Here we go.
The results are excellent. Thank you again, MedicineStorm, you had a great idea.
Now, down to business:
First image is a direct confrontation of first frame (Any frame could have been used.)
The other 3 files are
A gif created with ASEprite by manual procedure. (and, sorry if i sound presumptuous, but i think i have great familiarity with the task.)
A gif created with Medicinestorm's script with an arbitrary background.
A gif created with Medicinestorm's script with black background.
Short answer: Perfect for the task.
Long answer:
I applied a coloured background, and it applied a form of optimization that resulted in dithering and consequent "green dots", wich was to be expected, the tool isn't designed to print production ready stuff. The overall effect is apparent on real objects, probably ignored by most human minds on abstract object such as sparks or smoke.
The complexity of the optimization on the GIF compression is seen in the filesize.
Since the effect is interesting and can be used in production, i launched the script another time with a black background, and i got surprised by noticing that the dithering was much less noticeable. I removed the darkest colors in the palette untill they were in the sprite, and i can say that as long as the sprite itself doesn't contain colors darker than 64/255 it can be used to convert PNGs into 8bits sprites, if required.
In general i'd advise to use a black background for solid objects, coloured background for etheric objects or abstract effects, for best result, but the optimization isn't really spoiling the preview, the result is rather good.
Perhaps it could be expanded, but the selling point is the simplicity and the fact it is nearly impossible to do mistakes.
I'll do some more experiments.
I'm ashamed to admit currently i can't put more than 5400 cels in a spritesheet and therefore i'm not allowed to laugh like a pirate and shout: "16384? HA! that's not even warm up!" ;)
Also: For now i must go to work, but this evening i'll try it myself, it looks very useful, the file below is a manual conversion, when i'll come back i'll download GIMP, install the script and recreate the animation with your script. I don't see reasons for the experiment to go wrong, and if it doesn't i'll use it myself, since manual conversion is indeed time consuming.
Looks like a great tool.
I can't name a tool better than this, for the purpose of creating previews quickly, since it doesn't require specific experience, decisions based on it or manual procedures. It can be used by anyone even if they isn't familiar with GIF's architecture, and i'll recommend it to whoever wishes to create animated samples of 32 bits PNG but has trouble with manual conversion.
However, judging by the words: "...and other that allow for transparent PNG import."
I can't help but wonder if the author might be interested in learning a quick method to quickly provide a opaque PCX or GIF version for those who might be interested in using such format (even for retro-purposes) but can't do the conversion themselves.
Aseprite has got a function to import such spritesheets automatically, but the program costs about 17$
I'll have a look at your last submissions and see if i can do something. However GIF files have a limit of 256 colors and no alpha channel on pixels. Usually sequences work with an extra masks for transparency. The example here has got 15 colors + alpha.
The second one has 64 colors.
There is a way to test it on a 8 bits gif, to get an idea on how the 32 bits sprite will actually work, as seen in the third image.
Here we go.
The results are excellent. Thank you again, MedicineStorm, you had a great idea.
Now, down to business:
First image is a direct confrontation of first frame (Any frame could have been used.)
The other 3 files are
A gif created with ASEprite by manual procedure. (and, sorry if i sound presumptuous, but i think i have great familiarity with the task.)
A gif created with Medicinestorm's script with an arbitrary background.
A gif created with Medicinestorm's script with black background.
Short answer: Perfect for the task.
Long answer:
I applied a coloured background, and it applied a form of optimization that resulted in dithering and consequent "green dots", wich was to be expected, the tool isn't designed to print production ready stuff. The overall effect is apparent on real objects, probably ignored by most human minds on abstract object such as sparks or smoke.
The complexity of the optimization on the GIF compression is seen in the filesize.
Since the effect is interesting and can be used in production, i launched the script another time with a black background, and i got surprised by noticing that the dithering was much less noticeable. I removed the darkest colors in the palette untill they were in the sprite, and i can say that as long as the sprite itself doesn't contain colors darker than 64/255 it can be used to convert PNGs into 8bits sprites, if required.
In general i'd advise to use a black background for solid objects, coloured background for etheric objects or abstract effects, for best result, but the optimization isn't really spoiling the preview, the result is rather good.
Perhaps it could be expanded, but the selling point is the simplicity and the fact it is nearly impossible to do mistakes.
I'll do some more experiments.
I'm ashamed to admit currently i can't put more than 5400 cels in a spritesheet and therefore i'm not allowed to laugh like a pirate and shout: "16384? HA! that's not even warm up!" ;)
Also: For now i must go to work, but this evening i'll try it myself, it looks very useful, the file below is a manual conversion, when i'll come back i'll download GIMP, install the script and recreate the animation with your script. I don't see reasons for the experiment to go wrong, and if it doesn't i'll use it myself, since manual conversion is indeed time consuming.
Looks like a great tool.
I can't name a tool better than this, for the purpose of creating previews quickly, since it doesn't require specific experience, decisions based on it or manual procedures. It can be used by anyone even if they isn't familiar with GIF's architecture, and i'll recommend it to whoever wishes to create animated samples of 32 bits PNG but has trouble with manual conversion.
The website codeskulptor refuses to show me the page you linked. It says it doesn't exist.
It looks like a (hopefully) temporary problem on the website, i'll try again.
Looks nice. You might consider adding a decorated tree (simple orbs should do the trick, but you can add even ribbons) and a couple wrapped gifts.
You are absolutely right.
However, judging by the words: "...and other that allow for transparent PNG import."
I can't help but wonder if the author might be interested in learning a quick method to quickly provide a opaque PCX or GIF version for those who might be interested in using such format (even for retro-purposes) but can't do the conversion themselves.
Then the sparks will work literally everywhere.
Here a GIF you can use for the preview
Here an animation that can be used as preview
Aseprite has got a function to import such spritesheets automatically, but the program costs about 17$
I'll have a look at your last submissions and see if i can do something. However GIF files have a limit of 256 colors and no alpha channel on pixels. Usually sequences work with an extra masks for transparency. The example here has got 15 colors + alpha.
The second one has 64 colors.
There is a way to test it on a 8 bits gif, to get an idea on how the 32 bits sprite will actually work, as seen in the third image.
Wow, this is great!
I have got an idea about how to create an illustration with it.
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