[larryb123456]

With tomorrow being a national election day in the United States, I thought it appropriate to make a userbar for Barack Obama, who's seeking a second 4-year term as President (this comment is just a little FYI for non-USA members and visitors to the site), http://i1196.photobu...OOED173KB-1.gif



This is a frame-by-frame animation: 80 unique frames, 0.09 sec display time per frame, 255 colors, 350x19px, 173 KB. The U.S.A. flag (a 5-frame animated GIF) and the Obama JPEG are scrolled vertically at the rate of 1 pixel per frame.

I really like this image of Obama, who is smiling as if he has already won the election.

The phrase "Yes We Can !" is an Obama slogan from his 2008 Presidential campaign and I used it in the userbar -- (rather than his current, 2012, slogan "Forward !") -- since it has 11 characters, the same number as Barack Obama has. These 11 characters allowed me to do an interesting (IMO) choreography: as the letters in Barack Obama are "pulsed" forward, the characters in "Yes We Can !" disappear *precisely* in the reverse direction, and vice versa. This choreography would not be as precise with "Forward !", which has 10 characters. I think I could have used "Forward !" and no one would have noticed the lack of preciseness because of the speed of the letter pulsations and letter disappearances, but, being something of a perfectionist, I used the precise "Yes We Can !".



---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some Barack Obama quotes:
"If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress."
"I'm a warrior for the middle class."
“A change is brought about because ordinary people do extraordinary things.”
“You can’t let your failures define you. You have to let your failures teach you.”
“Why can't I just eat my waffle?”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[larryb123456]

I was getting ready to make a Post when I saw a bug crawling around on the MSFN page. I chased after it and confined it between the 2 dashed horizontal lines below. I think that will corral it pretty good because the bug is apparently too stupid to realize it could escape my trap by simply going out the left or right side. The bug just seems content to meander around in a path similar to the infinity symbol, . We'll just have to keep an eye on it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[bphlpt]

One of the old classics. Thanks Larry!

[larryb123456]

@bphlpt:
You're welcome !

[larryb123456]

I checked back in to see if the bug I trapped in my Post # 402 had escaped the confines of the 2 dashed horizontal lines. Not only was the original bug still there, but 2 additional bugs were also trapped. My guess is that these 2 additional bugs were on a rescue mission to free the first bug, but when they entered the 2-dashed-horizontal-line "zone", their IQs were reduced to zip-nada and they also were unable to escape. All 3 bugs just seems content to meander around in a path similar to the infinity symbol, . We'll just have to keep an eye on this developing situation.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[larryb123456]

Being worried about the MSFN bug problem, I checked back in to see -- lo and behold -- another drastic multiplication of the little critters, as shown below. If they keep multiplying like this, they will have enough strength, en masse, to push down the dashed-horizontal-lines confining barrier, invade MSFN full force, and wreak havoc on the sensitive computers therein. I think all the bugs are genetically related, since they all share the same quirky behavior of meandering around in a path similar to the infinity symbol, . Something has to be done to stop this bug invasion, before serious damage is done. I think I have an idea that might work. We'll just have to keep an eye on this developing situation.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[larryb123456]

Knowing that time was of the essence in eradicating the bugs and thereby saving MSFN, I called Orkin Pest Exterminators to see if they could help out. They certainly did, ASAP, as the result below shows, with all the rapidly-propagating bugs being given a 1-way ticket to bug heaven, where they'll stay until infinity, .
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Orkin !!!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This post has been edited by larryb123456: 06 November 2012 - 05:35 PM

[jaclaz]

Did they not clean the mess of the dead corpses after having KILLED the poor, little GOD's creatures?



You may want to ADDITIONALLY clean the monitor from the inside
http://www.msfn.org/...ost__p__1012588



jaclaz

[larryb123456]

Orkin Pest Exterminators are the KILLERS, as demonstrated in my last Post, while Merry Maids are the Cleaners, as demonstrated below,
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Orkin and Merry Maids !!!


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[larryb123456]

The animated GIF userbar presented in this Post might be of interest to some video-game-player members or visitors to the site. The userbar combines the 2 recently-released games Assassin's Creed III and Assassin's Creed III: Liberation.

These games are historical action-adventure video games. Assassin's Creed III is set in Colonial Era America from 1753 to 1783, before, during and after the American Revolution. Assassin's Creed III: Liberation is set between 1765 and 1780, around the end of the American French and Indian War, in 18th Century New Orleans. It features the first female protagonist of the series.

The userbar is shown below, http://i1196.photobu...pxOOED217KB.gif



This is a frame-by-frame animation: 100 frames (96 unique), 0.07 sec display time per frame, 255 colors, 350x20px, 217 KB. The figure/title JPEG is scrolled vertically at the rate of 3 px per frame, since it is tall, at 150px.

There were 2 resources used in making the userbar:
# 1) the figure image
# 2) the Assassin's Creed III: Liberation logo

It should be clear by looking at the userbar how I cropped and combined # 1 and # 2 to get the JPEG that I vertically scrolled. The phrase "Assassin's Creed III" from # 2, by itself, is also one of the Assassin's Creed III logos. Of course, I put the word "Liberation" on the left side of the userbar. As far as the letter-pulsing "choreography", I only pulse the "Liberation" panel when the figure image is in view, and I only pulse "player" when "Assassin's Creed III" is visible. I like this userbar because of the great figure image and the "striking" font used in the logo.

I'm not a video game player, but the game descriptions discuss assassins with their expected associated forms of violence. I'm sure, however, that these assassins are not nearly as brutal as this one.

[larryb123456]

Android (developed by Google) is a Linux-based operating system designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. Their "mascot" is an Android robot man named Droid. It was because of Droid -- (specifically because of an animated dancing Droid) that I made the animated GIF userbar presented in this Post, http://i1196.photobu...pxOOED183KB.gif



This is a frame-by-frame animation: 84 unique frames, 0.09 sec display time per frame, 255 colors, 350x19px, 183 KB. The Dancing Droid is a 12-frame animated GIF scrolled vertically at the rate of 3px per frame. The background with the moving scanline pattern is a 2-frame animated GIF.

My resource Dancing Droid GIF had 148 frames, way too many for me to scroll in a userbar animation. So, I modified the resource GIF by eliminating all but 12 frames to arrive at a reasonable number of frames to deal with. I am pleased with my modification -- (even though it doesn't have all the resource GIF's dance moves) -- because the dancing motion is smooth. The 148-frame resource GIF is shown below on the left and my 12-frame modification is shown on the right.



Even though the Dancing Droids have some pretty funky dance moves, they do not have nearly the amazingly funky moves of this man.

[jaclaz]

Another request.

From time to time I need could make use of an emoticon expressing "ducking quickly", in the sense of:

Quote

to move your head or the top part of your body quickly down, especially to avoid being hit

Ideally it could be based on the "whistling" one:


suddenly "flatting down" to avoid a ball or other object thrown at it....
and then re-appearing after the object has gone, like - as an example - the left emoticon in:


BTW, nice robot dance

jaclaz

[dencorso]

jaclaz, on 23 November 2012 - 08:33 AM, said:

BTW, nice robot dance

In 12 frames? No, not just nice: *fantabulous* robot dance!!!

[larryb123456]

@ dencorso:
Thanks for your *fantabulous* compliment.
But the real praise belongs to the person (or people) who made the 148-frame resource GIF.
(That must have been a lot of work.)
I was nothing but a "cherry picker" in this escapade.
Also thanks, jaclaz.

This post has been edited by larryb123456: 25 November 2012 - 07:43 PM

[larryb123456]

@ jaclaz:

I made an animation meeting the specs of your Post # 412, with just a little of my own input to put the meaning of "duck" in better visual perspective.

ducking.jaclaz.GIF, http://i1196.photobu...2pxOOED25KB.gif



This is a frame-by-frame animation: 64 frames, 72x22px, 255 colors, 25 KB.

Notice how the right-side emoticon enters the "arena" moving left, after being completely out of sight, from the right side. To balance that out, I have the left-side emoticon duck completely out of the picture, after ducking the rock, and wait a while before tentatively re-entering the arena to start whistling again.

IMO, mission accomplished.

Aside from adjusting frame display times -- (i.e., speeding certain aspects up or down) -- for various parts of the overall "choreography" -- to suit you -- that is *all* I will be doing on this project. There will be no more characters entering this play, and the ones presently in it will not be performing any different acts.

I have absolutely no wish to get involved in "Devil Text Redux".

The following is FYI:

If you go on the internet to get animated GIFs, they very frequently advertise sets as animated GIFs "for dark backgrounds" or "for light backgrounds". Of course, these are not *true* animated GIFs as the Forrest Text and Devil Text are. These advertised sets have either light or dark irregular, "ziggy-zaggy" outlines around the "GIF" objects.

It is in this sense that the 2 resource GIFs used in this project are "for light backgrounds", as can be seen when they are played on a darker (i.e., purple) background, as shown below.

jaclaz.duck."transparent.GIF".on.purple.background, http://i1196.photobu...ckpurplebkg.gif



jaclaz.whistle."transparent.GIF".on.purple.background, http://i1196.photobu...lepurplebkg.gif



Of course, my animation fares no better than the 2 resource GIFs, since these 2 GIFs are integral components, http://i1196.photobu...ebackground.gif



---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush."
Doug Larson

"I can whistle with my fingers, especially if I have a whistle."
Mitch Hedberg

“We can choose to throw stones, to stumble on them, to climb over them, or to build with them.”
William Arthur Ward
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[dencorso]

larryb123456, on 25 November 2012 - 10:36 PM, said:

IMO, mission accomplished.

Well... don't look now, but... well, I guess... not exactly. Aham. I do think jaclaz actually meant precisely what the left-side emoticon does, without the right-side one ever being seen (but instead presumed). However, since I'm thinking about it, to complicate things somewhat more, it could end-up not with a frightened expression, but with a big smile like this: or even with an angel-face such as this (which is also very appropriate right here):
<ducks />

[larryb123456]

The userbar animation in my Post # 410 dealt with the 2 recently-released video games Assassin's Creed III and Assassin's Creed III: Liberation. Many TV ads here have been promoting another just-released game, Call of Duty: Black Ops II. I checked out some of the graphics, liked them, and thought I could make an animation as striking (IMO) as that in Post # 410, by vertically scrolling a large-sized image also at 3px per frame, to keep the total number of frames in the animation low. (BTW, the large animated Dancing Droid GIF in my Post # 411 is also scrolled at 3 px per frame.) Another benefit of scrolling 1 large JPEG or GIF, as opposed to 2 smaller ones in the same animation, is that it is easier, since the movement of 2 objects at the same time is not dealt with.

But back to Call of Duty: Black Ops II. The animated GIF userbar I made is shown below, http://i1196.photobu...pxOOED315KB.gif



This is a frame-by-frame animation: 96 unique frames, 0.10 sec display time per frame, 255 colors, 350x19px, 315 KB. The figure/logo JPEG is scrolled vertically at the rather fast rate of 3px per frame, since it is tall, at 143px. The fast scrolling rate keeps the total number of frames in the animation low. The background with the moving scanlines is a 2-frame animated GIF.

There were 2 resources I chose to use (i.e., scale independently and combine into 1 image):
# 1) logo
# 2) figure

I could have made an image variation on the box cover, but I felt that such a dark image would be hard to see clearly when scrolled in a userbar.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The obvious objective of video games is to entertain people by surprising them with new experiences."
Shigeru Miyamoto

“I like video games, but they're really violent. I'd like to play a video game where you help the people who were shot in all the other games. It'd be called 'Really Busy Hospital.”
Demetri Martin

"Psychos will always be psychos, they don't need video games to help them."
Scott Ramsoomair, GameCore Interview

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."
Isaac Asimov
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[larryb123456]

@ jaclaz and dencorso:

Based on dencorso's response, it looks like I missed jaclaz's intent, even though my little rock/whistle "melodrama" might win an Academy Award.

Jaclaz, what I need from you is an ultra-precise, step-by-step "choreography" (as in a dance) of what you want to happen in the animation and, of course, with which emoticon(s). Leave out any irrelevant BS like the magician with the magic wand -- (you could have at least precisely said to ignore that part) -- for as you can see my Forrest Gumpian mind is easily confused. Maybe you and dencorso could work out together (maybe in PMs) the choreography, because he has a tendency to jump in in midstream anyway as in his recent Post.

I will not be able to start on the work for a few days, but I can check in to see what choreography you come up with and we can have back and forth to make *sure* everything is perfectly clear. I will not start until it is is perfectly clear. At that point, there will be no re-dos, no going backs, etc., etc, etc. Make it so there is absolutely no "wiggle room" for me to deviate from your choreography.

KEEP IT SIMPLE

[dencorso]

larryb123456, on 26 November 2012 - 02:57 AM, said:

Maybe you and dencorso could work out together (maybe in PMs) the choreography, because he has a tendency to jump in in midstream anyway as in his recent Post.

Yes... I guess I do...

Moreover, jaclaz and I rarely agree in full (although I do think we both strive to, in many occasions) and this is jaclaz's request (which I tried to explain further based solely on my -- each day more -- imperfectly tuned crystal ball) so, IMO, he has the last word on any aspect of the project. I do, however, reckon such a "ducks" emoticon would be truly very useful, and I've never seen one such emoticon, up to now.

[larryb123456]

@ dencorso:

Me: Maybe you and dencorso could work out together (maybe in PMs) the choreography, because he has a tendency to jump in in midstream anyway as in his recent Post.
You: Yes... I guess I do...

No, dencorso, that should be Yes... I guess I do...
because I know you are just trying to be helpful in as many ways as you can.

I guess I just saw Devil Text Redux coming on the horizon, and to be honest, I didn't understand at all what you meant in the closing of your Post. (Please don't try to explain, for I'm sure it will give me a headache ..... ..... lol)

This post has been edited by larryb123456: 26 November 2012 - 04:07 AM