Vcel (Demo Version) Welcome to the Vcel demo. Vcel requires atleast 1 megabyte of memory and a color monitor. This demo is a usable but handicapped version of the Vcel animation program. Remember those animations from Monty Python's Flying Circus? Now we can make animations just like those on our ATARI STs. But Vcel is not limited to that quality of animation. The human simulations created with Vcel are incredible (compile the demo animation to see for yourself). By feeding the program one picture of body parts, Vcel can reconstruct the body for us and allow us to animate it with ease. Once you compile the animation you will swear that you are looking at videotape (or atleast digitized video). If you would like to see a sample of what Vcel can produce, then send me $15, and I will send you a video tape containing a Vcel animation put to music (soundtrack by Procol Harum). If you order Vcel before September 1, 1990, you will recieve $25 off the retail price. The following is a short hint at the documentation, to get you started. First Session: VOCABULARY USED LC - Left-click. Press and release the left mouse button. RC - Right-click. Press and release the right mouse button. Drag - Press and hold mouse button while moving the mouse. Button - Refers to a box containing text. Select - LC on a button, to do something. Vcel should be simple enough to use right away. The steps we will take, to create an animation are as follows: 1 Load actor 2 Setup frames with rotate 3 Compile to memory 4 Watch animation To run Vcel, double-click on the file VCELDEMO.PRG from the desktop. You may run Vcel from either low or medium resolution (running from medium resolution causes the cursor to wrap around slightly on the right edge of the screen). Once Vcel is running, select the 'Load' button. From the load menu, select the large 'Load' button. From the file selector, LC on the file 'ERIK_1.ZDV' and then click on OK. Once the file has been loaded, we will be returned to the load menu. From the load menu, select the Main Menu button. At this point, we should be back at the main menu. Select the Rotate button. In about half a second, your Atari ST will draw a digitized rendition of Vcel's creator (yes, that's really me). This screen is called the work screen, because from here we do all actor rotations and movements. The status line at the top of the screen tells us all we need to know, and allows us to switch between variations of rotating and moving. The current settings should read Rotate Part. LC on Erik's upper arm to select it. Once selected, a ghost version of Erik's arm rotates as you move the cursor. Rotate the arm to a new position, and LC again to redraw the image (or RC to abort the rotation). The number in the lower right corner of the screen tells us that we are working on key frame #1. Press the insert key on the keyboard, to insert a new frame. Now that we are on key frame #2, move Erik into a new position by rotating more body parts. To move back and forth between frames, use the left and right arrow keys. As soon as frames 1 and 2 are different, we can compile and animation and watch it. RC to exit the work screen. From the main menu, select the Compile button. The current settings should serve our needs just fine, so select the oversized Compile button, to get the process started. Vcel is now drawing our key frames and inserting inbetween frames. The final animation sequence is being stored in memory. Once the compile is complete, select the Watch Menu button. Select the large Watch button, to view our animation. What Vcel can do Listed above are instructions on how to create your first animation with Vcel. Mess around with the other options to see if you can figure them out (you must buy Vcel to receive full documentation). By the way, the blue boxes on the main menu are scrollable windows. To scroll a window, drag it up or down with the right mouse button. If you want to rotate a part that is hidden, try left clicking on its name from the main menu. The following paragraphs describe what Vcel is capable of (including functions disabled in the demo version). In addition to rotating parts you can move them as well. By moving I mean grabbing a part and moving it elsewhere. When moving parts you can choose to either have the joint follow the part, or remain where it was. The Tween option allows you to average actions over a number of frames. For example, if the actor has his/her arm pointing to the ground in frame #1, and pointing toward the sky in frame #4, selecting tween will make the arm move smoothly from frame #1 to frame #4. Building actors is a relatively simple process. To build an actor, you load in a picture, and cut images out of it. Once you have a bunch of images, then you connect them together to form your actor. Actor disks will be available soon so that you can use premade actors in your own animations. The compile menu has many options, allowing you to choose a range of frames to compile, compile to disk and/or memory, dithering, and the number of inbetween frames. From the compile menu you may also go to the size menu and the watch menu. The size menu is where you choose the magnification value for your animation. If you change the size to a value below full size then the animation you create will be reduced in size before it is combined with the background. Because Vcel uses pixel averaging when it shrinks each frame, the actors are very clean (no jagged edges), and blend in very well with the background. By using this micro animating Vcel produces its best results. Vcel can create semi-transparent images when micro animating. Size one-half allows for 5 levels of transparency, size one-quarter allow for 17 levels, while size one-eighth allows for 65 levels of transparency. The watch menu is where you go to watch your animations. From this menu you can watch an animation that is in memory, or load one into memory from disk. Vcel uses the delta format used by Antic Software's Cyber line (Cyber Studio and Cyber Paint). The pick button on the main menu allows you to toggle the visibility of parts and actors. The frame stop button toggles to decide whether changes made will affect the current frame only, or all frames that follow the current frame as well. Compiling the demo animation Included in this archive is a file named 'DEMO.ZDV' which is a short demo showing a little bit of what Vcel can do. When you load in the demo file, the background picture (A:DEMOBACK.PC1) will load in automatically. If the file is not located on drive A then you must load in the background picture using the Load Background button found on the load menu. Once compiled, the entire animation takes about 700K. A 1040ST cannot hold the entire animation in memory while Vcel is running (use the PD animation viewer ANIMATE4.PRG). The demo file is currently set up to compile only frames 155 to 200 (under 200K), which will fit in a 1040ST while the program is running. Order Vcel before September 1, 1990 and save $25 off the retail price of $59.95 (bulk orders save even more). To order the complete version of Vcel (all buttons activated plus complete documentation), just send $34.95 + $2 shipping, to the address listed on the info page (select the Info button from the main menu). If you would like to order the Vcel Demo Tape, then send $15 to the same address. The Demo is a complete animation on a VHS video tape synced to music by Procol Harum (a good intrumental piece). If you get a group of friends together to order in bulk (save $$$ for orders of 5 or more) then by sending the names and addresses of all those involved will allow me to register everyone right away (no need to send in registration cards). In the near future (once Vcel takes off) actor disks will be available giving you a plethora of actors you can use instantly in your own animations.