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ScuzzBlog: Diaries March 2023

Entry 10th March 2023: Post 1: Photon Video Cel Animator - MicroIllusions 1988.


Photon Video Cel Animator - MicroIllusions 1988.


I have made some modest additions to the collection following my
features on animation. Today I show the very wonderful Photon Cel
Animator V1.0 from MicroIllusions created by James G Donaldson.

First thing to remember about animation is the limitation of RAM.
I recently wrote a feature on animation setting out the kinds of
restrictions you are going to be up against using the Amiga. This
software suggests that for basic black and white work you can get
by with a 1MB machine but for two colour you need 2 to 2.5MB RAM
and for anything else you need 8MB and over.

The software does have the facility to play black and white anims
using a thing called the 'pencil test' tool. My guess is you are
not going to get far without a good level of RAM.

The interface was very simple to use and had a good selection of
tools. I still prefer Main Actor and DPaint over anything else
and would always recommend using a digitizer like Vidi-Amiga and
work from captured frames and edit from those. Interestingly
with the software came the cover disks for Vidi-Amiga.

I took the opportunity to load in an animation of the very lovely
Clara Veiga on the catwalks of Fashion TV from around 2004. The
animation is a simple video grab with my camera playing the anim
on the monitor, so scuse quality and shaky hands. The editing and
general play of the software is not as simple as with DPaint. The
frames loaded similar to Main Actor but without the GUI to let
you modify the content from the source file. The original animation
is a Vidi-Amiga production using a DVD player and editing using
DPAINT. The full animation is in Lo-Res and around 160 frames.

Was an interesting exercise though I doubt you are going to impress
YouTube viewers with the quality. A good addition to the collection
none the less. Well worth the few quid I paid for it. 

Photon Video Cel Animator - MicroIllusions 1988.

The very lovely Miss Clara Veiga in Cel Animator

Just a quick clip of part of the
animation taken off the monitor with
my camera. So wrong angle and shaky image.
The brown tint is from the room lights here.

Animation is being played by Cel Animator

Main Actor loading interface

Animation using Main Actor

Animation in DPAintV

Micro-Illusion

The power of the pixel to create
the illusion of animation. Each square
denotes just a different colour to
create the image. Obvious but then
still very magical how the computer
simply changes the value of each in
a simplistic dance of pixel power.

This is the original Mp4 Digital DvD
recorded from Sky Fashion TV.


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Last updated 10th March 2023

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