CREATING A SEQUENCE OF BITMAPS TO IMPORT INTO AUTHORWARE
USING ADOBE PHOTOSHOP 6.0
Before You Begin: You must have 2 folders named ORIGINALS and OUTPUT.
In the ORIGINALS folder, you must have your 24-bit sequence of bitmaps. The naming
convention of this sequence must be NNNNXXXX.bmp
where NNNN is any alphabetic name and XXXX is 0000, 0001, 0002, and so on (or
any other 4 numbers sequentially ordered). In the OUTPUT folder, there must be
nothing.
I. OPTIMIZING THE
PALETTE FOR THE SEQUENCE OF BITMAPS
You will need RAM
(Physical and Virtual Memory combined) that equates to 8 times the total file
size of your 24-bit bitmap sequence.
1) Open Adobe Image Ready 3.0
2) Select FILE / IMPORT / FOLDER
AS FRAMES...
3) In the Browse for Folder dialog
box, select the ORIGINALS folder that contains your 24-bit bitmaps and
press the OK button
Image Ready now imports all the bitmaps
sequentially into individual frames
4) In the Optimize Palette, Select
the following:
Settings: [Unnamed]
GIF
Lossy: 0
Selective
Colors:256
No Dither
Dither: <should be grayed out>
Uncheck Transparency
Matte: None
Uncheck Interlaced
Web Snap: 0%
5) In the Window that reads Untitled-1 where
the first image in your sequence is displayed, select the Optimized Tab
Image Ready now calculates an optimized
palette for you sequence of 24-Bit bitmaps. This takes a while depending on how
large your original images are and how much Physical memory you have. If you
run out of Physical and Virtual memory, then this optimization cannot complete.
Adjust the amount of Virtual Memory on you machine when applicable to complete
this step.
6) After this optimization has completed, an
optimized color table will be produced in the Color Table Palette. Press
the Options Button (a circular button with a triangle inside) on the
Color Table Palette. In the flyout that is produced
when you click on this button, select Save Color Table... and save the
color table in the same directory as your 24-bit bitmaps.
7) Close Image Ready WITHOUT saving
the animation
II. CREATING AN ACTION
THAT CONVERTS YOUR 24-BIT BITMAPS TO 8-BIT INDEXED COLOR BITMAP USING AN
OPTIMIZED PALETTE
1) Open Adobe Photoshop 6.0
2) In the Actions Palette, press the Create
New Action button, name your action My Conversion, and press the Record
button
3) Select FILE / OPEN...,
select the first bitmap in your 24-bit bitmap sequence in your ORIGINALS
folder, and press the Open button
4) Select IMAGE / MODE / INDEXED
COLOR...
5) In the Indexed Color dialog box,
select the Palette Combo Box and choose Custom...
6) In the Color Table dialog box,
press the Load... button and select the palette that you saved in Image
Ready and press the Load button
6.5) If your Color Table
has fewer than 256 colors, then you need to place additional colors in the
Color Table until you have 256 colors. To do this, select the first
box in the color table that does NOT contain a color by pressing and holding
the left mouse button and dragging the mouse to the lower right corner on the
color table; thus, select all the
"blank" color boxes. After releasing the mouse button, a Color Picker Dialog Box will pop up.
In the Color Picker Dialog Box, select a color that does not appear in your
current Color Table. After selecting that color in the Color Picker Dialog Box, press the OK button. If you selected a
range of "blank" color boxes from the Color Table (vice just 1), then
a second Color Picker Dialog Box will
pop up. The previous (1st) Color Picker Dialog Box specifies the Start
Color for the range, while this 2nd Color Picker Dialog Box specifies the End
Color for the range; moreover, Photoshop will gradually change the colors of
the in-between "blank" color boxes from the Start to End Colors. Since you do not want a gradual change in
color for each "blank" color box,
then (in that 2nd Color Picker Dialog
Box) press the OK button in
order to fill the range of "blank" color boxes with the same color.
7) In the Color Table dialog box,
press the OK button
8) In the Indexed Color dialog box,
select the Dither Combo Box and select your Dithering options (we
selected None)
Dithering will substantially improve the
look of gradients in an 8-bit bitmap. Posterization
occurs when gradients exists in an 8-bit bitmap; however, file size increases
when dithering is used. IMPORTANT NOTE: You can choose to
dither only a selection of bitmaps, rather than all / none of the bitmaps.
9) In the Indexed Color dialog box,
ensure that the following settings are in place:
Palette: Custom...
Colors: 256
Forced: <Grayed Out>
Transparency <Grayed Out>
Matte: <Grayed Out>
Dither: None <or whatever you
chose>
Amount: <Grayed Out>
Preserve Exact Colors <Grayed Out>
10) In the Indexed Color dialog box,
press the OK button
11) Select FILE / SAVE AS...,
select your OUTPUT folder, and press the Save button
12) In the BMP Options dialog box,
select Windows in the File Format area, select 8-bit in the Depth
Area, uncheck Compress (RLE), and press the OK button
13) Select FILE / CLOSE
14) In the Actions Palette, press the
Stop Playing/Recording button
III. USEING A BATCH
PROCESS TO CONVERT ALL OF THE 24-BIT BITMAPS INTO 8-BIT BITMAPS
1) Select FILE / AUTOMATE / BATCH...
2) In the Batch dialog box, select
the action (My Conversion) that you just recorded in the Play area
3) In the Batch dialog box, select
the Source Combo Box and choose Folder
4) In the Batch dialog box, press the
Choose... button in the Source area
5) In the Browse for Folders dialog
box, select your ORIGINALS folder and press the OK button
6) In the Batch dialog box, check
the Override Action "Open" Command check box and uncheck
both the Include All Subfolders and Suppress Color Profile Warnings
check boxes in the Source area
Over Action "Open" Command allows
all editable images in your ORIGINALS folder to be opened up, not just then
image recorded in your action.
7) In the Batch dialog box, select
the Destination Combo Box and choose Folder
8) In the Batch dialog box, press the
Choose... button in the Destination area
9) In the Browse for Folders dialog
box, select your OUTPUT folder and press the OK button
10) In the Batch dialog box, check
the Override Action "Save In" Command check box
Override Action "Save In" Command
allows the currently open image to be saved in your OUTPUT folder using that
image's name, not just the image's name that you used in your action.
11) In the File Naming area of the Batch
dialog box, ensure that the first combo box reads Document Name and that
the second combo box reads extension
12) In the Batch dialog box, select
the Errors Combo Box and choose Stop For
Errors
13) In the Batch dialog box, press
the OK button
Photoshop now begin the process of opening
every bitmap in the ORIGINALS folder, playing the My Conversion action on it,
and saving it in the OUTPUT folder.
14) Close Photoshop
IV. RELIEVEING THE FIRST
BITMAP OF THE NEW 8-BIT BITMAP SEQUENCE OF ADOBE'S PROPRIETARY INFORMATION
When Adobe Photoshop 6.0 saves an indexed
bitmap, it saves information in the bitmap that causes Authorware
to reject the first image when importing in sequence of bitmaps. The first
image in a sequence of bitmaps contains the palette that will be used for the
entire sequence (regardless of the palettes of the remaining images in the
sequence). Therefore, we must complete 2 task. First,
we must retain the palette in the first photoshop
bitmap that we just created so that colors do not shift because of palette
differences between the first bitmap and the remaining bitmaps. Second, we must
strip that first bitmap of Adobe Photoshop's proprietary information, so that
we can import this new 8-bit sequence of Photoshop bitmaps into Authorware. The free graphics program that is included with
Windows NT 4 (Imaging for Windows NT by Wang Inc.) satisfies both of these
requirements. If you use Windows ME,
then you will need to use MS Paint because the Eastman Kodak version of Imaging
for Windows does not strip Adobe Photoshop's proprietary information from the
bitmap. This version of MS Paint is the
version that allows you to save an image in .GIF format as well as .BMP
format. The version of MS Paint that is
included with Windows NT 4 does not support saving files in .GIF format.
For Windows NT 4
1) Open Imaging for Windows NT by Wang
Inc.
If a program icon exists in the Start Menu
for Imaging, the path is usually:
Start / Programs / Accessories / Imaging
If the program icon doesn't exists (but Imaging has been loaded from the Windows NT
CD-ROM), the path is usually:
C:\Program Files\Windows
NT\Accessories\ImageVue\wangimg.exe
If the program hasn't been installed, you
can usually find it on the Windows NT CD-ROM
2) Select FILE / OPEN..., open
the first image of your new 8-bit bitmap sequence from your OUTPUT
folder, and press the Open button
You will now overwrite this bitmap
3) Select FILE / SAVE AS...,
select the exact same first image of your new 8-bit bitmap sequence from your OUTPUT
folder, and press the Save button
4) In the Save As warning message
box, press the YES button
For Windows ME
1) Open MS Paint
If a program icon exists in the Start Menu
for Imaging, the path is usually:
Start / Programs / Accessories / Paint
If the program icon doesn't exists (but Imaging has been loaded from the Windows ME
CD-ROM), the path is usually:
C:\Program Files\Accessories\MSPAINT.EXE
If the program hasn't been installed, you
can usually find it on the Windows ME CD-ROM
2)
Select FILE / OPEN..., open the first image of your new
8-bit bitmap sequence from your OUTPUT
folder, and press the Open button
3)
Select FILE / SAVE AS..., keep the same name as the
.bmp file that you just opened, select Save
as type Combo Box, choose Graphics
Interchange Format (*.gif), and press the Save button
Saving your file as a .GIF will allow you to
keep the palette that you worked so hard to create, but it will discard the
Adobe Photoshop proprietary information that is in the bitmap that you just
opened up
You will now overwrite this bitmap
4)
Select FILE / SAVE AS..., keep the same name as the
original .bmp file that you just opened, select Save as type Combo Box, choose 256
Color Bitmap (*.bmp; *.dib), and press the Save button
5) In
the Save As warning message box,
press the YES button
You now have a sequence of
bitmaps that can be imported into Authorware's Digital
Movie Icon!!! SWEEET!!!
