Animation
World Magazine, Issue 2.1, April 1997
Software Review: Web Painter
by Guillaume Calop
One
of Totally Hip's "Hip Clips"
In the last issue, I looked at Macromedia's Flash,
a program that allows you to do animation for the Web. This month, I tested
out Totally Hip Software's WebPainter, a program with the same general
purpose as Flash, but aimed at a different market. While Flash
works with vector-based images and allows a considerable amount of interactivity
for a rather high price; WebPainter allows you to easily create
GIF animations, and is inexpensive, but lacks the interactivity and more
professional look that Flash is capable of.
If you already have a program like Photoshop, the first question
that comes in mind is, "Why would I use WebPainter if I have
Photoshop and the freeware GifBuilder?". Well, it's
basically the two programs in one, with advanced features to maintain more
control over your animation, retouch your drawings without going back and
forth from one program to another, export your files in many different
formats, and the ability to use one of their 250 "Hip Clips"!
So, if you currently lack graphic software and all you want to do is create
GIF animations, WebPainter may be the only program you will ever
need.
Features
I was not able to take a look atWebPainter 2.0, which is being release
just as this issue is being published. However, I can say that the upgraded
version will include new help files and tutorials, 500 sample animations,
and a new users manual.
WebPainter has a very comprehensive set of painting tools,
including shapes, spray can, brushes, smudging, magic wand, paint bucket,
ruler, measurement, etc. There will be an improved zoom feature and a new
intuitive palette design (three for all the tools) in the new 2.0 version.
Also, a "free transform" tool will be added, in which you'll
be able to scale, rotate, add perspective, skew and distort with one tool,
just like in Photoshop 4.0.
Working windows
Animation tools:
The "onion-skinning" feature is used for checking the current
frame against both the previous frame and the one following, in the same
way that an animator does with his drawings on a light box. There are both
static and animated layer modes, for animating an image on a static background
layer. This is an easy and fast way to add, remove, duplicate, move and
access a frame cel.
Good control of Gif Animation export: For each frame, you can control
the speed and transparency. You can also wait for user input, or specify
how a frame should be removed after it has been displayed (leave the current
graphic, erase it or partially erase it).
Control of the overall animation: The program offers choices of
color palette, bit depth (to control the file quality and size), choice
of a color for the transparency, and frame-per-second (fps) setting. Version
2.0 will also include "GiffyView," a viewer used to preview the
animation at different connection speeds (14.4, 28.8 and ISDN), which provides
you with statistics to help you to decide upon the best settings for your
animation.
Exemple of a QuickTime import - Totally Hip's "Hip Clips"
Import choices: Gif,
PICS, PICT, Windows Bit Map, AVI Movies, and QuickTime files can be imported
into the program.
Export choices: Gif Animation, Gif or PICT files, Windows Bit Map,
QuickTime Movies, AVI Movies, Sizzler, Java. For Gif animation, Sizzler
and Java, an HTML code is provided to embed it on your page.
JPEG & PNG (Portable Network Graphics format) import and export will
be added to version 2.0. Also, it will be possible to "batch open"
files to import many files at the same time and "import" and
"export" will be replaced simply by "open" and "save
as".
A Word on Sizzler.
Sizzler is a piece of freeware from Totally Hip, distributed
online and via the WebPainter CD-ROM. Sizzler will turn your
Gif animation into a "sprite" file that can be viewed with a
plug-in. What does this add? It puts your animation into a streaming format,
which allows it to be directly displayed with no download time, even with
big files. At first, the animations have poor quality, but it does improve
by the time it downloads. Another cool thing thatSizzler does, is
allow you to embed a sound clip in your animation and make it into a button.
The problem with Sizzler is that the viewer needs to have a plug-in,
unless you make it into a Java file; in that case, the user needs a Java
capable browser. Also, the interactivity is quite limited.
Bottom line: It's easy, it's cheap, and if you're new to animating on the
Web, go for it. If you're looking for advanced animation capabilities,
it can be useful for certain tasks (it'll replace your GifBuilder),
but you'll need to go to Shockwave.
Examples of Gif animation and Sizzler can be seen on the Totally
Hip Web site at http://www.totallyhip.com.
WebPainter 2.0 is available for Windows 95/NT, Macintosh and Power
Macintosh. Until June 11, it is being sold at US$49.00, then it will be
priced at $99.00. It should be available at retail, via mail order, and
on-line shops. You can also get a 30 day free downloadable trial version
at http://www.totallyhip.com/.
Guillaume Calop is AWN's Webmaster and is Animation World
Magazine's Technical Editor.
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