How do you make the spins?

Do you have to draw each frame of the 36 picture grid with different shadowing? Also, my only graphics program is the simple paint portion of Claris Works 3.
I would also like to know what the difference is between 8, 16, and 32 bit color. Thanks, El T

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El T.
"You're so money." - Trent Walker

(list=1)
()Yes. You should use a 3D program, though.
(
)8 bit = 256 colors. 16 bit = thousands of colors. 32 bit = millions of colors.(/list=a)

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~Andrew M

Quote

Originally posted by Andrew M:
**(list=1)
()Yes. You should use a 3D program, though.
(
)8 bit = 256 colors. 16 bit = thousands of colors. 32 bit = millions of colors.(/list=a)

**

Not! 🙂 Being saucy, but 32-bit RGB isn't millions of colors. It's three, 8-bit color channels, plus an 8-bit alpha channel. IMPORTANT difference 🙂

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Quote

Not! 🙂 Being saucy, but 32-bit RGB isn't millions of colors. It's three, 8-bit color channels, plus an 8-bit alpha channel. IMPORTANT difference 🙂

Ummm. Not quite right.
8bit = 256 shades
8bit+8bit+8bit=24bit (no alpha channel obviously) BUT
256+256+256=768 colors... 24bit does not = 768 different shades.
what 24 bit is:

24 squared or 16777216

number of shades.

To find that you can simply go like this

1bit x 2 = 2 colors
2bit x 2 = 4 colors
3bit(4colors) x 2 = 8 colors
4bit(8colors) x 2 =16 colors
5bit (16colors) x 2 = 32colors
6bit (32colors) x 2 = 64colors
7bit(64colors) x 2 =128colors
8bit(128colors) x 2 =256colors and so on.

I believe when the mac hits 16bit it breaks down the colors into separate RGB+Black channels that equates to 65536/4 = 16384different shades of the four different channels.

so 32bit = 4294967296/4 =1073741824 different shades of colors/channel =30bit /channel since 30bit+30bit+30bit+30bit=32bit.

That is why 32bit is MUCH smoother than 16bit, basically it has over 1000x the number of colors to work with.

I believe Photoshop is the only program I know of that uses 24bit color + an 8 bit alphachannel. But in reality it is using 32bit color not 24bit, it is only tricked into thinking the former or something like that.

If you can do 24 bit your monitor will have a setting Millions of Colors and 32bit will be Millions of Colors+.

Or course, the higher the setting the slower your computer will run but on a modern day G3 (400mhz+) the effect of millions of color vs. thousands will only be distinguishable by the computer as it processes the colors in speeds of nanoseconds.

Trentent Tye

Please correct me if I'm wrong anywhere in this so I may learn from my mistakes I'm only attempting to regurgitate what I've come to over the years.

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I never thought I'd go
as far as I am right
now. Now that I'm
here, I have to start
over or else I've got
nothing to do.

Quote

Originally posted by Led Zep Boy:
**Do you have to draw each frame of the 36 picture grid with different shadowing? Also, my only graphics program is the simple paint portion of Claris Works 3.
I would also like to know what the difference is between 8, 16, and 32 bit color. Thanks, El T

**

All this color talk is fascinating, but is it helping poor Led Zep Boy? I would advise him against bothering with shadows when making sprites with Claris.

Actually, if you'd ever want to do such a ridiculous thing (which I admit to myself, in my impetuous youth), the best procedure is probably this:

1. Draw the first sprite--the one facing up--twice as big as you ultimately want it, inside a square corresponding to twice the intended sprite size.
2. Copy it 35 times and assemble the 6x6 grid.
3. Rotate each little ship the appropriate amount.
4. Fill the squares with black.
5. Save the whole thing as a PICT.
6. Import that PICT into a new drawing document, and scale it by half.
7. Copy it back to your paint document, remove the masks with the magic wand, copy sprites and masks into Resedit, and you're done.

All this nonsensical procedure is required for my oldish version of Claris works, and I don't know how much of it pertains to other versions. But it's the method that works for me... or worked, actually, before I realized that it would be about a thousand times easier to just get Mechanisto.

Helpful Hint #243

To minimize the mask you'll need GraphicConverter (this method can bring a plugin size down by HALF ) import your mask into GraphicConverter and set the colordepth to 1 bit. Than select all, copy, and paste back into the resource. Most masks I've seen in the EV/O plugins use an 8bit mask! What a bunch of wasted space! As well as the mask, import your sprites into GraphicConverter and set the bit depth to 8 bit. Copy and paste back into your plugin.

(when you select the dithering option in GraphicConverter ensure your using the MacOS system palette)

FYI a 128x128 black cube in 32bit = 64k
in 8bit it equals 16k
and in 1 bit it equals 2k. That is a HUGE savings (64k -> 2k) Most plugin developers do not seem to realize this as most of the masks I've seen in other plugins are 16bit or 32bit, same goes for the sprites although they only use the 256 color palette, but with the bit depth set so high when it was put into the plugin it increases file size dramatically!

Trentent Tye

------------------
I never thought I'd go
as far as I am right
now. Now that I'm
here, I have to start
over or else I've got
nothing to do.

Quote

Originally posted by Led Zep Boy:
**Do you have to draw each frame of the 36 picture grid with different shadowing? Also, my only graphics program is the simple paint portion of Claris Works 3.
I would also like to know what the difference is between 8, 16, and 32 bit color. Thanks, El T
**

Umm...better plan.

Get Make Spin...
Draw your ship, facing forward, 2x the size would make for a better, cleaner graphic. Make sure it's a multiple of 8.
Load that frame into Make Spin, using the "single pict and rotate" function. This automatically roates the one picture 10 degrees and places it in a 6 by 6 frame. Then re-size using graphic converter or something, to the desired size. If it still looks kinda rough, run a light blur. Save that. Use threshold on the graphic, set to 1 with graphic converter or something like that. Auto mask. PEACE YO!

Get Make Spin in the EV addons.

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~Kwanza~

"Quoted the Kwanza Man...nevermore"

AIM: Kwanzar26

Kwanzasoft Graphics
(url="http://"http://www.crosswinds.net/~kwanza")www.crosswinds.net/~kwanza(/url)

Make a single picture of your ship with its nose facing to the top and print it out on a nice color inkjet or go to Kinko's and do a color laser print. Now, drink lots of coffee and munch on some hallucogenic mushrooms. Finally, take your printout of your ship, place it on the ground. Now, take a baseball bat, putting one end on the center of your ship, and the other on your forehead. Spin around really fast without moving the bat from your head or the paper.

See? Now you not only have a spinning ship, you ARE in EVO only its EV3D!!!

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