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| ONLINE GRAPHICS EDITING MANUAL SECTION 4 |
| USING ACDSee |
| THIS SECTION IS ABOUT HOW TO USE ACDSee FOR CONVERTING IMAGE FORMATS AND VIEWING ANIMATIONS |
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| THIS IS HOW YOU CONVERT IMAGE FORMATS WITH ACDSee |
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| RIGHT CLICK ON THE IMAGE YOU WANT TO CONVERT......THEN SELECT CONVERT. |
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| IN THIS ILLUSTRATION I AM CONVERTING THIS IMAGE TO GIF FORMAT FOR DISPLAY ON THE INTERNET......MY SITE ONLY SUPPORTS A FEW FORMATS FOR IMAGES SO I HAVE TO CONVERT THEM TO GIF,JPG,OR JPEG FORMAT TO DISPLAY THEM ON MY PAGES. |
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| HERE'S HOW YOU USE ACDSee TO VIEW SHP ANIMATION SEQUENCES......FIRST USE XCC MIXER TO CREATE PCX FRAMES OF AN ANIMATION THAT YOU WANT TO VIEW......THEN OPEN UP THE FOLDER WITH THE PCX FRAMES IN THEM WITH ACDSee......THEN DOUBLE LEFT CLICK ON THE IMAGE AND THE VIEWER WILL OPEN UP.(SEE BELOW) |
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| THEN SELECT THE ZOOM DROPDOWN MENU AND SELECT LOCK.....THIS LOCKS THE IMAGE SIZE AT WHATEVER SIZE YOU WANT TO VIEW THE ANIMATION AT.........THIS COMES IN HANDY WHEN YOU ARE MAKING A NEW SHP ANIMATION AND YOU WANT TO SEE HOW THE UNIT LOOKS WHEN IT'S ANIMATED AS WELL AS MAKING THE IMAGE SLIGHTLY BIGGER FOR BETTER VIEWING. |
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| NOW HIT THE SLIDE SHOW BUTTON AND WATCH THE ANIMATION UNFOLD........YOU CAN USE THIS TO HELP MAKE YOUR ANIMATION SEQUENCE CODE FOR A UNIT IN THE ART.INI.....ACDSee DISPLAYS THE FRAME NUMBER IN THE UPPER LEFT HAND CORNER SO ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS WATCH THE ANIMATION.....STOP IT WHERE THE SEQUENCE YOU NEED TO CODE IS.....STEP THROUGH THE FRAMES TO THE BEGINNING OF THAT PARTICULAR ANIMATION......THEN YOU HAVE YOUR STARTING FRAME NUMBER FOR CODING THE ANIMATION SEQUENCE.....PLUS YOU WILL BE ABLE TO COUNT HOW MANY FRAMES ARE IN EACH FACING POSITION FOR CALCULATING FACING CODES. |
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| IF THE ANIMATION IS MOVING TOO FAST OR TOO SLOW YOU CAN ADJUST THE FRAME RATE FROM THE TOOLS DROPDOWN MENU........THEN SELECT OPTIONS OR JUST HIT [CTRL]+O TO SHORTCUT DIRECTLY TO THE OPTIONS WINDOW. |
| THIS IS THE OPTIONS MENU FOR THE SLIDESHOW......IF YOU RIGHT CLICK THE MILLISECONDS ENTRY BOX YOU CAN MANUALLY ADJUST THE FRAMERATE INSTEAD OF USING THE SLIDER BAR......NEXT....CROPPING ELEMENTS |
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| YOU CAN USE ACDSee TO CROP ELEMENTS FROM EXISTING SHP ANIMATIONS TO PASTE TO OTHER ANIMATIONS TO MAKE TOTALLY NEW UNITS......FOR EXAMPLE......IF YOU CROP THE FLACK TROOPERS FLACK CANNON FROM IT'S ANIMATION AND THEN PASTE IT TO THE GI'S ANIMATION....NOW YOU HAVE A ROCKET LAUNCHER GI....THIS PROCESS IS QUITE COMPLEX BUT IT'S FASTER THAN HAND DRAWING THE FLACK CANNON ON TO EVERY FRAME OF THE GI ANIMATION.......MORE ON THIS LATER....USE PHOTO ENHANCER LITE......IT'S MUCH EASIER TO USE THAN FOTO CANVAS AND IT COMES BUNDLED WITH THE ACDSee TRIAL PACKAGE. |
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| THIS IS ACDSee PHOTO ENHANCER LITE.....IT'S GOOD FOR A FEW EDITING USES BUT IT'S NOT AS GOOD FOR RESIZES.....THE TRIAL VERSION DOES NOT SUPPORT PIXEL RESIZE SO IF YOU RESIZE A TS UNIT WITH THIS PROGRAM IT CHANGES THE COLOR DEPTH WHICH TOTALLY OBLITERATES THE PALET........BUT IT'S GOOD FOR ROTATING PICTURES,FLIPPING THEM,CROPPING ELEMENTS FROM PICTURES,AND BATCH CONVERSION. |
| IN SUMMARY: ACDSee IS GOOD FOR: BATCH CONVERTING PCX FRAMES TO BITMAP AND BACK TO PCX VIEWING ANIMATIONS TO CODE THE UNIT ANIMATION SEQUENCE CROPPING ELEMENTS FROM PICTURES TO USE ON OTHER UNITS OR BUILDINGS QUICKLY DUPLICATING RA2 PALETED PICTURES TO MAKE MULTIPLE FRAMES FOR CREATION OF VOXELS FROM A 2D OVERHEAD PIC |
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| GO HERE TO GET ACDSee TRIAL VERSION(90 DAYS) :) |