#138779 - masscat - Wed Aug 29, 2007 12:46 am
I have noticed a problem with the file writing on hardware (R4 and GBAMP) which can lead to films becoming corrupted and failing to load. I am working on the problem and in the mean time version 0.1 has been retired and is no longer available.
FlickBook is a cell animation toy. You can get it from here.
See the FlickBook webpage for more information.
The rest of this post is left for historic reasons, with the links changed to the webpage.
Here is a jpg giving a indication of what the buttons do.
Other controls:
You can move the drawing area and tool windows by holding 'down' on the D-pad or 'B' and then dragging the area around with the stylus.
You can zoom in and out of the drawing area by holding 'up' on the D-pad or 'X' and then dragging up and down with the stylus.
You can scroll through the animation frames by holding one of the shoulder buttons and dragging left and right with the stylus.
Java AVI export application now available. You can get it from here.
Run from the command line as:
| Code: |
| java -jar FlickbookAnimMaker_0_1.jar |
Or maybe by double clicking/right clicking the jar file.
To use:
From the FlickBook directory on your DLDI device, copy the film_? directory of choice onto your PC.
Select "File->Load film" and open the flickbook.xml from the film_? directory you just copied.
You will be presented with a Set frame bmp directory dialog. Select the directory that contains the frame .bmp files (this will be the layer_0 directory if you have not changed anything).
You can now preview the film at full speed (12 frames/s) and half speed.
To export the film as an AVI file select "Export->Export AVI". NOTE: if the half speed checkbox is selected the generated AVI file will run at 6 frames per second otherwise it will run at 12 frames per second.
The generated AVI files are fairly large (about 1.1MiB per second), this is because they are uncompressed 24bits colour. So you may want to convert them to a compressed format for distribution.
Enjoy
Last edited by masscat on Fri Aug 31, 2007 8:11 pm; edited 3 times in total
#138780 - DekuTree64 - Wed Aug 29, 2007 1:01 am
Dang it, I'm like 75% done with an app just like this :P
Except mine is called flipbook. But I wasn't really happy with the name anyway, so I'll try to think of something that will cause less confusion.
I'm at work though, so I won't be able to try this one for a couple more hours. But the interface sounds pretty nice.
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The best optimization is to do nothing at all.
Therefore a fully optimized program doesn't exist.
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#138781 - bigleak2 - Wed Aug 29, 2007 1:03 am
Call it bookflipper lol.
#138782 - battleroyalex - Wed Aug 29, 2007 1:12 am
this is a great idea but is there a way to save the animations? Its alot of work to just make something like that and then trash it
#138809 - OOPMan - Wed Aug 29, 2007 9:15 am
| battleroyalex wrote: |
| this is a great idea but is there a way to save the animations? Its alot of work to just make something like that and then trash it |
Read more....
Masscat said...
| Quote: |
| I will post a Java application to convert the FlickBook animations into AVI files within the next few days. |
Question answered?
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#138821 - masscat - Wed Aug 29, 2007 11:32 am
| battleroyalex wrote: |
| this is a great idea but is there a way to save the animations? Its alot of work to just make something like that and then trash it |
The animations are saved on your DLDI card.
A 'Flickbook' directory is created which contains a directory for each film you create ('film_a', 'film_b', etc.). Each of these directories contain a 'flickbook.xml' file and a 'layer_0' directory.
The 'layer_0' directory contains the .bmp files that make up the individual frames.
The 'flickbook.xml' describes the order of the .bmp files to make up the film.
NOTE: it is important to save and close the film (button in the bottom right) before powering off your DS to ensure that the film is safely saved to your DLDI card. There is a warning message stating this on the top screen.
If you are talking about saving the animations to play elsewhere then, as OOPMan said, I am producing a Java application that takes the 'flickbook.xml' file and .bmp files and exports an uncompressed avi file which should play most places.
DekuTree64:
There was a thread from somebody producing another animation tool too. Great minds and all that :)
According to wikipedia 'flick book' is more used in British English and 'flip book' in other forms. You say tomato, I say tomato (works well when typed).
#138839 - AaronBlood10 - Wed Aug 29, 2007 6:37 pm
Holy cow! Masscat, we do think quite alike. I was actually thinking about making a java application to convert animations. Crazy, crazy...
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#138845 - muchachotron - Wed Aug 29, 2007 7:40 pm
everybody keep on developing your ds animation apps! don't be discouraged because someone else is working on one. they will all have unique tendencies and attributes, and everybody will have their favorite.
on developing the post feature for converting the animation file, please make it cross-platform if possible. i use a mac.
#138847 - pas - Wed Aug 29, 2007 7:52 pm
Hmm... good to see you're working on a animation tool, here are some Ideas/Suggestions:
- Please, make it more userfriendly... it should be easier to push/press those buttons, it really is a pain in the ... to push these tiny buttons, (I need to push them twice with my stylus to get them working most of the time)
- Maybe try to make it easier to copy the last animation into the current window.
- Implement a filler tool ?
- Implement an Eraser ? (I know, using the colour white and the full brush size I can erase, but I just prefer to be able to have an Eraser in my range ^^)
- I also hope that you could implement more colours and a way to export/import the drawings as a animated gif (my favorite drawing app)
Ah ! and, did you ever draw a Pictomaticon using the DS's internal Pictochat ? Having icons letters and numbers to drag into the drawing is very useful and easy !
I'm happy to see someone working on something, we all (kinda ^^) waited for, I hope you will update this app, and, don't think about my Request's too hard, I just want to post them here so I don't have to remember them and so you can see them.
Greets:
Pas
Last edited by pas on Wed Aug 29, 2007 9:54 pm; edited 2 times in total
#138848 - DekuTree64 - Wed Aug 29, 2007 7:59 pm
| masscat wrote: |
DekuTree64:
There was a thread from somebody producing another animation tool too. Great minds and all that :) |
Yeah, between that and Colors, it got me thinking about the good old days of making cartoons with mario paint and a VCR, and an old DOS program called animagician that my siblings and I did some pretty cool stuff with.
| muchachotron wrote: |
| everybody keep on developing your ds animation apps! don't be discouraged because someone else is working on one. they will all have unique tendencies and attributes, and everybody will have their favorite. |
Yeah, I actually think it's really cool having a bunch of them going on at once. It will be interesting to compare interface designs, and see how each one could be made better.
Yours is looking pretty cool, masscat. Playing back an animation with onion skinning turned on is fun
_________________
___________
The best optimization is to do nothing at all.
Therefore a fully optimized program doesn't exist.
-Deku
#138907 - masscat - Thu Aug 30, 2007 4:06 pm
The Java AVI export application is now available (see the first post of thread). The app runs fine for me under Linux and Windows (cannot test Mac).
The generated avi files play fine under Window Media Player 9 and MPlayer. Xine sometimes does not play the last few frames - not sure if the generated AVI is malformed or Xine is doing something strange.
pas:
Some of the lack of button responsiveness is due, I believe, to stylus jumping (also causes the occasional stray line whilst drawing) leading to the button press being ignored. You may get better results if you make a definite press when selecting a button. I will try I filter these jump in software and see if that helps.
The GUI is a balance between screen space and number of function needed to be represented. I may try increasing the tool button size but add the ability to hide some or all of the tool windows.
The can copy the entire frame using the "copy all" button. If you want to copy something, say a background, to all frames then this is a bit cumbersome. I am thinking to allowing a layer's contents to span a number of frames when I implement layers.
I have not decided how I am going to implement adding colour to the animations (and the tools associated with that). Maybe separating the colour work from the line work - a colour layer behind a black layer or similar. The only reason for the red and blue colours is that there is no support for 2 colour textures on the NDS otherwise it would have black and white only.
#138911 - laos - Thu Aug 30, 2007 4:37 pm
pretty interesting for cell animation, however it takes a bit of work, and would be fun to show friends what you make with two stick figures beating each other up :P
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#138920 - tepples - Thu Aug 30, 2007 7:39 pm
| masscat wrote: |
The Java AVI export application is now available (see the first post of thread). The app runs fine for me under Linux and Windows (cannot test Mac).
The generated avi files play fine under Window Media Player 9 and MPlayer. |
Do they load correctly in VirtualDub? I like to run MPEG or AVI files through VirtualDub to "sanitize" and recompress them before making them public. If not, at least you'll have error or warning messages to track down the export misbehavior.
| Quote: |
| The can copy the entire frame using the "copy all" button. If you want to copy something, say a background, to all frames then this is a bit cumbersome. I am thinking to allowing a layer's contents to span a number of frames when I implement layers. |
HyperCard for Mac did something similar. Every card had its own foreground image, controls, and script, plus a reference to a background containing additional image, controls, and script.
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#139022 - masscat - Fri Aug 31, 2007 8:10 pm
I have noticed a problem with the file writing on hardware (R4 and GBAMP) which can lead to films becoming corrupted and failing to load. I am working on the problem and in the mean time version 0.1 has been retired and is no longer available.
#139035 - masscat - Fri Aug 31, 2007 10:10 pm
Been playing around testing some more.
I found errors on both the Compact Flash of my GBAMP and the MicroSD of my R4.
After reformatting the Compact Flash, FlickBook happily creates films again. It made a 66 frame film with something drawn on each frame for example.
If anybody else has had trouble please run 'chkdsk' or similar on your memory card and report if there are errors or not.
Here is a link to version 0.1 again - FlickBook_0_1_test_only.nds (EDIT: link to 0.1 removed as it should not be used even for testing)
Please do not link to this file as it is just for testing and will be removed at some point.
If anybody is willing to test the above then the help is much appreciated. Do so only with the understanding that it may corrupt your memory card (ie backup everything). Please chkdsk your media before testing.
If FlickBook has been working well for you then please post giving details of your hardware.
EDIT: Just to show it can work sometimes.
Last edited by masscat on Sat Sep 01, 2007 10:22 pm; edited 2 times in total
#139047 - moket - Sat Sep 01, 2007 12:14 am
works nicely on my NDS lite with M3 lite SD and SANdisk Japan SD 1gig. Thanks a lot, I finally can practice everywhere :)
#139096 - masscat - Sat Sep 01, 2007 10:39 pm
Do not use version 0.1. There is at least one case when onion skinning is enabled that will lead to the film frame order becoming corrupted and you possibly loosing your film or at least any unsaved work.
If you want a version to play with before version 0.2 here is a preview of version 0.2. It has a fix for the film order corruption and bigger buttons.
Evolution of Bert
#139138 - pas - Sun Sep 02, 2007 4:52 pm
This version works fine for me, it's neat to see those new bigger buttons.
Took me quiet long to figure out that copying and pasting works by pasting, press the paste button again and then touch the cross.
BTW: Masscat, you got PM ^^
#139158 - masscat - Sun Sep 02, 2007 10:55 pm
pas:
Thanks for your suggestions and I am glad that the 0.2 preview is working for you.
Version 0.2 will be very similar to version 0.1 as far as functionality goes. The next few versions after 0.2 that will also be mainly tidying up some of the internals, for example better handling of texture memory to remove the flicker when moving between frames and accurate frame timing during playback.
Once there I will start adding features, one of which will be multiple layers. This will include some method of maintaining contents across frames.
The contents of the copy buffers are currently maintained between different films. Although they are lost when you power off.
The controls are now better explained on the Flickbook webpage.
Stickman fires an arrow