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From: Margaret Willmer <margaret@duomus.org.uk> Subject: [Fractint] Making an avi from Fractint
I am interested in making an .avi file, thence a dv film, from the colour cycling to use as an effect in a play. Does anyone know if this can be done.
Margaret Willmer London NW6 1HZ
A straightforward (if somewhat time consuming) way to create an .avi from Fractint's color cycling might be to save a .gif image in Fractint for each single step of the color cycle (using the > or < key in color cycling mode to advance or regress the color map one step). After advancing the color map one step you would exit color cycling mode and save the image. Fortunately Fractint will change the file name for you automatically, so you won't have to enter a new file name for each image you save. This would result in 256 .gif images that presumably you could feed to an .avi generation program. I'm not familiar with any .avi creation programs -- does yours accept a series of .gif files as input? <---<< Presumably the .avi or dv software would be able to take care of repeating the use of the 256 different images for use in making an .avi of longer than 256 frames. The software might even be able to reverse the order that the files are used in if you wanted that to happen during your effect. You might also consider the possibility of changing the speed of the color cycling during the effect by using the same .gif image for two or more frames in a row, although I am somewhat partial to a smooth change of colors myself... A simple, but somewhat cumbersome, way to change the speed of color cycling during the effect would be to make copies of the files (renaming the files to whatever is required by your software) if your .avi or dv generation software is not able to do this directly. Another way to do the same thing would be to save two (or more) identical copies of a particular image, one right after the other, letting Fractint do the renaming of the files for you. Thus, you would be using an identically colored image for two (or more) adjacent frames in the .avi. Hopefully, the above file duplication methods would not be needed if the .avi or dv software can create these effects -- and if you wanted them. I was recently color cycling different color maps in a Jim Muth Fractal of the Day and ran across an unusual effect. The combination of the particular color map and the pattern of data in the fractal created somewhat of a stroboscopic effect instead of a smooth change of colors. I had forgotten how sensitive color cycling can be to the particular image and color map that is used. If you are interested in this effect I could try to relocate the fractal and color map that exhibited this effect. If any parts of my proposed methods of creating an .avi are useful to you I would enjoy hearing about it. - Hal Lane, USA ######################### # hallane@earthlink.net # ######################### #################################################### -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.10.15/81 - Release Date: 8/24/05