24bit IFF-animations

[JaXanim]

@Mikkihii

Take a look at MainActor or MainActorBroadcast, which I use for
LightWave animations.

These have the capability of compiling 24-bit images into anim files.
However, unless you can load the complete anim into RAM, I think
you'll get slow results no matter what hardware you've got.

MainActor v1.55 is available from Aminet I believe. This will offer
both Picasso (II) and CyberGraFX support, but I can't verify the
performance. MainActor is getting a bit long in the tooth, but I think
it's about the best the Amiga has to offer. I believe MA will suggest
you dither 24-bit images to 16-bit to get best animation results. They
are almost the same visually.

Cheers,

JaX

[JaXanim]

For HAM anims, it could be worth checking out PowerMovie from Power Computing. This is specifically written to convert HAM anims to another (proprietary) format which is supposed to run very fast.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to work on my system, but it might be worth calling Power Computing for advice. It costs around £20 IIRC.

Cheers,

JaX

[JaXanim]

@Jose

Yes, PowerMovie will only run 320x200 pixels in HAM8 or 256 colours. Any frames larger than this are reduced to that size. It's supposed to run very large anims from hd at 24 frames/sec, but I never got it to run with anything other than the 47Mb PowerAnim demo provided with the package. None of my HAM8 LightWave anims would run with it. They have to be converted into 'XFL' format first, which the software does for you.

I've just tried it out again with OS3.9 and it won't even load the PowerAnim demo. It crashes immediately I click the load button. The interface defaults to low res and looks pretty bl**dy awful. I couldn't get ModePro to work on it either.

I never saw any reports on this software other than Nick Veitch's 'glowing' review in Amiga Format when it was first released.

In brief: PowerMovie - Forget it!

Cheers,

JaX

[JaXanim]

@Mikkihii

One of the most versatile format converters is Image Studio. It will convert a whole hd full of images from 24-bit to HAM8 or other formats.

I think you need a registered copy to get the full benefit, but there's a demo on Aminet I believe.

For compiling streams of images into anims, I still say MainActor takes some beating.

Cheers,

JaX

[JaXanim]

@leirbag28

You could be right. Version 2.3 is now available on Aminet, though I think it says that registered owners of version 1.xx can upgrade to v2.3 using this release.

Don't know if that makes it available to everyone (?). Worth a try tho'.

This is one great piece of software!

Cheers,

JaX

[JaXanim]

@Mikkihii

Thar yer go! Up an' runnin'.

Tell us how you get on with it.

Cheers,

JaX

[JaXanim]

Yes, I've got ClariSSA v2. It was a clever idea at the time. It smooths out Amiga anims by first converting them into Interlace format (unless already interlaced). It then separates the alternate video lines of each frame into two semi-frames and displays them sequencially. This is very effective and the results are very silky. You can also join several anims together and do various manipulations on them, loops, forward/reverse, etc.

The output is a proprietory SSA (Super Smooth Animation) format which can only be viewed through ClariSSA or its portable player module. A bit like MainActor in that context. However, I don't think you can alter the frame timings or add soundFX. That's why I prefer MainActor, but ClariSSA is certainly a good piece of software.

Cheers,

JaX