What Is It? | Instructions | Possible Errors | Future Versions | Making Animations

# Making Animations

This page describes how to create animations and phases. To manipulate objects in the editor, refer to the main instructions page.

This page is divided into four main parts:

- Explanation of Phases
- Using the Animation Editor
- Creating Movies
- Creating MNGs
- Creating Still Frames

### Explanation of Phases

A phase is an instance in time. All of the properties of the objects in a cartoon can be set to different values in different phases. To get a better feel for this, try opening some saved files in the "Sample Files" folder; if they have more than one phase, poke around and see what the other phases look like.

The phase panel to the left of the window lets you manipulate phases. You'll notice by default there is only 1 phase. To add a phase, select "Duplicate Phase." A new phase will be created that is an exact copy of the previous phase you were looking at. To delete a phase, select "Remove Phase." To ghost a phase, double click that phase in the list of phases. When a phase is ghosted, if you go to another phase and select any object, that selected object as it appears in the ghosted phase will be lightly drawn underneath. This shows where an object is going to or coming from. The "Copy To:" popup button lets you copy the selected objects to another phase. Their state in the destination phase is replaced by how they currently appear on the screen. (The phase panel can be removed under the "Options" menu if you need the screen space. All of its features are mirrored in the "Phase" menu.)

There is always a phase selected in the list of the phases in the phase panel (or under the "Phase" menu). To traverse to another phase, click the destination phase once. A 1.5 second animation will take you from the current phase to the destination phase. This animation is just to help you preview how your phases will transition; it has nothing to do with a final animation of your cartoon.

Optional Technical Note:

Some call this type of animation tweening. Tweening means that a property has an initial value and a final value, and an animation can be made to gently blend from one value to the other. In the case of these cartoon files, this logic is extended to dozens of properties within each object. The best part about tweening is that it's mathematical: that means each property will always smoothly transition, and infintely many frames of infinitely fine detail can be created between two phases. The largest criticism of tweening is that you have no control over the path things take. For an object to move from one location to another, it will move in a straight line. If you wanted it swoop down in a large semicircle: you're out of luck. Unfortunately, the Cartoon Editor does not provide a solution to this criticism. When I get around to creating the new animation editor, I will try and address this problem.

### Using the Animation Editor

When you're ready to start animating, select "New Animation" from the "File" menu. The Animation Editor lets you edit individual sequences to create an animation. A sequence is a transition from one phase to another. A sequence has a beginning phase and an ending phase, both of these are adjustable with their respective popup buttons indicated in the window.

There are two ways to define the length of a sequence:

- "End at time" defines the exact millisecond value that this sequence is to finish. This time is relative to the entire cartoon. This is very useful in making Quicktime movies; this lets you synchronize sequences exactly to an accompanying soundtrack. Changing one ending time does not change when a later sequence ends.
- "Run for time" defines the length in milliseconds that this sequence is to take. This time is independent of the rest of the cartoon. This is more useful in making animated gifs; this lets you stretch out sequences independently of each other. Changing one running time postpones when a subsequent sequence will end.

You can traverse sequences by clicking the "Previous" and "Next" buttons. Note that if there is no sequence after the current sequence, a new sequence will be created.

Once you've arranged all of your sequences in satisfactory order, you're ready to click "Export."

### Making Movies

Having clicked "Export" in the Animation Editor, a new window will appear. Select the "Movie" tab in the new Export dialog box. Select the desired movie output format ("mov", "dv", or "avi), and your compression settings. You can also select an AIFF file to use as the movie's soundtrack as well.

### Making MNGs

First select the desired file type: either a MNG or MNG-LC (where "LC" stands for "Low Complexity").

If you're using the standard MNG, you can select the way images will be compressed within the animation.

Although MNGs are pretty compact file format, they're not very widely accepted. If you intend to share your animations online, I recommend QuickTime movies. Only Netscape-based browsers support MNGs.

### Making Frames

From the Export dialog box, select the "Frames" tab. If QuickTime is available, you will have a handful of file formats to select; otherwise JPEG's and PNG's are the only file types you can create. Click "Export", assign a root name, and voila!

Note that only PNGs will support transparency!