Artoonix Forum

[KayNine]

I've been using Artoonix for a few more experimental movies and these thoughts struck me. So, in no particular order ......

It would be useful to be able to right click in the opening windows (animation projects' ' Your creation, your inspiration') to create a 'New Folder' so that as more movies are made, they can be filed in separate named folders. This CAN be done if you choose to 'View projects folder' but any new folders created there don't show up in the main window.

In the Gallery, you can sort by date, title, author and rating but this isn't really much help when the galleries grow to a large size - as is obviously happening. For instance, there is a particular animation that I found and would like to find again - but there is no way to search by typing in keywords or the name of a movie. Similarly, it would be useful to be able to search by typing in the names of authors.

When editing a frame, it would be nice to have the option for a 'Frame View Only' - in other words, to block out everything that lies outside the frame. This would be really useful when working with long strip-images which are animated for sideways movement, or for characters who start 'off screen' but then move into view. This kind of complexity can make the screen look very jumbled. Having the option to switch between a 'whole screen' view and a 'Frame View' would help a lot. (I assume it could be 'faked' by having a large opaque rectangle with a transparent 'hole' cut into it through which the frame could be viewed. This could be selected and de-selected as necessary ..... but it seems a bit of a crude solution.)

I've noticed a lag before changes can be made when clicking inside a shape to be translated. It's as if time is needed for the program to recognise what it is that has to be moved.

The drawing tools also seem to lag - especially when drawing freeform lines.

I assume that when using the line or freeform drawing tools, shapes are not drawn by using vectors? It soon became clear that when deforming a shape, the lines degraded and became blurred. This can be a useful effect, but it could also be a problem.

One experiment I did involved switching to and fro between translation and deformation. This became tiresome. It would be much more useful to have both icons available side by side.

It would be VERY useful if, after exporting to gif or flash, a viewer then opened so that you could see your movie --- or, when using 'Show movie for the selected project' you then had the option of gif, flash or avi.

Have I mentioned elsewhere that when making a movie and using the Draft Video Preview, it would be useful to be able to choose to watch it once or for it to repeat for as long as you needed?

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A final comment - It only takes a little bit of time and practise to realise that Artoonix is actually capable of a LOT more than animating stick figures or simple 'block' images. Users have the means to move from very basic animation right through to quite sophisticated approaches, all within one program.

[youri]

once again, clear and very useful feedback, thanks! The "lagging" part - could you please share your PC specs here, please? Artoonix is meant to be by far the fastest tool around..

thanks,
youri
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Artoonix man

[KayNine]

Not quite sure what information would be useful - so let me know if there's any other data that's helpful .....

Windows XP2
AMD Athlon 64 Processor
2.2 GHz 1.00gb RAM

Screen setting 1024x768
32 bit colour

As regards suggestions for future features, I've just posted a quick thought into the appropriate thread - something that kept niggling at me as I worked on the 'Trojan' movie. Hope that's useful as well.

[youri]

oh, very decent system, so it is a bit surprising that you see lag.. Would it be possible to disable the antivirus soft (if you are running it) and see if it improves the situation?
pls, let us know the result either here or directly to support e-mail.
thanks
youri
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Artoonix man

[KayNine]

[youri]

ok, KayNine, thanks for the info, it is not the antivirus then. I guess, we can use microsoft's example and call it a "feature" . The answer is probably related to your other question - the drawing is not vector-based, it's a bitmap and as such is not optimal in windows. We actually tried to speed up the user interaction on canvas by reducing the output slightly (that is seen as dotted fill, for instance - btw, you can see the fills in their "full glory" by clicking anywhere on the canvas to de-select). It will probably change for "much better" visuals in vista version where graphics output is excellent.
The last observation you made is the correct one - to work with the object you need to hover with the mouse over some of its visible parts (otherwise you might be wanting to select another object).

cheers,
youri
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Artoonix man