PhotoTiger Animation is a program for animating tiled pictures. A tiled picture is made out of several small pictures. The small picture tiles are set into the tiled picture like tiles on a wall. The tiled picture must be saved in the JPEG picture file format. (For more information, please see the text below or just run one of the demo-animations).
PhotoTiger Animation is available for OS/2 Warp4 and for Windows (95,98,NT)
PhotoTiger Animation is shareware. This means, you may use and evaluate PhotoTiger Animation for a period of 30 days, before you decide whether you want to buy (register) the program or not. You can register PhotoTiger Animation for 5US$ or 5Euro or 10DM. Send the registration fee in cash to:
Michael Moegn
Brandlberger Strasse 113
93057 Regensburg
Germany
Email: info@phototiger.com or
info@phototiger.com
The always latest version of PhotoTiger Animation is
available at:
www.phototiger.com or at
www.phototiger.de
The author gives NO WARRANTY or representation, either
express or implied, with respect to this software, its quality, accuracy,
merchantability, or fitness for particular purpose. This software is provided
'AS IS', and you, its user, assume the entire risk as to its quality and
accuracy.
This software is copyright (C) 1996-2001, Michael Moegn.
PhotoTiger is a registered trademark.
This software is based in part on the work of the Independent
JPEG Group.
PhotoTiger Animation is a program for animating tiled pictures. A tiled picture is made out of several small pictures. These small pictures are set into the tiled picture like tiles on a wall. The tiled picture must be saved in the JPEG picture file format.
PhotoTiger Animation shows the single picture tiles one after the other. Doing this, the single pictures become a little movie. The effect is nearly the same like a flip-book.
Now, all you need are the tiled pictures. Some examples
are already packed into the PhotoTiger Animation archive. You nee more
examples? Go to www.phototiger.com
or to www.phototiger.de to download
more examples.
You can create own tiled pictures by hand drawing, e.g.
using a normal image processing software. If you own OS/2 Warp you can
use the photo editor PhotoTiger (www.phototiger.com) to create tiled pictures.
The best way for creating good animations is to use a digital camera such
as the Nikon Coolpix, which has already a special mode for creating a tiled
picture out of 16 single picture tiles.
PhotoTiger Animation shows the picture tiles in a sequential
mode, starting with the upper left picture tile. The last picture tile
is the lower right one. After showing the last tile, the sequence starts
again with the first tile.
Example of a tiled picture with 6 picture tiles.
For showing the animation correctly, PhotoTiger Animation
needs some additional parameters (e.g. playing speed, total amount of tiles,
etc.). These parameters can be stored within the tiled picture (JPEG picture
file) or within a separate parameter file (PTA parameter file, PTA stands
for PhotoTiger Animation). After loading a tiled picture (JPEG picture
file) PhotoTiger Animation is searching for a separate parameter file (PTA
parameter file). The PTA file will be searched in the same path the picture
file (JPEG picture file) is stored. The PTA file must have the same name
as the picture file, but the file extension is .PTA.
Example: Loading the tile picture
C:\Animations\Birthday.JPG
causes PhotoTiger Animation to search for
C:\Animations\Birthday.PTA
If there are no parameters within the tiled picture (JPEG picture file) and if there was no separate parameter file (PTA parameter file) found, PhotoTiger Animation uses a standard set of parameters or the parameters of the recent shown animation.
If there are parameters within the tiled picture file (JPEG picture file) and a suitable separat parameters file is found, the parameters from the PTA file will be used.
After loading picture and parameters, a dialog box will
appear showing the actual animation parameters. Use the dialog to control
and change the parameters.
Animation parameters overview:
'Do not rotate' resp. 'Rotate left' resp. 'Rotate right':
Here you can set whether the
single picture tiles
should be rotated or not.
Do not rotate: Do not
rotate picture tiles
Rotate left: Rotate all
picture tiles by 90 degrees
counter-clockwise.
Rotate right: Rotate
all picture tiles by 90 degrees
clockwise.
You can also rotate the picture
tiles later,
using the 'Modify' menu.
Gamma: Value used for gamma correction.
Recommended value: 1.0
Animation speed in ms: Animation time between
showing two picture tiles.
The smaller the value the faster
the animation.
Recommended value: 175 ms
This value can also be changed
during the
animation runs (Menu 'Animate').
Wait first: Positive values cause PhotoTiger
Animation to pause the animation
after
showing the first picture tile.
The pausing time
is calculated by the given value
* animation
speed (see above).
Recommended value: 0
Wait last: Positive values cause PhotoTiger
Animation to pause the animation
after
showing the last picture tile.
The pausing time
is calculated by the given value
* animation
speed (see above).
Recommended value: 0
Use this parameter if the last
picture is not
suitable to the first picture.
Count lines: Use this value to set the amount
of picture lines a tiled pictute
exists of.
Example value: 4 (that
means there 4 picture
tiles one over the other in
the tiled picture).
Count columns: Use this value to set the amount
of picture columns a tiled pictute
exists of.
Example value: 4 (that
means there 4 picture
tiles each line).
Count tiles: The standard value for this
parameter is Count columns *
Count lines.
But you ca use also a smaller
number, if
you do not want to show all
of the tiles
a tiled picture has.
Playing Direction: Here you can choose the
playing direction of the animation.
The animation can be shown in
forward,
backward or forward and backward
playing.
The forward/backward mode is
recommended
for continous playing of animations
when
the first and the last picture
do not fit
very well.
Beside the animation parameters, there are some other
settings and action in the menus of PhotoTiger Animation.
Show animation parameters
after loading
If this option is active, PhotoTiger
Animation shows the animation parameters
after loading an animation.
If the option is not active, the animation
is shown directly after loading. When
PhotoTiger Animation is not able to find
valid animation parameters, neither in the
JPEG file nor in an PTA file, the parameters
dialog is always shown.
Use animation parameters from
PTA file
Activate this option if you want PhotoTiger
Animation to serch for a PTA parameters
file after loading an animation. If there
are animation parameters within the JPEG
file and a valid PTA file is found, the
parameters from the PTA file will be used.
Load recent shown animation
on program start
If this option is active, PhotoTiger
Animation will load the recent used
animation on program start.
Save animation parameters
in PTA file...
If the active animation is running
correctly, use this menu entry to save
the current animation parameters in
a PTA file.
Exit
Quit PhotoTiger Animation.
Rotate Right
Rotate all picture tiles by 90 degrees
clockwise.
100ms, 125ms, 150ms,
175ms, 200ms, 250ms,
300ms, 500ms
Use this menu entries to set a specific
animation speed. The values represent
the time between two pictures in 1/1000
seconds. The smaller the value the
faster the animation.
Slower (+10ms)
Decrease animation speed (Increase
time between showing to pictures by 10ms).
Stop
Stop animation.
Help...
Shows the help dialog.
Program language
Shows a dialog where the program language
can be set. This is only possible using
the OS/2 Warp version of PhotoTiger
Animation. The Windows version has an
automatic language setting.
The change of the program language takes
only effect at the next program start.
Register...
Shows the registration dialog. After
paying the shareware fee you will receive
a registration code by email. This code
must be filled into this dialog. After
inserting a correct registration code the
shareware paying reminder will disappear.