What we want ?
In this tutorial, we will try to see how to create a nice animation with a text picture.
What do we need ?
Of course, we will need to create the source picture and a background picture first.
How to ...
The pictures can be in JPG,BMP or TGA format.
For this tutorial, I will choose a picture size of 320 x 240 pixels.
Use your favorite paint program to create the pictures.
The background : create this picture in 24 bit.
The source file : crop all the empty areas that contain no visible pixels, save this picture in 32 bits.
Here are my 2 pictures :
Note : for better visibility, the transparent pixels are in magenta color.
You can download the two file, in their original size here : tutorial.zip
First steps : loading the files.
Start Pixidilly by double clicking on its icon.
Select the Background tab.
Click on the [Picture] radio-box : the Open file requester appears.
Select the bkg.jpg file and click [Open].
By loading the file, pixidilly will read its size and use it as project size : the output picture will have this size.
If you see a white square in the middle of the screen, don't be afraid : it is the default source picture that we will change in the next step.
Now select the Source tab
Hit the browse button : the Open file requester appears.
Select the src.tga file and hit [Open].
The source file should now appear over the background in the picture area. If not, hit the [Refresh] button.
The source picture is probably not at the right place in the picture. Hit the [Center] button to center the source file over the background.
You can also use the [X] and [Y] edit box to enter the coordinate of the upper left corner of the source picture.
Another way to change the source file position is to click directly in the picture.
However this will not work if the upper left corner is outside of the background.
The coordinates are relative to Background picture, X=0 and X=0 for the upper left corner, X axis is horizontal positive to left, Y axis is vertical positive to down.
The files are loaded. We can start to create an effect.
First, you must choose the right number of frames to create. Say you want a 6 second animation at 25 frames per second.
This means a total of 150 frames. Enter 150 in the [Frames] edit box, in the Timeline area.
You must choose how the pixels will be drawn. This must be set in the Project tab.
The pixels can be Smoothed, Single or Double.
Single pixels are fast to draw and it is a good choice to start the setting process.
Of course, you can modify this option later.
Fig 2 : (1) smoothed pixel ; (2) single pixel ; (3) double pixel.
With Pixidilly, you can control many parameters of the pixel movement and aspect.
You can use a preset as it is or adjust all the values manually.
First, we will study all the presets.
They will introduce some notions you will need if you want to create custom effects.
Even if you create a custom effect, it is a good idea to start with a preset. So select the Preset tab.
First we will use the default setting : [Explosion] with [Very small] as Spread value.
Hit the [Apply preset] button.
It is time to see the result : hit the [Play] button.
You can watch the animation in the Picture preview area.
Here is an explanation of what you can notice for each preset.
[Explosion] Every pixel moves in a random direction defined by an Angle. The Spread value describes the Distance travelled by the pixel. Select [Middle] for spread value, hit the [Apply preset] button again and [Play].
Now you see the pixels going far away from their original position.
[Progressive explosion] If you compare this effect to [Explosion], you will see that the pixels don't start to move at the same time.
This introduce the notion of Delay. The pixels at the border start immediately, the pixels at the center move last.
[Explosion erase] This effect is similar to [Progressive explosion] but this time, the pixels disappear at the end of their movement.
This is done by fading their Opacity value to 0.
[Aspiration] This time, all the pixels move to the same point, at the center, it is no more a random direction. They also reach the point at the end of the animation. The distance travelled by the pixels is no longer Random but the distance between their original position and the central point. The spread value has, therefore, no effect.
[Falling down] The pixels move down, the direction is chosen from a short angle range.
You can also notice that the pixels at the bottom of the picture fall first.
The Delay parameter is no more "Border to Center" but "Bottom to Top".
The pixels disappear gradually because their opacity decreases to 0
[Falling sand] Same as above but the pixels seem to bounce. This is done by adding a Trajectory to the movement. The default movement is a straight line, as in all the above presets. There is also a subtle variation in the movement : the Speed slows down.
[Twist] This effect can be difficult to understand. Each pixel will have a direction related to its position. The direction is an angle value chosen from a range. The pixels near the center will get values from the lower part of the range. The pixels at the border will get the higher values.
[Warp] This effect is similar to aspiration for the direction, but the distance is negative. The point becomes repulsive. you will also notice that a Delay value is applied randomly.
[Center blow] It is the same effect as above, but the Delay value is applyed from center to border
You are now familiar with Distance, Angle, Delay and Opacity notions.
If you want to adjust these parameters manually, you will need to switch Pixidilly to Advanced mode.
Advanced mode will reveal the tabs that controls these parameters, and some other option.
To switch pixidilly to Advanced mode, use the [Advanced] button from Preset tab, or the menu : Settings/Advanced.
Now you can make all the adjustments necessary to achieve the effect you want.
It is time to save the project and the pictures so select the Project tab.
Hit the [Save project] to save you project file. The Save requester will appear, type the filename you want and click on [Save].
You can save all the pictures in the current sequence by using the [Save pictures...] button. You will have to type a filename base and choose a file format in the Save requester. The filename will be completed with the frame number, starting from 0000.
You have now created your animation sequence.
To exit the program, select menu : File/Quit.
Tips
If the playback rate is too low, you can skip the rendering for some frames.
Select the Project tab and modify the [Play frame] value.
1/1 means all frames are rendered
1/2 will render frames 0,2,4,6,...
1/3 will render frames 0,3,6,9,...
and so on.
The frames are skipped only when you use [Play].
All the frames will be rendered and saved if you use [SavePictures], even if the [Play frame] is not 1/1.
Always apply the preset after you have set the frame number.
The presets values are adjusted to fit the sequence length.