Do you know about file extension FLM

[kiumars]

I have never found a tutorial on the Internet as simple as I have discovered just by doing my own experiences back in 1998. Well, I decided to let you know how simple it is to do realistic animations on Internet or motion pictures.
The idea is to make a series of cartoons without having the tools, man power or ability to draw cartoon movies like those on Disney movies. Have you ever dreamed to put yourself acting on an existing movie? Have you ever wanted to make an animation movie, but unable to draw all those tremendous amount of frames one after the other? You may think that it takes at least a month to draw in order to animate just a small portion of the movie. Well not necessary, that can be done over the night. Let me explain by asking you a question, traditionally animation movies follow a routine technology to achieve their goals. What sort of techniques you already know? What are your reasons that stop you not going beyond your limitations? Well, let’s discuss your experiences and at the end I may be able to surprise you with a technique that many of you must have missed to notice the ease of using and led by others to choose other ways. Yet it sounds a misery but later on you will find it too easy to use my way. All you have to do is to take your camcorder and record a short movie. Then, comes my techniques how to make your dreams come true. Programs that you should have installed on your computer are:
Adobe premiere, Photoshop, Freehand, QuickTime and Flash if supposed to be viewed on the Internet. Otherwise, Adobe premiere and Photoshop will do the job for motion pictures.
Here comes the hint:
Do you know about file extension FLM? If no, then you better to know before studying my coming tutorials in a very near future.

Best regards,
Kiumars

[DigitalDragon]

Animatic Film Format (.FLM)

The Animatic Film file format (file extension .FLM) stores a sequence of low-resolution 16-color images, which are displayed as an animation. Files in the .FLM format are stored as a header followed by one or more frames (screen shots) of image data. The header is 64 bytes in length and has the following format:

typedef struct _AnimaticFilmHeader
{
WORD NumberOfFrames; /* Number of frames in the animation */
WORD Palette[16]; /* Color palette */
WORD FilmSpeed; /* Speed of playback */
WORD PlayDirection; /* Direction of play */
WORD EndAction; /* Action to take after last frame */
WORD FrameWidth; /* Width of frame in pixels */
WORD FrameHeight; /* Height of frame in pixels */
WORD MajorVersionNumber; /* Animatic major version number */
WORD MinorVersionNumber; /* Animatic minor version number */
LONG MagicNumber; /* ID number (always 27182818h) */
BYTE Reserved[12]; /* Unused (all zeros) */
} ANIMATICFILMHEADER;

NumberOfFrames specifies the total number of frames in the animation.

Palette is the color palette for the animation, stored as an array of 16 WORD values. The palette is stored in the same data format used by the NEOchrome (NEO) format.

FilmSpeed is the number of delay (vblank) frames to display between each animation frame. The value of this field may be in the range 0 to 99.

PlayDirection is the direction the animation is played. Values for this field are 00h for forwards and 01h for backwards.

EndAction specifies the action to take when the last frame of the animation is reached during playback. A value of 00h indicates that the player should pause and then repeat the animation from the beginning. A value of 01h indicates that the animation should immediately repeat from the beginning (loop). A value of 03h indicates that playback should repeat in the reverse direction.

FrameWidth and FrameHeight are the size of the animation frames in pixels.

MajorVersionNumber and MinorVersionNumber contain the version number of the Animatic software that created the animation.

MagicNumber contains an identification value for Animatic Film files. This value is always 27182818h.

Reserved is 12 bytes of space reserved for future header fields. All bytes in this field have the value 00h.

[kiumars]

Wow, since you know so much abut it, wonder what are you trying to me about? That is much further beyond to what I need to continue with the tutorials of making those animations. Details are of what FLM is, makes no difference, but how to use them when rendering animations after a QickTime movie? Have you ever used them to make a movie? I am sure you know how to do. However, let’s talk about it in practice.

[DigitalDragon]

LOL - I never said I knew anything about it!

You said in your post:

Do you know about file extension FLM? If no, then you better to know before studying my coming tutorials in a very near future.

So, I did a quick search, found a good definition and posted it for everyone to see so they can appreciate your tutorials when you post them!

:o)

[kiumars]

Hello again,
Sorry sometimes I reply fast while working on other subjects. What I wanted was to make sure that those who might have interest in this subject should first save a movie in FLM and then open it in Photoshop. Try to do a very small movie below 1000 frames. Then we can discuss about the methods much easier.
Best regards,
Kiumars

[kiumars]

Let’s start with a general idea and later on I will go in details by demonstrating step by step screen shot tutorial.
What we like to do are followings:
1- You want to play in movie where other actors are cartoons.
2- You want to be a part of an existing movie.
3- You want to sing a song in your favor MTV show.
4- You want to create your first realistic animation movie without having any theoretical knowledge or drawing experiences. However, have some basic knowledge in Adobe Premiere and Photoshop.
In fact you do not have to be expert in any programs to make your dreams come true.

Open Adobe premiere, and import an existing movie. Remove sound tracks. Select a portion of movie less than 1000 frames. Drop a filter such as posterize. Choose render the timeline. Now export this timeline to movie. In movie settings, choose file type as Filmstrip, Range as working area, frame size 325x288 and frame rate 25. Click Ok and give a name then save it. Now you have file with an extension called FLM.

Open your Adobe Photoshop and open the file that you just have created. Within 10 seconds depending on the size of the file and your processor speed. You will see a range of mosaic pictures of all those key-frames in one layer.
Now, what you just have is what animators work for several months to reach. However they need several more months working on frames in between those key-frames in order to create motion and by adding more frames to achieve smoother movements. However, you already have those in-between frames. You do not see them, but will be created for you automatically.

Now the fun part starts; do whatever you feel like doing with those key-frames. If you have an optical pen and want to draw over the existing frames by choosing a new layer. Fine, do it. At this stage you will realize the benefit of posterizing movie in adobe premiere before creating the FLM file. Save the file again as FLM and exit Photoshop.

Now, how do you want to use your movie? Flash, QuickTime streaming, Media player, Real Player, CD ROM or TV?

Next step will be by going through the whole process in details, depending on your interest. If there is no interest, then I better to stop here. Please let me know.

Best regards,
Kiumars

[regpye]

Sounds very interesting so far... when will the next section be coming?

[kiumars]

Hello,

Thank you for showing interest. I will do the second part over the weekend.

Best regards,
Kiumars