Need Help to Animate Psychedelic Bitmap Images

[catch22]

Hi everyone . . .

I have a feeling the answer to my problem should be "really simple," at least for someone with experience. I hope I'm right, because I'm certain there must be several who meet that description in this Forum.

Here's the story: I have many thousands of Bitmap images, all of them colorful and "psychedelic," and all become beautifully Animated when viewed in sequence. They spin, swirl, slide, shrink, swell, leap, creep, peep, and sleep . . . and do just about anything the mind can imagine, including "Dance To Music."

My problem is that I want to let people view these, but not many are willing to download the somewhat complex and elaborate software program that enabled me to create these animations and is needed to run them.

So what I need is some way to convert a few hundred of these images into Flash or something similar -- so they can simply be "clicked on" and anyone with a PC can view them (on Youtube, Google Videos, etc.)

It's important that they retain their visual characteristics -- these are very sharp and clear images, with hundreds of colors from the basic RGB scale to subtle pastels -- (to give you some idea, I have posted a few images below).

Can someone help me find a fairly "simple" way that I can turn these full-screen sized "bitmap" images into an animated display about 3" X 4" or so? I have searched and searched, but I can't seem to find any way to animate Bitmaps, so I think "converting" them may be the only answer. (And I don't have the foggiest how to do that.)

Catch22

(Thanks for reading this, any help will be most appreciated. A few representative images are below):

PSY-0006.jpg 699475101_bb28228d3a_o.jpg 699475115_7fb891dc75_o.jpg

[Sgaspar11]

You sure can do this...all you'd need to do is create a basic flash slideshow with is fading between images. There are many ways to do this...let me find you a tutorial.

Here is the general idea, it can even be more basic than this, but to give you an idea...

http://www.kirupa.com/developer/mx20..._slideshow.htm

Cheers,

Scott

[catch22]

.


Thanks for the link, Scott... and for the Editing. (Funny, but I had it
looking like that from the start, until I decided the text was too small.
Making it bigger, that's when my troubles began...)

As for the page you sent me a Link to... that seems to be for a
slide show. Which is fine, I like slide shows -- but what I'm trying to
do here is some really rapid-moving Animations. These aren't meant
to be viewed as "slides," but as "movie images," one following the
other in rapid succession.

Perhaps the confusion arises from the fact that these images don't
really look "related" to each other. I could just as easily have posted
several that show "one image following another" to create an animation
effect -- but I thought that would bore everyone.

One other thing -- I am really hoping to have someone tell me, "Here is
all the code you'll need, just put each of your images into the slot
that says: 'IMG.' " LOL. Is anything like that possible?

Thanks again for your help, Scott.


Dave

catch22



(if these will load, here are 3 that follow "in rapid succession"):

709139802_38993699c7_o-1.jpg 709139752_e2793b8756_o-2.jpg 709139730_e307aac496_o-3.jpg

[Sgaspar11]

Sure, you can do the same concept in flash.....even easier.

I'll build the concept and you can keep going on it....how does that sound? It won't be quite as easy as what you want above. but I am confident I can teach you. :-)

EDIT: Ok download these two files. Look at the fla or the swf, is this what you are wanting to do? I almost had a seizure. hehe.

Cheers,

Scott

[catch22]

.


"Ok download these two files. Look at the fla or the swf, is this what
you are wanting to do? "


Hmmm, it's hard to say, since I couldn't get either of them to open.

The "funky.fla" file wouldn't even give me an option to open... all
I could do was download it. After that I tried opening it, but no go.

The .swf file surprised me -- though I could get the option to open
it, I couldn't get it running. (Usually .swf files are no problem.)

In case you're wondering, I'm using a 1.5 year old Toshiba laptop
with Windows XP 6.0. Looks like that's not quite enough, eh?

I'm deathly curious to see what gave you that seizure, LOL.


Dave

"I'll build the concept and you can keep going on it....
how does that sound?"

(BTW, that sounds very good. I do have experience with HTML, and somewhat
less with Javascript -- so I think I can manage whatever you throw at me. I hope.)



.

[Sgaspar11]

Do you have flash installed on your computer? You'll need flash, after that, this'll be cake...

[catch22]

.

Well, I think I have it -- one of my Add-Ons is called Shockwave
Flash Object by Adobe Systems, which uses an Active X Control.

Sound OK?

.

[pa007]

That's a browser plug-in right? You'll need the actual flash program. You can download a trial from the adobe site. This trial lasts 30 days but it's worth buying if you can.

Then you should be all set.

Pete.

EDIT: Here's the actual flash page, just click 'download free trial'.

[catch22]

.


Good grief, Scott -- they require quite a bit of information from
me before I can get their "free download."

Now, I imagine 30 days will be plenty of time for me to get this
working. However, I need to ask you, (because I hate filling out
things requiring personal info), are you quite certain it will be
possible to animate those images so that the outlines will be
sharp and clear and the colors will be the same or nearly so?
And will I be able to "keep" whatever I create, or will their
software somehow "disable" it afterward? (And, most important,
will a "Flash" animation be viewable at Youtube, Google Videos,
etc.?)

I really do appreciate all you're doing to help -- but before I
go ahead with any time-consuming project, I like to be sure
I'm actually headed in the right direction.


Thanks for understanding,


Dave

[Sgaspar11]

Yes, everything should be just as you want it.

There is a setting in flash that lets you produce .flv.avi files and so on. So that'll be what you want it to do to play on good or youtube.

Making it work in flash is easy, if you want it to be pristine quality that is going to be tough...I mean look at the crap out YouTube right now. The problem is when they're player converts the file over to a .flv file you lose some quality. But in flash you can download and try different video codecs(encoders) to change the quality and so on.

But overall, this is probably your best option for producing something like this. Either this or a piece of video editing software, which, well...is going to be just as difficult if not moreso.

Edit: Yes you can keep them when the program expires.

[pa007]

I heard that YouTube is using the h.264 codec on all uploaded vids from june so that should improve quality quite a lot. Apparently it's capable of hi-def quality, or so the newspaper told me.

Pete.

[catch22]

.


OK, it'll take a while to fill out all the info they want -- whew!
Six hundred dollars for that program! I wonder if there's another
version or another way to get it, should I decide I need it.

I'll be finished in 25-30 minutes. Would it be easier if we just
communicated thru email, once this gets going? This "posting"
method seems unnecessarily slow.




Whew! After I wrote this (below), your software wouldn't let me post it!

It wouldn't let my cursor into the writing field -- even after I logged out
and then back in again. (I forget what I did to finally get it working again.)



WELL, I'VE FILLED OUT all their "info" requirements -- but now we may have
hit a snag. It seems there are "other" requirements:

Intel® Pentium® 4, Intel Centrino®, Intel Xeon®, or Intel Core™ Duo (or compatible) processor
Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista™ Home Premium, Business,
Ultimate, or Enterprise (certified for 32-bit editions)
512MB of RAM (1GB recommended)
2.5GB of available hard-disk space (additional free space required during installation)
1,024x768 monitor resolution with 16-bit video card
DVD-ROM drive
QuickTime 7.1.2 software required for multimedia features
Internet or phone connection required for product activation
Broadband Internet connection required for Adobe Stock Photos* and other services



My PC has only a Celeron M Processor.... not listed. And as far as RAM goes, I have
605 MB of "virtual" memory, but only 284 MB of "Available Physical Memory." (My
total Virtual Memory is listd as 1000 MB.)

I have 3.23 GB of space on my HD, ehhh, kinda barely enough?

I think I have a DVD-ROM drive -- this is a drive that will "play" DVDs but not
necessarily "record" them -- right? Mine won't record.

"QuickTime 7.1.2 software required for multimedia features" -- don't have that.

"Internet or phone connection required for product activation" -- I have a wi-fi
connection, that should be good enough I'd think...?

"Broadband Internet connection required for Adobe Stock Photos* and other services" --
I just have a wi-fi connection, but that's Broadband isn't it?


Well, those are the "snags" -- thought I should let you know about them before
I download that Flash program.


Dave

.

[pa007]

Just try it. It should work ok I think though it could be a bit slow at times.
The download might tke a while though.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Pete.

[catch22]

.


I'm not really comfortable with this Flash Download. Seems
too much is going against it working -- and I need this PC
to keep working well, since I use it for business. I can't have
it clogging or crashing on me.

You mentioned one other option that sounds interesting:

"But overall, this is probably your best option for producing
something like this. Either this or a piece of video editing
software, which, well...is going to be just as difficult if not
more so. "


It may not be as difficult as one might think. I tried these images with
the Windows Movie Maker that came installed on this PC, and although
slow and kind of balky -- they worked tolerably well. But not well
enough, of course, or I'd have used it.

What software would you recommend, or do you know of any?

.

[Sgaspar11]

The video editing software will be just as resource heavy (if not more) than flash, and rendering out a file in said program will bog your computer down like no other. (If you don't have a decent one)

If you are going for quality, I still say Flash is the best option...

You might try googling for Animating .Gifs or Animating, bmp's. There might be some freeware out there to do this sort of thing, but I've never done it.

P.S. Download these two files and click and play the funky.html, this gives you an idea of what it would look like. I built this in 15 seconds.

Cheers,

Scott

[catch22]

Sorry, but I see nothing but a white screen.

[Sgaspar11]

Did you download both, and are they in the same directory? i.e. Both on your desktop?

[catch22]

.

Oops, no, I didn't.... still kinda new to this.... wow, that
really shows up nicely, doesn't it? Those images normally
have about 5 others in between each of them, so that's
why they flicker instead of animate... but yes, that's very
impressive. I wonder, though, if it could continue as well
as that when perhaps 150 or 500 images are used -- or
whether that would cause it to bog down and run slowly
or erratically? (And also, would that many BMPs require
an immense amount of either Memory or Bandwidth? And
would people need to have Flash installed in order to
view it, as I did?)

The images looked almost exactly as they do when the
"original" psychedelic software is run. I can see now
that I'll have to reevaluate my decision to abandon
"Flash" and see if there's some way I can make it work.

But I'm still not too sure that can be done. Thanks very
much for the Demo . . . you should have told me . . . I
expected to see a cartoon or a puppy dog or Daffy
Duck . . .


Dave


.

[Sgaspar11]

I wonder, though, if it could continue as well
as that when perhaps 150 or 500 images are used -- or
whether that would cause it to bog down and run slowly
or erratically?

Just like anything on the web, the more "things" you have on your page or inside your flash the longer it takes to load. Flash is really good about compression is most cases so I'd imagine you should probably scales these images down to a slightly smaller size to save you some file size in the long run.
If you end up converting what I showed you into a video format to be displayed on google and youtube, then file size really isn't an issue since their video players are streaming players, which means even people with really crappy internet connections can watch you stuff.

And would people need to have Flash installed in order to
view it, as I did?

In the format I gave you, yes. If you convert it to a video file for youtube or google, yes. The good news, is that 90% of all internet users have the flash plugin installed. It's very common.

Cheers,

Scott

[catch22]

.


Oops -- I tried opening your file "funky.html" so that I could see
the code used and thereby get some idea what I would be dealing
with -- and it started to open in MS Word, then gave me a warning
that there was insufficient memory in Word, and that if I started it,
I would be unable to stop it.

Possibly part of the problem is that Word came installed on my
laptop, but after the 30-day trial period expired, I somehow
misplaced my "registration code" so that I've been unable to
use it. Is there any other way you know of that I could read
the Code, or can it only be done in Word? (Basically I just want
to see if, as with certain types of Javascript, I can simply "add"
one image after another in a long sequence, which would
simplify everything.)

Also, if I understand what you are saying, I would first need to
construct the animation as "Flash" -- and then convert that
into a Video File somehow, which could then be viewed by most
PCs as Streaming Video?

I'm still concerned that my PC doesn't really fit the "requirements"
for Adobe Flash. Is it possible that there are "other" varieties of
Flash software that might have less stringent requirements?


Thanks for your help,


Catch22

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