you never know.

But why not export the avi file and use it in a video-editor?

[jamesmc]

The key to any animation is that everything perceived to be a motion are just a groups of frames in sequence.

What I did here with a total of 13 Frames is to use the new GIF animation in Xara Xtreme to make up the animation.

You will need some kind of program to save the video into frames. I prefer the PNG format to save in as it saves well. Virtual Dub or some other freeware might do this or some other video editor that you might find.

After you get 12-13 Frames of video saved as PNG:

Open up Xtreme and Xara 3D
In Xtreme make whatever you want to hold the frame, rectangle, circle, shape of any kind and in my case a coffin looking shape to hold the cartoon.

Copy this shape from Xtreme and past it into Xara 3D in a new file.

From the texture option of Xara3D past the first video frame onto the shape.

Copy this Xara 3D frame and Paste (Xara X Document) into Xtreme Animation Editor.

Advance the Frame in Xara3D and then paste the second video frame onto the shape - so on and so forth until you have a different video frame on each Xara 3D frame.

You will need to do this one frame at a time, copying from Xara 3D and pasting into Xtreme. Each time using a different frame from Xara3D and making a new frame to paste into Xtreme.

I have done this several times with my example.

The cartoon on the coffin looking shape is 12 frames. The video frames for the background were captured from Windows Media Player and consists of 13 frames. The Homer Simpson character is 12 frames.

I converted the GIF animation into Flash so I could host it on my Website. However that's not necessary, but just remember that your file will be large because everything that is a video frame is a bitmap. Bitmaps are mostly large in file size.



I would post the Xar file, but it is over 2MB. Like I said before video frames are bitmaps and they can be large.

One can easily imagine the background from Windows Media Player being some sort of space where a spacecraft could fly through. In that case you would make your own space craft in Xara Xtreme, copying the shape from Xara 3D and pasting each frame of the spacecraft. Turning the spacecraft slightly on each of the next frames so it appears to be traveling down the center of some sort of vortex. Or it could be a video of a waterfall, cars on a street, people walking as the background frames. Use your imagination. It can be time consuming as you have to plan each frame. This is an old style of making movies frame by frame, but it still works.

[jamesmc]

Here's a graphical overview what I talked about. I show the first four frames in Xara Xtreme. Notice how each frame holds the pasted Xara X document from Xara 3D (except for first frame.) I also show frame 4 taken apart so you can see the constituent parts.

[orient]

[Soquili]

Orient why would you post an image created by Salaam a.k.a. Anas?

http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=21970

[aridzone]

Here's another example of an annimated background

[mark j]

Hi Guys thanks for the Help Jamesmc.
I'm having a little trouble at the mo Once you have all these files in Xtreme.
how do i get those files to merge as an Animated background in 3d.
I have a Animated Giff background which i loaded into Xtreme & it separated it into frames for me. I Take it i could use that to practice on 1st. i take it i have to draw a frame round each 1 of these frames.

You Guys sure no your stuff it making my head spin

[aridzone]

If you haven't discovered the timeline in Xara 3D go to window and make sure timeline is checked. With timeline you can break down your 3D annimation into frames. Your background annimation will have to be broken down into frames. If you have the same number of frames in each annimation then add the background frame to the 3D frame as your background. It's a little time consuming but you can create some nice effects. Try to limit the frames because it can create large file sizes.

[mark j]

Hi aridzone thanks for helping i feel like im being a bit thick here please excusess me.
so i got that with timeline had found it but didnt what it was used for do now.
Ive split my giff in xtreme 16 frames. i take it i then save them as indvidual files say 1-16 in a bitmap-png or jpeg & not as a xara file which ive done with just 3 of them 4 now(png) that is, James was saying about drawing a frame round the frame in Xtreme well tried that didnt no how 2 join frame to the frame if u no what i mean & i take it i have to do that with each frame then save it Does it then import in as a backgound frame by frame.& i just click the timeline frame by frame adding a diffrent background each fame. i tried doing that with the 3 png files i saved & it didnt work i guess coz i hadnt put the frame round each frame (this getting confusing LOL ) If thats right i just need to no how to save the frame round the frame.
Sorry about this i do apperciate the help.