STEREOPTIC ANIMATION This example of a Stereoptic IFF {[D03,4,7] animation } will run ten times or until you press a key. You can adjust the speed by holding down one or both mouse buttons. To make a Stereoptic animation, you simply use an animation program (such as Deluxe Paint 3+) to string together a series of Stereoptic pictures. But sometimes a large number of separate pictures are required, and keeping track of them takes careful organization. Often an animation will be made up of a stationary background picture with objects moving in front of it. Instead of processing the background over and over, you can make up a 32-color Stereoptic backgound picture (with one or more planes) and save it. (See {[A10,0,7]MAIN INTERFACE}.) {[0,0,1](A)} ANIMATION SCRIPT MODE: If you press the OK button on the Main Interface Panel while the ANIM button is depressed, Animation Script Mode will start. This mode will allow you to write or execute an Animation Script, which can process any number of animation frames made up of a common stationary background picture and a changing foreground plane. The example animation was processed with this mode. Prepare for writing your script by making a drawer (directory) and putting into it a Stereoptic background picture and a number of 8-color pictures of the moving foreground object. When Animation Script Mode begins, you'll see a panel giving you the choice of writing a script, executing a script, or cancelling. (Keyboard substi- tutes: W, E, ESC.) WRITING A SCRIPT: If you choose this option, a {[A19,0,7]file requester} will appear. Select a location and type in a name for your script, then click OK. Another file requester will appear, this time to select the background picture. Select a 32-color Stereoptic picture with one or more planes. This informa- tion will be written to your script file. (When the script is executed, the background picture will be assigned to plane A.) Now you must enter information for each animation frame. A panel will appear with two buttons and a small text gadget. Type a single character (B-X) to indicate which plane the foreground picture should occupy. Then click CONT to continue or STOP to end the script. (Keyboard substitutes: RETURN, ESC.) If you continue, another file requester will appear, this time to locate the foreground picture. (All pictures in a script must be the same size and mode.) When you select a picture, it will load, and you can grab the complete picture by clicking the ALL button or use the grabber (see {[A11,0,7]PROCESSING THE ARTWORK}) to grab just part. The text gadget panel, the foreground picture file requester, and the grabber mode will then alternate for each animation frame you choose to add. When you want to stop adding frames, click STOP in the text gadget panel. You can also write or amend a script with a text editor. Be sure there aren't any blank lines or extra spaces, and save ASCII. Here's what a short script might look like (it won't be indented, and no remarks are allowed): SCRIPT EXPLANATION soas File ID code (SO Animation Script) dh2:anims/gorilla/background.3D Background picture file L Plane for frame 1 dh2:anims/gorilla/bubble1 Foreground picture file 1 291 X1 Coordinates of grabbed 181 Y1 rectangle (X2 & Y2 must be 310 X2 larger than X1 & Y1) 199 Y2 M Plane for frame 2 dh2:anims/gorilla/bubble2 Foreground picture file 2 294 169 312 188 This script would produce two frames--"bubble1.3D" and "bubble2.3D". EXECUTING A SCRIPT: Before you leave the Main Interface Panel, select the options you want (DOUBLE, WHITE, or TRANS). Then select ANIM and click OK. Choose Execute on the next screen, then use the file requester to locate your script and click OK. From now on, everything will be automatic. Each frame will be processed, and the Stereoptic frame will be saved in the same drawer with the added suffix ".3D". If you grabbed just a small part of the screen of each fore- ground picture, the progress will be rapid. A bell will sound when all the pictures have been processed and saved.