Animation in Xara Revisited

[csehz]

Thanks the examples,

Gary yes I am aware that the objects should be named to make possibly the tweening, but in my example just wanted to register on the frames how to do a button. For example tutorials could be done similiarly, attaching beside in text maybe that which layer why came above. Sorry if it was confusing, it is really not a traditional animation. Rather just frames after each other and putting an additional layer in each.

Briefly so your technique to improve the .avi quality is making a bitmap copy for those elements, which are anyway not supported in flash. And seeing Egg's example considering the size optimizing too, however in .avi that is not a big factor, but definitely if someone would like to use it as .swf on web pages.

Thanks just again your efforts to explain

[Gare]

Hi csehz—

Briefly so your technique to improve the .avi quality is making a bitmap copy for those elements, which are anyway not supported in flash.

No. I had to make bitmap copies of the elements in your animation file because Flash supports bitmaps but it does not support linear transparency or feathering. To improve the quality of an AVI video, your elements can be the same size as you have them, but they should probably be 96 pixels/inch in image resolution. A higher resolution for these bitmaps copies will not improve the final AVI video, and if you want to convert the AVI to MPEG-4 for display on YouTube (YouTube converts AVIs for you, but does a sucky job), you would still be at a frame resolution of 96 pixels/inch.

And seeing Egg's example considering the size optimizing too, however in .avi that is not a big factor

Absolutely correct. AVI and other video file formats can go as large as 2 to 4K (2 to 4 thousand pixels measured across one axis) for digital theatrical display. So trying to conserve file size is not a consideration with video (AVI MPEG-4 and so on) whose destination is a theater, but when you want to create an animation to embed on a web page, well, then you want to consider your audience and the fact that no everyone has a fast internet connection. Eric reduced my file size a LOT, and this is good for the forum and web pages, with no loss in bitmap quality because the SWF in this example is being played at 1:1 viewing resolution. His file dimensions are about 200 by 200 p[ixels, and not intended to take up your whole screen, so we can save file size here.

@Egg—your BB code was bad. sledger outlined how to post a swf correctly a long time ago on tg, and to paraphrase his instructions:

1. You click Go Advanced, and then click Manage Attachments.

2. Go get your swf, and choose to embed it, then come back to the editing window.

3. Use this BB snippet, and insert the attachment number in the appropriate place within the snippet, along with the display size. Now to stop this snippet from doing anything in this post, I've put a curly bracket at the beginning and one at the end, but YOU want to use straight brackets, okay? Bolded stuff below gets changed.

{flash=http://www.talkgraphics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=91966] width=xxx height=yyy[/flash}

4. Delete the attachment, end attachment code you inserted into the body of the message, preview, then post.



Only 10K with bitmaps. Good going, Sir Egg! I knew I was generating a large file, I plead guilty to being in a rush this morning to get the post up and was a slob with maintaining a small file size for TalkGraphics.

My Best,

Gary

[Egg Bramhill]

Cheers for that Gary.

[csehz]

Gary thanks the .swf attaching advice too, hopefully that is playing now



Animation_384x216.swf

[csehz]

Anyway I am not sure why probably doing something wrong, but at trying the bitmap version, so creating bitmap from the feathered layers in the button, got such message



And after the created bitmap a white shape

[Gare]

You cannot use Bleach or Stained Glass transparency in an animation, csehz. Xara uses all the Shockwave rules and limitations for animation as I listed on Xara Xone. So regardless of whether your output is to SWF or AVI, you still need to be careful when using transparency. ONLY "Mix", regular transparency mode is allowed in animation, and that's why you got the messed-up bitmap.

Your animation looks TERRIFIC, by the way! Great stuff!

-g

[csehz]

Gary thanks for the infos, I learnt really a lot in this thread. Inspite of the limitations itself in flash, and that it seems becoming less used on web pages, sure are great possibilites in animations.
For example that inspires me in Xara way that on the first frame all the objects can be collected on the pasteboard, which will appear in the whole animation. After simply copying that start frame, the elements are always immediately there for the next frame and any of them can be pulled in and thats all. By this really fast can produce something.