Koopa's Get'n Away? AFTER HIM

So here's the deal.

Just today I bought a new app from the DSi Shop. It's actually an interesting art studio called "Inchworm Animation" which is basically a portable art 'n animation studio type thing (kinda like Flipnote).

So yah, this thing has a lot for it compared to Flipnote. Again, you can make drawings, making animation cells to make animations and such. Unlike Flipnote though, you are not limited to just 2/3 colors. Also, you can zoom in and out of your picture/animation incase you're not used to drawing without zooming in (like me xP).

I find it to be a very interesting app, even though it's 500 points. Though I will say it was one BITCH of a process, even with the interesting instruction monologues you are given.

Since I'm a total n00b in the field of animation, I decided to start with something simple. Mario, running. I thankfully had a piece of concept art from an "unmentionable" idea that I had, and used that as the basis for this animation.

It was interesting at time, and CRINGING at others, especially when I made a mistake that was so deep that I had to manually fix it myself (TTATT). Then came the absolutely hard part, exporting the animation properly.

Inchworm allows you to export your animations to your SD card in 3 different ways. You can export it as an actual Animation (which I'll get to in a sec), a Still Image or an Inchworm File, which will allow you to make a backup of your file to use in future versions (at least that's what it says).

Anyhow, I obviously opted for the "Animation tab", and there were two ways you could export it in Animation. It could be exported as a "Shockwave Flash" File, or a BMP sequence.

2 complaints about the Flash option.

1, While you can create a canvas as big as you want during the animation process, exporting it by Flash will only allow you to capture what can be viewed from the DSi screen's resolution. This can be a major bitch if you happen to have made your picture a little too big (like I did with this one) . . . ). =_______=

2. There are some people who can't install Adobe's Shockwave Flash Player into their computer, especially those like me who don't want to put up with the required"scan" scam they're trying to pull during the installation process.

The 2nd Option, BMP Sequence, will export the animation into multiple pictures so that you can manually animate it yourself on your computer provided you have a compatible tool (like GIMP). This option has 2 side-options, whether you want to export the entire canvas, or just screenshots that can be viewed from the DSi's resolution.

I obviously opted for the entire canvas option, unfortunately my cruddy ol' computer couldn't read the files properly, and when I opened one of the individual scans on GIMP, it looked like a warped and twisted thing. I don't know if this was a glitch or just my computer acting stupid, but the canvas sized trick does not work for me. (bloody XP 2002 model piece of . . . . aww who am I kiddin', I love it regardless of it's oldness. x3).

So without further choice, I picked the screenshot option, and I got the individual BMP files in DSi resolution size. While this one actually worked, some cells were chopped a bit (because I was a f*cking dumb-ass and made it a "teeny" too big), but thankfully in the nick of time, I hatched a fool-proof plan which helped me get the results I wanted.

I exported two separate folders, both of which took the screenshot from two different perspectives. With the two perspectives exported, I put all the puzzle pieces together, and viola, all of the cells were completely full with no hint of cuts, and I could finish the final process.

And so, at no time at all, I put all the cells together to make the animation on GIMP, and . . . well, that's how I got what you see here! ^_^

Now my honest opinion, . . . as an animation in general, yah it kinda sucks. But otherwise I'm rather proud to have pulled it off despite being a beginner. xP

Despite the BS I went through making this, I hope to try and make more animations with this nifty but flawed gizmo. ^_^

Anyhow, that is all.

EDIT: I changed the file to the original animation type I had in mind, instead of a standard run with no pauses.

Do you like this better, or should I switch back to the "no pause" running?