Can I run StillMotion Creator on a
Macintosh?
Although we
do not have a native Apple version the software can be run on a Mac
using VirtualPC. It has been tested under OSX 10.1.5 (version
10) and works.
What type of image files can I use with
SWF Movies?
Mono only,
16 bit only .WAV files
How can I edit sound files and change formats ?
Here is a link to Audacity, a free open source (and excellent) sound editor.
What type of image files can I use ?
JPG, TIF,
BMP, PSD, and TGA.
A section of
my movie did not show up even though I see it in the Preview
Window?
This will happen if you do
not set a second KeyFrame on the timeline in the motion segment.
A start and end KeyFrame (at least) are required for each motion
segment being created.
I'm getting a
solid block of color for my SWF file What am I doing wrong??
This will occur if
the SWF Quality Factor is set to 100% in the Make SWF File option.
100% is not supported by SWF, we will be limiting this in future
versions. Try 98% and the problem will go away. In
general anything over 70% gives very good results and keeps your
SWF file sizes low.
I'm getting
lines radiating out of the image if I zoom out past the bounds of
the picture, How do I get rid of them??
This is a SWF artifact,
you can eliminate this by setting a border on the image. You
do this under Edit - Prep Picture and use the Border Size Slider
to create a border (1% - 2% is fine) Set the border color to
your back ground color and the mystery rays will disappear.
Can it do image Rotation?
Yes!
On some pans and zooms I get
"image jitter" but not on AVI, how can I prevent this?
The slight image "jitter" that
occurs if low resolution images are zoomed or paned very slowly
occurs because Flash doesn't have enough pixels to do a
smooth transition (they are not resampling). There are
several easy ways to make the jitter go away.
-
Use higher resolution (bigger
images)
-
Speed up the zoom... the easy fix
-
Set Pre Blur in the Image Prep Menu
(this also cures jitter and aliasing from sharp edges and textures)
-
Keep horizontal and vertical pans
"straight" by holding the shift key down while moving the mouse.
Note: for video output (AVI) we do
the proper resampling so jitter will not occur.
Codecs for
Mini DV and Pinnacle
Codecs for Mini DV that Pinnacle and others require
can be found at :http://www.mainconcept.com/index_flash.shtml
Can I
use the same version on multiple computers?
You must purchase a separate
license for each computer you want to run StillMotion Creator on.
However, if you have different editing systems on the same
computer, one licensed version can be used on each different editor
at no additional cost. (see below).
I'm getting a
solid block of color for my SWF file What am I doing wrong??
You have the Quality factor for something set to 100% this is not
uniformley understood by Flash and many Codecs.
What do
I do once I've downloaded it for Windows?
Windows files
are in self-extracting ZIP format to speed up
the downloading process. Simply double click on the .exe file and
it will ask what folder you what to put them in.
How do I get a registered version?
You will need to
download the evaluation version from our website if you haven't
already done so.
The evaluation version can be transformed into the full version by obtaining an
unlock key number, which
is specific to the computer you plan to use the product on.
To unlock the
evaluation version, go to
"Help - Register" menu option (in the
"Help" menu on Windows
systems). You will see your PC's ID code in the dialog box. Copy
that number into an e-mail and send it to as at
reg@imagematics.com. We
will send you back an unlock code which you then enter in this
dialog box to unlock the program and remove the watermark from the
output.
Is the software available on CD or printed documentation?
The software is downloaded from the web only.
There is online help under the "Help" menu option. The Website
contains interactive documentation, a Quick Start and an extensive
tutorial section.
Does ImageMatics Software support multiple CPUs?
Yes. Each processor
speeds rendering time by 20-40% on windows-based systems.
What is a Dummy Clip?
A 'dummy clip' is simply
a place holder for the effect on the timeline. Even though we load
the image separately, the editor needs a clip to attach the effect.
Almost anything can be used, such as still image, a small AVI file,
etc...
How do I create Macromedia Flash Files?
Click on the
"Save Flash SWF File" option from the
"File" menu. You can specify a quality
level from 0-100, which will determine the degree of Jpeg
compression, and control the overall file size (in bytes), as well
as the background color, and playback frame rate.
What shortcut keys are
available?
[o]
Plays from beginning of show
[space] or
[p] or [~] Plays
or stops playing
[tab] or Moves you from key
to key in the timeline
[-] Move back a frame
[+] Move ahead a frame
[home] Go to start of
timeline
[end] Go to end of timeline
[up] Move the camera up 1
pixel
[down] Move the camera down 1
pixel
[left] Move the camera left 1
pixel
[right] Move the camera right
1 pixel
[PgUp] Expand the camera 1
pixel
[PgDn] Shrink the camera 1
pixel
[Ctrl-~] Load Picture and
Jump
[Ctrl-O] Load Show
[Ctrl-S] Save Show
[Ctrl-C] Copy the highlighted
key to the scratchpad
[Ctrl-X] Copy the highlighted
key to the scratchpad and then delete it
[Ctrl-V] Copy the key in the
scratchpad to the highlighted key
[Ctrl-Z] Undo last action
(32-levels)
[Ctrl-Y] Redo last undo
action
[del] Delete the currently
highlighted key
[enter] Add a KeyFrame
[j] ,
[k] and [l]
Plays reverse, stops playing or plays forward
[shift]
Constrains left/right or up/down motion when dragging camera
Shortcut Keys For the Camera Window
[Ctrl-left]
Align the camera to picture's left
[Ctrl-right]
Align the camera to picture's right
[Ctrl-home]
Align the camera to center of picture
[Ctrl-↑]
Align camera top
[Ctrl-↓] Align
camera bottom
[Ctrl-PgUp]
Expand the camera to picture's height
[Ctrl-PgDn]
Expand the camera to picture's width
What
size should my images be?
StillMotion Creator will accept images up to 4,000
by 4,000 pixels in size. Most scanner software have an option to
specify the image size by pixels. In general, For ideal high
quality results the images used to make a move should be 4 - 5
times of the size they are going to be displayed at. When
using the Pro version for full resolution video movies 1,500 to
2,000 pixels is the best size to use for most shows, unless you are
really zooming in very tight. As a rule of thumb, you want to have
at least 400 pixels to preserve image quality. For example, you
could safely zoom in to one-fifth of the picture by using a 2,000
pixel image. This is somewhat subjective though, as some images
hold up better than other.
What DPI should I scan images at?
If your scanner only allows settings in Dots Per
Inch (DPI), the resulting image size in pixels (a.k.a. dots) will
be the size of the image in inches times the DPI. For example, an 8
by 10 inch photo scanned at 150 DPI would yield a 1,200 by 1,500
pixel image. That same image scanned at 1,200 DPI would yield a
9,600 by 12,000, which is larger than StillMotion Creator can handle.
What resolution scanner do I need?
For most work, a 300 DPI scanner will work fine.
Slides and other small objects require higher DPIs, 1200 DPI or
better. Even $100 scanners will do a good job, but may be slower
than more expensive models.
What type of images can be used?
The StillMotion Creator will accept 16, 24, or 32
bit images in Windows BMP, JPG, Targa TGA, uncompressed TIFF files
I am having
trouble loading TIF Files.
Make sure that they are not compressed, as we do not
offer decompression of TFF files. If you are using Photoshop, make
sure the compressed option is unchecked when saving images.
StillMotion Creator supports both Mac and Windows formats.
