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What kinds of images do you have?

1. Introduction

I make all kinds of animated images, and now I'm starting to get into 3D animation using the same 2D field I've been using for a long time. My latest image is of a stunt in which you jump from a rocket going 400 mph, land and successfully stop. Many images are resized to show you the details far more clearly, but they also have a "normal size" version as well just below it.

All new additions will appear on the very bottom of this list under a new section.

2. Very fine movement

This image is an illusion! Watch very carefully. Those bars are moving, but they seem to be moving very slow and somehow very smoothly. This is one of the key things the effects of averaging colors can do, a big key thing! What's the secret? Consider it magnified to quadruple width:

Do you notice 2 columns of appearantly faded colors? Look carefully and you'll see this. At quadruple width, it's easy to see, but at normal size, you can't tell too much of a difference. How this appearant finer-than-your-resolution movement really work? Simple, it's calculated using the averaging method^**.

3. Ferris wheel and clouds

This is one of the most colorful and beautiful animations yet.! Not only does the ferris wheel seem to move fast, the spokes don't [which means that the actual wheel itself isn't moving, only seems so by the light patterns]. Look up once and see the beautiful 3D clouds flowing seemlessly forever! All that was needed was just 11 columns and 37 rows of nothing but numbers. Each column was needed for each "level" of clouds. The top ones are closer, thus move faster and have the lowest level. The more distant clouds near the center move slower and have the highest level. Each row is an individual frame. Each cell in the spreadsheet document was the specific distance that the cloud level needed to move for that frame. This chart below shows you the idea of this for the first 12 frames [note that there is no frame 1 and an 11th column]:

                              base*
frame  5/3   3/2   4/3   7/6    1    5/6   2/3   1/2   1/3   1/6
  2     1     1     1     1     1     0     0     0     0     0
  3     2     2     1     1     1     1     1     1     0     0
  4     2     1     2     1     1     1     1     0     1     0
  5     1     2     1     1     1     1     0     1     0     0
  6     2     1     1     1     1     1     1     0     0     0
  7     2     2     2     2     1     1     1     1     1     1
  8     1     1     1     1     1     0     0     0     0     0
  9     2     2     1     1     1     1     1     1     0     0
 10     2     1     2     1     1     1     1     0     1     0
 11     1     2     1     1     1     1     0     1     0     0
 12     2     1     1     1     1     1     1     0     0     0
 13     2     2     2     2     1     1     1     1     1     1

Table footnotes:
* Base is the calculated precise distance the clouds need to move each frame to provide great accuracy. Because you can't have a fraction of a pixel without using averaging effects^**, the values below have been rounded down.

If you've noticed it, every other 6th frame is exactly the same. In other words, frame 10 would be that of frame 4, 11 for 5, 12 for 6, 13 for 7, 14 for 8 and so on to 37 counted . Because the would-be 37 has the exact same image as frame 1, there's no need to do it, which is why it repeats flawlessly. But with only the clouds, how did the ferris wheel get in there?

This comes from using a concept I call "layering". Objects more distant are hidden behind objects in the same path of light that are closer. To do this well, I needed a separate animation with it's own individual frames.

This part had one big step, and a big "accidental" discovery that lead to solving how to divide a circle into even parts. Knowing the stitch marks ideas described how I make videos [mind game edition], the same concept works with circles as well, though it's much harder to use, mainly because of guessing and reguessing repeatedly unlike it being direct with normal stitch marks. Because I liked the pattern of the flashing lights I saw in my mind game^*, I needed something in the way of a multiple of 12 to make the spacing even, but as big as possible in the same size. Because this image was intended as my avatar in a forum, in which the maximum size was 80x80, I limited the size to 80 by 60, a 4:3 aspect ratio, the ones I'm so used to. The biggest circle I could get was 144 pixels around. That was all that was needed to start the animation needed for the ferris wheel.

After that was completed, I was ready to paste the animation of the ferris wheel into the animation of the clouds. Because of the fact that the clouds are based on 10 frames per second and that the ferris wheel is on 3 1/3, 1 frame of the ferris wheel went to 3 frames on the clouds, which produced the fact that the ferris wheel and the clouds were animations on top of one another.

4. The amazing race

This animation is of a very high-speed race to cross water the fastest. In it, you see the usual race-type words: "Ready? Set? Go!" at the beginning. At that moment, the little guy starts juicing up energy [noted by the arm movement], then releases it all in a powerful blast, known in my mind game^* as "speed blast". This ability allows you to suddenly force atoms in the direction opposite you wish to go to pressurize greatly. Upon releasing the pressure, the atoms force you to gain loads of speed in almost unmeasurable times [to the human eye that is]. Yeah, it pulls about 3500 G's for a dash from 0 to 300 [1 G is from 0 to 21.9 mph in one second, if constant], here, you're going from 0 to 300 [if in 1 second, 14 G's are pulled], in about .004 seconds! Yet, you're immune to all forms of drag caused from low-density mediums [like air, but the maximum density, before drag occurs, is about 40% more dense than air at sea level, thus, water is a limitation. The float run, which is revealed when the speed blast occurs, is a special ability that removes ground-related drag. It can only be used once you pass 70 mph, and when it's used, you hover about an inch or so off the ground. Since water is too dense, you run across the water an inch above it allowing you to cross it very quickly without even getting wet! Throw in a few crocs, paranahs, etc., you're going by so fast that nothing can really catch you! After crossing the blue water, stopping is truely essential. Stopping from 300 mph is not easy. Yet, I had to take out a few number notes with the help of MSWorks' spreadsheet to allow the deceleration to be realistic and accurate enough. "Puffs", those little white things, also presented a challenge. For realism, when you stop from a high speed, sliding along the ground, you stir up a lot of dust, thus, the purpose of the puffs. These puffs, to provide enhanced realism, had to be large at the beginning and shrink down as the speed decreased. In my mind game, deceleration, from stopping [making puffs] is always 100 mph per second, about 4 17/30 G's. As the guy finally stops after 3 seconds, you see text saying that you won a million dollars. I thought of this for one major thing: If one can cross a river close to a mile wide without the aid of any machine is far less than 10 seconds, that's an astonishing feat that is practically unbeatable [unless I decide to gather up more energy to blast away at 760 mph, the speed of sound. Stopping from here would be something....]. Because loopability is an absolute essential, and that I wanted to make it more of a video game, I thought of the menu thing you saw with the credit card animation below [wait until the "months" line reaches about 80, then you'll start to see it]. This one is more of a game-related type. After this point, you'll see the "loading..." followed by the percentage. It goes by so quickly that it is hard to catch.

5. A credit card computer cartoon

This interesting credit card-related animation tells of my worst fears of them from hearing all the credit card debt stuff over advertisements, and other sources. Though, if you wait 'til 80 months have gone by [in the image, not in reality], you'll see something rather strange. I very frequently call credit cards, "debt-causin' credit cards", and there's a couple o' reasons why:

All those advertisements about credit card debt has a large influence on this.
Pay $100 in merchandise or otherwise with credit card, pay them an extra $10 [assuming 10% interest], which, I believe, is just a waste of money that could be used on something else like food and drinks.

Update: if you were to leave this page running in the background without stopping it, you'll see that the "credit cards suspended" count increases. After 55.8 seconds, the count goes up one. If you wait nearly 12 hours or so, it'll be way into the hundreds. Note, if you're using a slow internet connection, like that of below 256 Kbps, especially dial-up connections, you're very likely to see that the image is delayed, that is, because it takes time to load, the image will start later than all others making the count somewhat inaccurate. Also, if you decide to run a virus scanner, or make the computer do a lot of reading and writing on the hard drive, it'll get further delayed, regardless of your connection type. I've tested this in my image tester that's stored on my system [to make very quick adjustments and preview it to fix something if needed], then, my virus scanner started, and the count increase when the animation of the debt value was halfway through [about month 45 or so], the count changed unexpectedly.

6. The amazing stunt

Travelling at 550 mph on a wing of a rocket, the little guy jumps off of it, uses the flash attack to head straight down and land. After landing, the little guy then spends 5.5 seconds stopping from 550 mph. This time, the puffs are going by so much faster that they seem to flash rapidly. This animation is very much like that of my mind game videos, only a much lower resolution. Instead of a typical 320 by 240 resolution, and because it was used as an avatar for a forum in which the size limit was 80 by 80, the next best size was 80 by 60, keeping the same 4:3 aspect ratio. After a hard landing and a massive stop from 550 mph, some text appears saying "What a stunt!". Then "S+" appears over the image as if it was being stamped on. This is a ranking. It's almost unbeatable.

What went into making this animation? Simple: a bunch of numbers. Using an MSWorks spreadsheet document, I've compiled the list of movements for the background scenery. An idea of what the spreadsheet may be like is something like this:

Rocket jump-out stunt math notes
Speed of rocket: 550 mph
clouds	mntns	hills	flags^**	horiz		vertic	vertic	clouds	mntns	hills	disp SPD	notes/actions
1600^*	800	200		speed	frame	speed	position	1600	800	200		notes/actions
0^***	0^***	0^***	x	550	1	0^�	0^�	28.5^��	35^��	50^��	550^��
0.35	0.6875	2.75	x	550	2	0	0	28.5	35	50	550
0.7	1.375	5.5	x	550	3	0	0	28.5	35	50	550
1.05	2.0625	8.25	x	550	4	0	0	28.5	35	50	550
1.4	2.75	11	x	550	5	0	0	28.5	35	50	552.2680509	jumps; becomes a ball^��
1.75	3.4375	13.75	x	550	6	49	49	28.530625	35.06125	50.245	552.0905723
2.1	4.125	16.5		550	7	47	96	28.56	35.12	50.48	551.9202841
2.45	4.8125	19.25		550	8	45	141	28.588125	35.17625	50.705	551.757193
2.8	5.5	22		550	9	43	184	28.615	35.23	50.92	551.6013053

Table footnotes:
* This number indicates the scaling of this part of the background scenery. This means that every 1600 units of measure, the background moves 1 unit making it seem very distant. The same goes for the 800 and 200.
** Flags are my indication that I've completed that frame. A small little x goes here. If you're seeing what I'd normally see, this means that I've left off on frame 7, meaning that frame 7 is the next frame I process.
*** These numbers in these three columns indicate how far the background scenery has moved. The formula for this is the units travelled divided by the scaling of the scenery this column deals with.
^� This column tells me what the character's average speed is, in mph. Note how, after some nonvertical movement, that it jumps to 49 then decreases by 2 each frame?
^� This column is only used to help me know when the rocket will reappear after the jump and falling. It's supposedly temporary.
^�� This column tells you the position of the background scenery, very much like that of footnote ***. These start on different values for one main reason. It tells you what the coordinate value is of the lowest portion of that part of the background scenery. It enhances realism and is used as a check to ensure I'm doing it right. If the numbers didn't match, I'd go back and check the values until I find the point in which I made a mistake and fix it from there.
^�� This column lets me know what the display speed is, what is shown on the screen. Ever notice frame 5's value? Somehow it doesn't match. The reason is because the character is going 50 mph and that's based on the moment the frame should actually appear, not the average speed.
^�� Just like my scripts, this indicates any special note or action. In this case, the character just starts to jump and the character becomes a ball.

That's a lot of information given for just nine frames! This is why the animations appear so flawless. This senseless mess of numbers has much more meaning than what it may seem. If you were to watch the animation in very slow motion, you'll see this in high detail very easily. Because I can't have a fraction of a pixel without involving averaging and dithering effects [increasing the file size a lot], for coordinates, I round down, ignoring what's past the decimal point. The displayed speed value, however, is rounded to the nearest. It uses the Pythagorean Theorum to get this value [with some adjustments made with the average speeds indicated]. If you'd think that doing nine frames is rough [well 8], try 150 frames! This animation contains 150 frames involving all these numbers. Yet, this isn't all of the numbers. Just to the right of this table is more numbers, those used for the movements of those little puffs I seem to like.

7. A new way to light fireworks

Starting since I was very young, typically about 7 years old � 1 year, I was involved with fireworks and lighting them. Since then, every year I've lit fireworks thus I have plenty of experience with them. I'm also familiar with some of the terms involved with fireworks, mainly the basic ones, not the special chemicals used to make the special effects. This image shows you a way to light fireworks, the old fashioned way, and, as a surprise, a strange, new way to light a firework. Safer for you, but if you're still not careful, you'll get the firework's effects on the ground instead of the sky! Care for fire spells^***? Cast create to make the firework you want, then cast fire to light it. Dumb, but it works. Though, spells can be casted from even hundreds of millions of miles away, provided you know the exact distance and place and are very aware of fire spells^�. This image is also physically accurate by means of the acceleration of the background's movement and timings. My favorite part about this is the part about the old way and how the sparks come from the fuse. Nearly impossible to see in the small window, best viewed in the magnified version.

Footnotes:
* My mind game is my futuristic video game that I play in my mind often. To learn all about it, read this report.
** Averaging is where you use a mathematical process to simulate transparency to any degree or simulate fractions of a pixel. To learn more, read section 4 here.
*** Fire spells and create spells are just two of the many types of spells available. To learn more about them, Click the correct series name in the table here.
^� The explanation on the nature of spells is explained in sections 5 and 7 here.