Pivot Version 3 beta version Created by Peter Bone 17 / 6 / 2005 This is the unfinished version of pivot 3. Use it at your own risk! It contains more bugs than version 2 because of the added functionality. *IMPORTANT* This version of pivot is only for member of the msn group (http://groups.msn.com/Pivotanimation) and should not be uploaded anywhere else on the net. Any piv files made with this version will not be compatible with the finished version 3 or any future versions. This is because the file format will be changed when I add more features such as text. Version 2 piv files, however, will always be compatible with future versions. Things that have changed since version 2: The default stickman has been changed to one that looks better and has a joint in the middle of the body. You can load images (sprites) and move them around like figures. These can be bitmaps or gifs. The bottom left pixel of the image determines the transparent colour. Timeline works slightly differently. When creating a new frame the bevel will be positioned after the last frame. You can specify the number of times an individual frame is repeated. This means you don't have to create multiple frames of the same figure positions to create a delay. You can load more than 1 background so that you can load different backgrounds for different frames. There is no 'Add figure' button. Add a figure by selecting a figure from the list or pressing enter while the list box has focus. When you delete a figure and there are no other instances of that figure type in the animation it will ask you if you want to remove that figure type from the list. This enables you to remove figure types you added by mistake or no longer want included in the animation. Check box in the options windows to save repeated frames as bitmaps. When this is selected and you save an animation as bitmaps it will also save the repeated frames as bitmaps - for frames with repeat > 1. The speed of the animation (set with the scroll bar in the play options) will be stored in the piv file so that it is set when a version 3 animation is loaded. While editing a frame you can save that frame by clicking another frame. This makes it easier to edit many frames. You can load gif images as backgrounds. You can load multiple figures at the same time by selecting mutliple files by holding down Ctrl or Shift. Some nice icons in the menu and on the play and stop buttons! other small things that I've forgotten.
remek98