THE CAPTURE UTILITY Capture consists of three files: Capture Command CaptureTask These files should remain in the same directory, and Capture should be run from that directory. The Capture program is a utility for converting animations from virtually any animation file format to the Hash file format. Due to the difficulty of obtaining and implementing code for the myriad of formats in existence, we wrote this utility to actually capture the frames as they are played by the appropriate player program. Once the animation is in the Hash format, you can use Animation:Editor to convert it to ANIM, IFF pictures, or use the animation in any way you see fit. Also, by converting these animations to the Hash format, you can use them in other Hash Animation: products like Animation:Multiplane, and Animation:Rotoscope. Capture requires at least enough RAM to play the animation and pack the frames (1 Meg minimum) and two disk drives (or a hard disk). If you just want to convert an ANIM file to a Hash packed file, use the Converter in Animation:Editor, it is MUCH easier to use Animation:Editor for this application. Capture takes full advantage of the Amiga's multitasking abilities and must be 'RUN' from the CLI. Make sure you type 'RUN Capture'. The Capture control screen will now appear. To do its magic, Capture needs to know the resolution of the source animation. The Capture task will wait until a screen in that resolution is displayed, and save it and all subsequent screens with that resolution. FINDING THE RESOLUTION If you already know the resolution of the animation you want to capture, simply enter the width, height, and depth in the Resolution string gadgets at the upper left of the control screen. If you don't know the resolution, Capture can find it for you. But, this is a multi-step process, so it's worthwhile to know the resolution beforehand. To find the resolution of an animation, click the FindRes button. You have two options at this point. You can get the resolution directly from the file, or by playing the animation and getting the resolution from the screen. The File option should be used with Byte-by-Byte's MOVIE format and any future format similar to ANIM. Enter the animation filename when the File Requester appears. If the File option is successful, Capture will also count the number of frames in the animation. When the operation is finished, the appropriate values will be placed in the string gadgets on the Capture control panel. The FindRes Screen option should be used for mysterious non-ANIM formats (like Turbo Silver, RIFF, Forms-in-FlightII etc). After selecting the Screen option, you will be asked if you are ready to play your animation. This is your chance to abort the operation. If you choose to procede, the Capture window will shrink, and you will see the CLI again. Wait for the 'Exit Command OK' message to appear in the CLI. Now insert your animation disk in another drive, and 'RUN' your player program. Be sure you type 'RUN', remember Capture is a multitaking utility and must interact with the player. Some players may require a larger stack to run properly. So use the Stack command to set the stack. The MOVIE player required Stack 16000, and the Fast_Flight_2 player requires Stack 25000. Make sure you do this BEFORE you run the player. Your animation should load and play. After the animation has played a few times, exit the player. Now resize the Capture window so that all of the gadgets are displayed. You will see the values that the program found, in the Resolution panel. SETTING START FRAME AND CAPTURE LENGTH After setting the resolution, you now need to specify the start frame, and the number of frames you wish to capture. The default start frame is 3. This may sound unusual at first, but the first few frames my be blank screens. This value depends mainly on the player program. MOVIE requires a starting frame of 4. You may want to experiment with this value and determine which value works best with the respective players. If you miss the first few frames by making the start value too large, you can capture them as the animation loops back to the beginning. You can always re-arrange the frames later with Animation:Editor. You also need to set the frame length, i.e. the number of frames you want to capture. The default value for frame length is 10. If the animation is in the MOVIE format and you use the FindRes File option, this value will be set for you. Otherwise, you will need to estimate the number of frames you will need. If the player program allows single stepping, or slow playback, you may be able to count the frames. If you choose a number for the frame length that is too small. You can go back and capture the remaining frames by changing the start frame to the next frame you want to capture, and linking the two output animations together with Animation:Editor. Or you could set the start frame to the second to last frame captured, and use the -m (multiple file) option in Display (Version 3.24 or greater). CAPTURING THE ANIMATION Now that you have selected the resolution, the start frame, and the number of frames to capture, you need to select the destination path and filename of your Hash packed file. To do this, simply click on the Set Path button. The File Requestor will appear, and you may select your destination path. Insert your destination disk in the disk drive that is occupied by the Capture disk (or use RAD:, VD0:, DH0:, etc.). Do NOT store the animation to RAM:, or Capture will fail. You are now ready to Capture the animation. The process is very similar to using the FindRes Screen option. You will use the appropriate player program to play the animation, and the Capture program will freeze each frame and store it in the destination file. Make sure your Capture disk is inserted in one drive, and your animation source (with player) disk is inserted in another drive. Now, click the Capture button. You will now be given a chance to abort this operation. The Capture disk will now run for a moment, the Capture window will shrink and some help text will be printed in the CLI. Wait for the 'Exit Command OK' message to appear in the CLI. Replace the Capture disk with your destination disk. Now, 'RUN' your animation player (be sure to type RUN, and make sure you set the stack size). Your animation will load, and you each frame will hold while it is being saved to your destination disk. This process will continue until the frame length number has been reached. Then the animation will play back at normal speed. You may now exit your player. Re-insert the Capture disk and resize the Capture window. If you wish to capture more animations, click the STOP Gadget to stop capturing to the Destination file. You may now repeat the above steps to capture more animations. If you want to exit the Capture program, click the QUIT Gadget to close the Destination file, and exit. That's all there is to it. It takes a little practice, but it is worth it. With this utility, you can break the animation format barrier. --------- The Capture utility is Copyrighted (c) by Martin D. Hash and Kenneth A. Baer. Hash Enterprises 2800 East Evergreen, Vancouver, WA 98661 - (206) 693-7443