Frame Gallery, meaning of B & O?

[rikkoshea]

Hi,
I was reading with interest the thread about flash in Web Designer (and probably applies to Xtreme too?), and was looking at the the frames gallery bit by soquill. I am a bit embarassed to ask what must be a very simple question, but, in Frames Gallery dialog box, what does the R and the O mean? I have browsed the manual in Help but seems it's not there (which of course leads me to think that this is something which everyone should already know!) (a forum search didn't help me either) Thanks, Roger

[bcire68]

The B and O (I think that this is what you mean) refers to Background and Overlay. I believe that these are more intended for animated GIF files (meaning I don't think they apply to flash though I may be wrong) as they can reduce the file size depending on how much changes from frame to frame. The terms are defined below.

From the Xara help files:

Background: If this is set, the frame covers all previous frames. This is useful if you want to create a background and then build up an animation on top of this background. Often the first frame in the animation is a background frame. If the first frame is not a background frame, the animated GIF uses the page background as its background.

Overlay: If this is set, then the frame overlays the previous frame.

I hope that helps.

Eric

[handrawn]

Further to what Eric has said:

discription of these functions appears to have been omitted from the help file a version or two back - at least I cant find them in xxp5 help

for information here is the section from xtreme version 2 help [ like Eric I do not think these apply to flash, which may explain their exclusion from current help]:


Frame Gallery - Background and Overlay Settings

Xara Xtreme uses frames to create animated gif files. Next to the frames listed in the Frame Gallery are two columns of switches. For each frame the left-hand switch indicates whether the frame is a background frame and the right-hand switch whether it overlays earlier frames. The settings of these switches can be changed simply by clicking on them.
Background
If this is set, then the frame covers all previous frames. This is useful if you want to create a background and then build up an animation on top of this background. Often the first frame in the animation is a Background frame.
If the first frame is not a background frame, the Animated GIF uses the page background as its background. In Xara Xtreme you can set up the document background to the same color or bitmap as the final web page. This lets you create bitmaps that blend seamlessly with the web page background.
Overlay
If this is set, then the frame overlays the previous frame.
Possible values are both off or one option on. Both on is invalid because a Background frame covers earlier frames and so nothing shows through - there is nothing to overlay.
B O
Off Off Render this frame over the current background.
On Off Render this frame on its own, overwriting all previous frames. This frame now becomes the current background and forms the background for all subsequent frames.
Off On Render this frame on top of the previous frame.

Examples
An animation that shows ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ in sequence on a colored background. This requires four frames. Frame 1 is just the background and has Background on. Frame 2 shows ‘A’ and has both options off. Frames 3 and 4 show ‘B’ and ‘C’ and also have both options off.

An animation that builds up ‘A’, ‘AB’ ‘ABC’. Frame 1 shows the background and ‘A’ and has Background on. Frame 2 shows ‘B’ and has Overlay on. This overlays the frame over frame 1 and you see ‘AB’. Frame 3 shows ‘C’ and also has Overlay on. Building up an animation in this way is more efficient than making each frame a Background frame. The final animated GIF only needs to store the changes between frames and so frames 2 and 3 require less space than if they were Background frames.

Tip
To make a sequence of frames background or overlay, set the switch for the first frame and Shift-click on switch for the last frame. The background/overlay settings of all the frames in between change too.

[rikkoshea]

Many thanks Eric & Steve, and please forgive my visual impairment (my specs are truly on their 'last legs' I think), and of course I see now that I should have read & said "B" and "O", which didn't help my original research, but your explanations will be very helpful all the same,
Cheers,
Roger

Perhaps a moderator can please amend my post title (to B & O)? (I don't believe that I can do that from the rules stated)

[Soquili]

Hi Rik

I've change the thread title. Although the first 4 post will retain the original title because they were made before the edit.

[Egg Bramhill]

The Background option is available and valuable for Flash animations. I don't believe the Overlay feature has any function within Flash.

[handrawn]

thanks Egg