User (clips)

Comixware's greatest potential lies in its infinite extensibility. One of such examples is its ability to allow user to use his/her own assets to create unique and totally customized movies. Tag 5 (under bin tab) is reserved precisely for such purpose. Any movie or static clip stored in "backgrounds" folder (Comixware > user > backgrounds) will show up in this tag space. This means that anyone can create his/her own background assets to be used in conjunction with (or independently from) Comixware's default assets. These "user" clips can be practically of any presentation nature (static picture, animation, or live action, either with or without soundtracks) and in any media format (JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, PCT, PSD, TIFF, SWF, QuickTime, AVI and etc.). And you can have as many clips stored in this bin as you'd like. The possibilities are endless and the requirement is minimum.

 

Creating User Clips

Here is a guide for creating your own BG clips:

1. You can use any of the following file formats to prepare your artwork, animation or movie in any way you want:

Static image formats: JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, PCT, TIFF, PSD (Photoshop) and TGA.

Movie formats: SWF (Flash), QuickTime, AVI, and MPEG.

Note: While SWF is defined here as a "movie" format, you can always use it to play a static image (taking advantage of its ability to publish vector graphics). Just make sure the "movie" contained of at least 12 frames in its timeline.

2. We recommend the dimension of your clip to be the same as Comixware's default screen size: 468px (width) by 187px (height). But you may use any resolution or screen ratio you want. Comixware will match the height of your movie to the default screen height while maintaining the aspect ratio of your picture. For example, if your movie is of the typical 3 x 4 screen ratio, the picture will fill up the middle section of the screen leaving the 2 sides blank with black matte.

3. If your movie is of SWF format and there is soundtrack in it, have the sound track started from frame 2 or anywhere after. Also note that your SWF movie should be of at least 12 frames long, even if it contains just a still picture. You can always shorten or extend the clip with Scene Length control in SC mode.

4. Locate the directory where you installed your Comixware (on a PC the path to this directory is usually C:\Program Files\Comixware). In it, find a sub-folder called "backgrounds" inside of "user" folder. Place your media file(s) in there. The next time you launch Comixware, voila, thumbnail(s) of your clip(s) will appear in user BG bin (tag 5) and ready for access.

Note: Comixware creates user thumbnail for you on-the-fly, dynamically drawing picture from the first frame of your user BG. Pretty cool, heh?

5. There is a sample Flash user BG file come with your Comixware package. Look for an empty Flash source file named "sampleBG.fla" in your "backgrounds" folder. Use it as template for creating your own SWF BG files.

6. The way to use your own assets is exactly the same as using Comixware's supplied assets. You simply drag and drop your clips into timeline for editing and composition.

7. A word of caution, depending on your system, clips with fat soundtracks and/or heavy graphics could impair your Comixware performance. Please also note that the performance of movie media (MPEG file in particular) is greatly influenced by individual system's software and hardware (processor and video board, etc.) configuration. The same media files may behave very differently on different systems. We generally recommend converting your MPEG files to QuickTime or AVI format for better performance in Comixware.