informis
/
textfiles
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull Requests Packages Projects Releases Wiki Activity
textfiles/apple/DOCUMENTATION/sap.v0.5

787 lines
37 KiB
Groff
Raw Blame History

===============================================================================
SAP Beta Version 0.5
written by
Kenrick Mock
Updated 7/26/91 - See Update file for new changes
===============================================================================
Requirements
------------
1. IIGS with at least 1.25 megs of memory
2. A paint program capable of saving $C0 pictures
3. A text editor
4. A hard drive is STRONGLY recommended
5. A accelerator is recommended
6. A audio/video digitizer may be desirable
Table of Contents
-----------------
1. What is SAP?
2. SAP Overview
3. SAP Tutorial
4. SAP Command Reference
5. Major Limitations
6. Other Comments
==============================================================================
What is SAP?
==============================================================================
SAP is an animation program. If you have ever used Take-1 (c) Baudville,
or Art & Film Director (c) Epyx, then you are already familiar with this
program. To put it simply, SAP lets you create movies and put together
animations on your GS. This program was somewhat modelled after Take-1,
so if you have used this program you shouldn't have much problem adapting
to SAP.
Originally, I envisioned SAP as an acronym for "Simple Animation Program."
However, once you look at the program, you will see that this is quite a
misnomer! The program sports my patented user-hostile interface, and it
may take a while to get used to. But please stick with it! Once you master
the myriad of commands, it all becomes very simple. In any case, if you feel
that "Simple" doesn't apply to this program, feel free to substitute your
favorite "S" word in its place (e.g. Stupid, Slick, Sweet, Slow, Silly, etc).
This program is distributed as "Show-Ware". This means that you are free to
distribute or copy the program as you wish. However, if you create any
nifty animations, then I'd like you to show it to me! This is all I ask.
Of course, if you want to send any money or something for some strange reason,
I won't turn you away! My address and contact number is listed at the end
of this file.
==============================================================================
SAP Overview
==============================================================================
Installation:
I strongly recommend a hard drive. Currently, SAP only recognizes certain
directories. If you don't have a hard drive, you'll be stuck with working
on the floppy that SAP comes on, and there isn't much extra disk space.
Consequently, if you do own a hard drive then first create a subdirectory
on your hard disk called "SAP" and then copy all the files and directories
from the SAP disk to the SAP directory.
Your hard drive directory should look something like:
*/SAP/SAP.DATA
/MOVIES
/SCENES
/ACTORS
/PICTURES
/SOUNDS
and the files PROJECTOR, SCENEEDIT, and ACTOREDIT should be in the */SAP
directory. There will be various files in the other directories.
If you have unpacked directly to a hard disk, then all is fine. If you
unpacked onto a floppy, just copy everything to the hard drive.
Terminology:
BACKGROUND: A $C0 Apple Preferred picture. This picture comprises the
background scenery for your animation.
PICTURE: A $C0 Apple Preferred picture. This is the same as
"Background," but the term "Picture" is used to refer to a
picture containing shots of actors (see below) rather than
background scenery for animation.
ACTOR: An actor is any object which will be animated on the screen.
This includes pictures of people, text, or anything else.
Currently, all actors are bit mapped graphics. An actor is
comprised of SHOTS, described below.
SHOT: A shot is one "still shot" of an actor. For example, if you
have an actor which is a talking face, this actor may be
composed of three shots. The first might be the face with
the lips closed, the second is the face with the lips partly
open, and the third the face with the lips fully open. When
displayed in succession, it will appear that the face is
"talking."
SOUND: A standard digitized sound file.
FRAME: A frame is a just like a frame in a regular movie. It is a
snapshot in time containing shots of actors overlaid on a
background. A collection of frames makes up a SCENE.
SCENE: A scene is a complete animation all on a single background.
It is composed of frames containing shots of actors and
sounds.
MOVIE: A bunch of scenes played back-to-back to create a movie.
Brief description of the programs:
ACTOREDIT - Use to load up $C0 pictures and "cut" out the shots of the
actor.
SCENEEDIT - This program is where most of the work comes in. You put
together your animation/scenes with this program.
PROJECTOR - Simply plays back movies, which are just a bunch of scenes.
Description of Directories:
SAP recognizes only certain directories. Files must be copied into the
right directory for SAP to work correctly.
*/SAP.DATA - Contains data files for SAP to work correctly.
*/SOUNDS - Any sounds you want to play must be copied to this
directory. Standard sounds, no ACE or anything.
*/PICTURES - All $C0 pictures go here. This includes background
pictures as well as pictures you will use to cut out
actors from.
*/SCENES - All scenes will be saved in this directory.
*/ACTORS - All actors will be saved in this directory.
*/MOVIES - Save your movie files in this directory.
*/SOUNDSMITH - Save your soundsmith songs and wave files in this directory.
The following outlines the general process you follow to create a movie.
1. Envision in your mind what you want the scene to look like. THIS IS VERY
IMPORTANT! You must know exactly how your scene will fit together before
you create it. This is because SAP works well when you create your
scene going forward, but if you have to jump around and do a lot of
editing, then SAP becomes EXTREMELY difficult to work with. In the future
I plan to implement cut and paste features which will make things much
easier.
2. Create shots of your actors and background picture with your favorite
paint program. I did not include a paint program with SAP since there
are already so many good paint programs on the market, such as Dream
Graphix (stick to 16 color palette though).
Make sure that the background color in your actor picture is color 0.
This is normally black. Color 0 will always be "transparent," that is,
any color in the background picture will "show through" color 0 in an
actor.
3. Using the ACTOREDIT program, chop out your actors from the $C0 picture
and save them on the disk in actor format.
4. Using the SCENEEDIT program, put together your actors and sounds onto
a background picture. This takes the most work. Save your scene.
5. Repeat steps 1-4 to create more scenes.
6. Using a text editor, create a file with the name of the scenes you wish
to play in your movie in the order that you want the scenes to appear.
Make the last line "0" to make the movie end, or make it "1" to make the
movie loop. Save this file in the MOVIES directory. If you name the
movie file "AUTORUN" then this movie will automatically run when the
PROJECTOR program is launched.
7. Use the PROJECTOR program to play back your movie.
==============================================================================
SAP Tutorial
==============================================================================
This tutorial will walk you through the creation of some simple scenes. It
should give you a good idea of how to create your own movies. I advise you
to print out this section and follow along with the program as you read.
First, let's make a ball bounce on the screen.
To get an idea of what is going on, the best place to start is not with the
SAP programs, but with your paint program. So if you own a hard drive,
then after you copy all the SAP files to the hard disk, launch your favorite
paint program.
1. Create Your Actors
Normally, you will have to create your own actors in the paint program.
However, I have already saved some for you on the disk. Open up the
picture called "TUTORIAL.PIC" in the */SAP/PICTURES directory.
You should see two circles with the centers colored black, and several figures
of a running man. Each figure will become what I call a "shot" of an "actor."
What normally happens is that you create your actors with your paint program,
and then you will cut out the actor from the picture for use in SAP. Later
we will make the man run across the screen by showing consecutive shots of
the actor, one after the other, and it will look like he is running.
After you've checked out the picture, take a look at the palette. Notice that
there are TWO blacks! Why is this? Well, the first (color #0, the black on
the far left of the palette) is TRANSPARENT in SAP. That is, any background
colors will "show through" color #0 in any actor. All other colors will be
copied directly to the screen. This means that the other black, which is not
color #0, won't have the background show through.
The red circle is filled in with color #0 in the center. When this is animated
on the screen, it will look like it has a "hole" in the middle.
The blue circle is filled in with a different color black (not #0) in the
center. When this is animated on the screen, it won't have a hole but instead
a center colored black.
If this is unclear, it will make more sense when we animate the circles on
the screen.
You should make sure that the background color of the picture you are going
to cut the actors from is color #0. If it is not then you may get funny
looking rectangular shapes in your animations.
2. Cut Out Your Actors
Now, exit your paint program and launch the file ACTOREDIT. After it has
finished loading you should see a mousetext screen with several numbered
options.
Choose option 1), Load Picture, by pressing "1". Another screen will show
the directory of file names in the SAP/PICTURES directory. Use the arrow keys
to select the file named "TUTORIAL.PIC" and press return.
The picture will load and be displayed on the screen. Click the mouse
or press any key to make the picture go away and you will be returned to
the main menu.
At the bottom of the screen should be displayed "shot : 0 (empty)". This
means that shot 0 is empty; you have no current shots.
Choose option 3), Cut Actor From Picture. A message will be displayed about
selecting the upper left corner of the actor. Click the mouse or press any
key to make this message disappear. Now, move the mouse. You should see a
pair of crosshairs move on the screen in tune with your mouse. Notice that
you can only move the crosshairs by two pixels in the horizontal direction -
more on this later. Move the crosshairs to the upper left corner of the
red circle. You can only cut out rectangular areas, so make sure that the
red circle is below and to the right of the white lines. Click the mouse
once when you have maneuvered to the right point. Only click once! DO NOT
hold down the mouse button and attempt to drag. You only click once!
Now, when you move the mouse, a rectangular box will grow or shrink. Move
the box until it contains the entire red circle, and click the mouse. Try to
get as close to the circle as possible; the smaller your selected area, the
faster SAP will run and the more memory and disk space you save. The area
under the white lines will also be included as part of your actor. Finally,
you will be shown another message box about saving or discarding your
selection. Click or press a key to make the message go away. Now, if you
are satisfied with your selection, click the mouse. If you messed up and want
to try again, press the spacebar and your selection will not be saved.
You will be returned to the main menu. If you clicked the mouse to save the
shot, the bottom of the screen should now say "shot : 1 (empty)". Shot 0 now
contains the red circle.
Repeat the previous step, but this time select the blue circle instead of the
red circle.
The main menu should now display "shot : 2 (empty)" at the bottom. You may
use the left and right arrow keys to move between the currently selected shot.
For example, if you move back to shot 0 and press "4" for Delete, the red
circle will be deleted and shot 1 (the blue circle) will become shot 0.
However, don't delete anything right now!
Instead, let's see what you've done so far. Press "6" to view the current
actor. A message box will be displayed instructing you to use the left and
right arrow keys. Press any key or click the mouse to make the message go
away. You should now see the current shot in the upper left corner of the
screen. Use the arrow keys to move among your different shots. In the lower
right corner of the screen, the current shot number will be displayed. Press
spacebar to return to the main menu
Notice that the shots are superimposed on the old display screen. If you like,
you can clear the SHR screen to color #0 by pressing "8", and then try viewing
the shots again with option "6".
Congratulations! You have just created an actor composed of two shots, a red
circle and a blue circle. This actor could very well have included shots of
the running man as well, but it usually makes more sense to save this as a
different actor.
To save this actor, select option 7. You'll be asked for a filename for your
actor (it must be less than 15 characters) and it will be saved in the ACTORS
directory. Type "CIRCLES" for the actor filename, and press return.
Before moving on to the scene editor, lets also cut out shots of the running
man while we are in the ACTOREDIT program.
If you have cleared the screen, then once again use the load option "1" to
load in the picture "TUTORIAL.PIC". Now, this time you won't have to cut
out each shot from the picture like you did for the circles. I've already
done some of the work for you! I've chopped out 6 of the 8 shots and saved
it to disk. It's up to you to cut out the rest.
To load in the saved actor, press "2". The file menu will come up and show
a directory of all files in the ACTORS directory. Use the arrows to select
the file named "RUNNER" and press return.
Take a look at the actor you've loaded by pressing "6", View Actor. Use the
left and right arrow keys to toggle among the different shots. When you are
finished, press spacebar to return to the main menu.
Now, the bottom of the screen should read "current shot : 0". If you cut
from the picture into the current shot, you will erase whatever is in shot 0
now. Press the right arrow key six times until the screen reads,
"current shot : 6 (empty)". At this point, whatever we cut will be placed in
the sixth slot, which is now empty.
Next, use option "3" to cut the shot from the picture. The running man you
want to select is in the right hand column and three rows down from the top.
Cut this actor out into shot #6. Repeat the process and cut out the man
in the lower right hand corner into shot #7.
Once you have finished, you man again use the View Actor option to make sure
everything looks okay. If it does, then congratulations! Save this actor
(with option 7) and call the file "RUNNER.2".
If something went wrong, then use the left and right arrow keys on the main
menu to select the shot which is messed up, press "4" to delete that shot, and
try cutting from the picture again into that shot.
You may use this process whenever you want to edit an actor which you have
already created and saved on disk.
3. Create the Scene
Next, we will do the fun (and hardest) part - creating the animation! If you
are still in the ACTOREDIT program, type "9" to quit. Now, run the
SCENEEDIT program.
Once the program loads, you should be presented with a screen similar to the
main menu of the ACTOREDIT program. The first thing you should do is type
"1" to load a background screen for your scene.
After choosing option 1, you will again be presented with the directory of
pictures. Choose the picture called "STUFF". This is a fairly simple picture
with a bunch of boxes and lines all over the place.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Make certain that the background picture and the picture that
you created your actors in (in this case, "TUTORIAL.PIC") SHARE THE SAME
PALETTE. If they do not, your actors will be the wrong color when animated on
the screen! The program will use the palette stored with the background
picture as the colors to use when drawing the actors.
Now, we need to load in an actor. Type "2" to load in a saved actor. You will
be presented with a list of filenames; these are the actors which you saved
from the ACTOREDIT program. Select the "CIRCLES" actor. When you are
returned to the main menu, you'll see the "CIRCLES" displayed in the upper
right hand corner showing that this actor has successfully been loaded.
Okay, you've loaded a background picture and an actor - the minimum
requirements to begin shooting a scene - so lets start! Type "6" to shoot
the scene and begin the adventure.
The graphics screen will come up and display a picture with a lot of lines and
some boxes. This is the picture "STUFF" that you loaded for your background.
In the lower right hand corner is the number "0000". This is the current
frame. Frame 0 is the first frame. At this point, you may get a list of
commands by typing "?". Do it now. A somewhat imposing list of commands will
be displayed on the screen. Take a look at them, and see if it makes sense.
If it does, then great! If not, they will make sense shortly, so don't panic
or give up hope. When finished, press a key to return to the graphics screen.
The first thing you need to do is C)ast an actor. Type "C" now. This will add
a new actor to the current frame. You should see your red circle in the upper
left hand corner. Move the mouse - the red circle will move along with the
mouse. You can use the mouse to place the circle wherever you want on the
screen. Try moving it off the screen - the circle will be "clipped" so you
can have actors smoothly cruise off any edge of the screen.
Notice that the red circle appears to have a hole in the middle! The
background shows through. This is because you filled the center with color #0,
the transparent color. Let's switch to the other circle, the blue one, which
was not filled with color #0. To switch to the next shot of the current
actor, press the up or down arrow. Since you only have two shots, the up and
down arrow will "toggle" between the blue and the red circle. With the blue
circle activated, try moving it with the mouse. You'll notice that the
center is filled in black, and the background does not show through. Recall
that earlier, the circles were filled in with different numbered blacks.
Switch back to the red circle, and move it to the middle of the left hand side
of the screen. Now, watch the number in the lower right hand corner of the
screen and click the mouse or press return (they both do the same thing).
What happened? The number should have turned into 0001, but aside from that,
nothing else should have changed on the screen.
However, something did happen! A new frame, frame 0001, was created, and frame
0000 was copied into frame 0001. Then, you were moved to frame 1. Since the
previous frame was copied into this frame, the location of the actors is
identical and everything looks the same. However, if you change the location
of the circle, you'll be able to see the difference.
With the mouse, move the circle a couple of centimeters to the right and a
couple of centimeters down.
Press the left arrow. This takes you back one frame, to frame 0000. The ball
is back in its original position. Press the right arrow to bring you back to
frame 0001. The ball moves slightly to the new position.
Make sure you are in frame 0001, and press return or click the mouse. Now,
frame 0002 is created and frame 0001 is copied into frame 0002. We want to
move the ball diagonally down again, but as you may have noticed, sometimes it
is hard to make precise control with the mouse. In this case, you can use
the keyboard for "fine tuning." The 8,4,6,and 2 keys move the circle just
slightly in the respective direction on the numeric keypad. The W,A,S, and D
keys move it a little more. Try pressing "D" twice and "S" twice to move the
circle diagonally down and to the right.
Repeat the process until the circle reaches the bottom of the screen.
Let's take a look at what you've done. Type ESC to quit back to the main
menu, and then type "P" for the scene projector. You should see the red
circle slide over toward the bottom of the screen! Press any key to return
to the main menu when it is over.
Time to add a little more to the animation. How about we make the circle
"bounce" back up, diagonally and to the right. From the main menu, type "6"
to return to the "shoot scene" portion of the program.
You can use the arrow keys to move to the last frame, but it is easier to use
the "J)ump" command. Type "J" and then "L" for last frame, and the program
will jump to the last frame you created.
You may want to check the previous (second to last) frame to see if it is
identical to the last frame. It is common to have the last frame repeated
twice, if you pressed return but didn't change anything. If the last frame
is the same as the previous frame, then move to the last frame. If not, then
go to the last frame and press return to create a new frame.
Now, press the up arrow key to switch to the blue circle. Press the "D" key
twice and the "W" key twice to move the circle right and up.
Repeat the process, creating new frames and moving the circle up and to the
right until it goes off the edge of the screen. When you're done, press ESC
to return to the main menu.
Choose an intro effect for your scene by pressing "7". Choose any option
you like. Do the same for the exit effect by pressing "8".
View your creation through the projector, "P"!
Assuming everything looks okay, save your scene via the save scene option, "5".
Call the scene "CIRCLE.BOUNCE"
4. More Advanced Scenes
The last scene you created contained only one actor. This time, lets make a
new scene with three actors and we'll also add some sound. We'll use the
circles in addition to the runner.
Currently, there is no clean way to wipe out the current scene from memory,
so you should use one of the following methods:
1) Quit the sceneeditor and re-run it
2) Select "4" to load a saved scene, but instead of choosing a scene
press ESC to abort. The current scene will be erased, except for the
background picture.
Use one of the above techniques to start fresh. Using the commands you have
previously learned, load in the background picture "STUFF", the actor
"CIRCLES", and finally the actor "RUNNER".
Additionally, use option "3" to load a digitized sound. The familiar screen
of file names will appear. Select the sound "NICESOFTWARE". When prompted
for the playback speed, type in "200". The playback speed determines how
fast the sound will be played back; 1000 would be quick, and 10 very slow.
Of course, this all depends on the original digitization frequency.
Type "6" to begin shooting the scene. Type "C" to cast a new actor; you
should see the red circle in the upper left hand corner. Move the circle
to the middle of the screen. Type "C" again to cast another actor. Another
red circle will appear. Now, type "N" to change this actor to a new one -
in this case, the runner. The runner should appear in the spot where the
red circle was. If you type "N" again, it will change to the next actor,
which would make it turn into the red circle again. For now, leave it as
the runner and move it just to the left of the red circle. Type "C" one more
time to cast yet another actor. Another red circle will appear. Type the
up arrow to change the red circle to a blue circle. You have changed the
shot to a different one, but you haven't changed the actor. Move the blue
circle to the right of the red circle.
Okay, right now you should have the runner on the left, and right next to it a
red circle and then to the right of it a blue circle. You are going to make
the runner run across both of these circles and you will see a very interesting
thing.
As you've noticed, you can only control one actor on the screen at a time.
To select a different actor, press the spacebar. The newly selected actor
will blink for a moment so you know which one it is. Press the spacebar until
the runner is the selected actor.
Press return to create a new frame. Frame 0000 will be copied into the new
frame, frame 0001. The runner should still be the selected actor. We're
going to try and make him run to the right. The trick is to watch the feet.
You want the feet to line up as we switch to the next shot of the runner.
So, with your eyes on the feet, press the up arrow key to change the runner to
the next shot. Now, use the "D" or "6" key to move the runner slightly to
the right so that the feet are near to where they used to be, but the runner
is still moving towards the right.
Repeat the process until the runner has moved to the right side of the screen.
The basic procedure is:
Press return to copy/create a new frame
Press up-arrow to switch to the next shot
Use the A,D,4,6 keys to position the runner a little to the right of
the previous position
While moving the runner, it may appear that the runner goes over the red
circle and over the blue circle. However, when using the projector, this
will not be the case! In the editor, the selected actor (in this case, the
runner) is always brought to the foreground. In the projector, ACTORS ARE
DRAWN IN THE ORDER THEY WERE CAST. This means that the runner will run
OVER the red circle, since the runner was cast AFTER the red circle. However,
the runner will run BEHIND the blue circle, since the blue circle was cast
AFTER the runner. See for yourself! Press ESC to exit the editor, and
type "P" to view the projection. The runner will move over the red, but
behind the blue. This can be a very useful tool in making actors appear
to go behind or over things.
Once this has been understood, return to the main menu and back to shooting
your scene, option "6". We also want to add some sound in here. Lets make it
start at frame 5. Use the J)ump command to get there, or press the right
arrow 5 times to get to frame 5. Next type "P" for "Play Sound". You will be
presented with all of the loaded sounds; since you've only loaded one, choose
sound 1. Now, when frame 5 comes up, the sound will play! Try it out.
Press ESC to go back to the main menu, and run the projector again to check it
out.
Of course, it is also possible to animate more than one actor simultaneously.
From the main menu, select option 6, and use the J)ump command to jump to the
last frame. Move the selected actor to some random spot on the scene. Press
spacebar to select the next actor. Move it to some other random spot. Press
return to create a new frame. Repeat the process - move the actor to some
random spot, press space to select a new actor, and move it to some random
spot, etc. Now, when this is played, after the man runs across the screen
you should see actors pop up at various locations on the screen. You can also
edit existing frames by going there with the arrow keys or the jump command,
selecting the actor you want, and moving it. When you leave the frame, any
changes you have made will be saved.
Feel free to play around some more with the scene; when you are finished with
your creation, add some intro and exit effects, and save this scene under
the name "RUNNER.CIR".
5. The Projector
The final step is making a movie. A movie is merely the linking together of
various scenes. We'll make a miniature movie consisting of your first scene,
the circle bouncing around, and the second scene, the man running across it.
To do this you will need to enter your text editor. The proterm editor, Orca
editor, or any word processor will do (as long as you save the file as text).
Run your word processor and enter the following:
CIRCLE.BOUNCE
RUNNER.CIR
0
END
Save this file in the */MOVIES directory under the filename "TUTOR.SAP". What
will this do? As you might guess, it will first run the scene named
"CIRCLE.BOUNCE" and then the scene named "RUNNER.CIR". These are the names
that you used to save your previous scenes. The "0" means that the projector
should quit after running the scene "RUNNER.CIR". If you had used a "1"
instead, then the projector will re-loop the entire movie. The last line
should always contain the word "END".
As another example, if you had instead created the following movie file:
CIRCLE.BOUNCE
CIRCLE.BOUNCE
RUNNER.CIR
1
END
Then upon running the movie, you would see the circle bounce scene twice, the
runner, and then the whole thing would repeat indefinitely until ESC is pressed
to abort the movie.
To run your movie, launch the PROJECTOR file. The familiar file menu will
appear. Simply select the movie you've just created "TUTOR.SAP" and it will
run. Abort at any time by pressing ESCAPE. Any other key will pause the movie
at the current frame until another key is pressed.
6. Copying Movies To A Floppy
If you wish to copy your creation onto a self-contained floppy disk, there
are a few things you need to do.
First, create the subdirectories PICTURES, SOUNDS, MOVIES, SCENES, ACTORS,
SOUNDSMITH, and SAP.DATA on the root directory of the floppy disk.
Copy the PROJECTOR program onto the root directory of the floppy.
Copy the TOOL219 tool onto the root directory of the floppy.
From your SAP disk, copy the file "FILEDIR.SCR" from the */SAP.DATA directory
to the SAP.DATA directory of the floppy.
Copy all the necessary files from the PICTURES, SOUNDS, MOVIES, SCENES, ACTORS,
and SOUNDSMITH directories to their respective directories on the floppy.
Thats it - upon running the PROJECTOR program, your movie should run.
If you want the PROJECTOR program to automatically run your movie, then
rename your movie file to "AUTORUN". When the projector program is first
run, it initially looks for this file. If found, it will run it. If not,
it will bring up the directory of movie files.
That is all for the tutorial - experiment, and have fun!
If you have problems, look at the "DEMO1" and "DEMO2" scenes and "DEMO.SAP"
movie. These are finished examples of what you might get after using the
tutorial.
==============================================================================
SAP SCENEEDITOR Command Reference
==============================================================================
The most complicated commands are in the SCENEEDITOR while shooting the scene.
The following is a command summary.
C - Cast new actor on the screen. This creates a new actor and adds it to
the current frame. You may not have more than 15 actors on the
screen simultaneously.
N - Changes the currently selected actor to the next loaded actor.
SP - Spacebar selects a different actor on the screen.
Up - Up Arrow switches to the next shot of the currently selected actor.
Dwn - Down Arrow switches to the previous shot of the currently selected actor.
R - Remove the currently selected actor from the frame.
I - Insert new frame in front of the current frame. The current frame
is copied to this new frame.
K - Delete the entire current frame.
J - Jump to a different frame.
<- - Left arrow moves to the previous frame.
-> - Right arrow moves to the next frame.
CR - Creates a new frame if currently on the last frame. Otherwise,
it moves to the next frame (same as right arrow). Clicking the
mouse has the same effect.
P - Play a loaded digitized sound
O - Other options to take effect on the current frame
- Turn off transwarp/zip chip for speed dependent animation.
This is useful if animating in tune with music or sound, so
everything will be synchronized for those with and without
accelerators.
- Wait for a key to be pressed.
- Pause for a certain amount of time. This time is based on the GS's
clock, so it doesn't matter of an accelerator is running.
- Soundsmith options
- Screen Transitions
A,W,S,D - Move the actor by 4,4,4,4 pixels in the specified direction.
4,8,2,6 - Move the actor by 2,1,1,2 pixels in the specified direction.
==============================================================================
SAP Limitations
==============================================================================
Maximum of:
15 shots per actor. If you have an actor that needs more shots,
you'll need to split it up into several different actors.
A single shot of an actor cannot be bigger than half the screen.
Maximum of 20 actors on the screen at once. This means you can only
use the "C"ast command a maximum of 20 times for one frame.
Maximum of 15 actors may be loaded at one time in the SCENEEDIT program.
Maximum of 5 digitized sounds per scene.
Maximum of 200K combined sound per scene. The combined memory of the
5 allowable digitized sounds must not exceed 200K or great chaos shall
erupt.
Perhaps the greatest limitation is in moving/cutting out the actors. You may
notice that in moving horizontally, you can't move by 1 pixel. You have to
move 2 pixels at a time. This can be a problem if you have an actor you would
like to line up with something on the background, but you can't do it because
you will be off by 1 pixel. In this case, you'll have to edit your background
with a paint program and move the background over 1 pixel. The reason for
this is that SAP uses byte addressing, whereas each byte contains two pixels
of color.
Speed - SAP is kind of slow.
==============================================================================
SAP Comments and Addendum
==============================================================================
Despite stack screen updating, SAP can still be slow due to a large amount
of overhead and C code. You can do the following to increase speed:
1) Keep actors small.
2) Keep actors close together. In particular, keeping the vertical distance
between actors will speed things up. Two men, running horizontally on
the top and bottom of the screen will be slower than two men running
horizontally one right on top of the other.
Additionally, I am aware of the following additions which need to be made:
1) Cut and Paste features in the Sceneeditor. This will make it
much easier to do editing.
2) Ability to remove actors and sounds in the sceneeditor. Currently
you have to erase everything and start all over even if you want to
just delete an actor or sound.
3) A built-in editor for the projector, so you don't need to load up
your text editor.
4) General improvements to the user interface.
5) Perhaps a simple paint program in the ACTOREDIT program to make quick
and minor adjustments.
When System 6.0 and Apple's animation toolset comes out, I may rewrite SAP
using the new tools.
==============================================================================
Please give me feedback about this program! If I don't get much response,
then I WON'T WRITE ANY NEW VERSION. This may sound familiar - I had done
the same thing with Columns Beta and Columns 1.0. However, the response to
both was very positive and I continued to work on Columns 2.0. SAP can also
grow, but it won't if nobody cares for it.
You may freely distribute this program, but if you create anything I'd like
to see it.
I may be contacted at:
Kenrick Mock ; at this address until September, 1991
540 Canyon Woods Cir, #110
San Ramon, CA 94583
Kenrick Mock ; at this address after September, 1991
2300 Sycamore Lane, #18
Davis, CA 95616
GEnie: K.MOCK
Net : mock@iris.eecs.ucdavis.edu or mock@alderon.lanl.gov
BBS : Infinity's Edge: 415-820-9401, user #68
Altered Apple : 916-737-1235, user #15
Talisman : 612-332-8876, user #46
UOP : 415-991-4832, user #53
SAP is written in Orca/C and Orca/M (c) Byte Works, with various routines
utilizing the 360 text toolkit (c) 360 Microsystems and Tool219 (c) FTA
for Soundsmith.
Reference in New Issue View Git Blame Copy Permalink