User BG Clip

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How To Create User BG Clip

Here is a guide for creating your own BG clip:

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

Static image formats: JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, PCT and SWF (Flash).

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

Note: While SWF is mostly seen as a "movie" format, you can always use it to display a static image (taking advantage of its vector graphics capability). Just make sure the "movie" contained a timeline of at least 12 frames long.

2. You may use ANY resolution or screen ratio for your BG clip. Comixware will fit the height of your picture to the height of the its display window while maintain the picture's aspect ratio within the confine of the window. For example, if your movie is of the typical 4:3 screen ratio. When it's shown in the program's 2.35:1 display window, the picture will fill up the middle section of the screen leaving the two sides blank with black matte. However, we recommend the dimension of your BG clip to be proportional to Comixware's preset screen ratio: 2.35:1 (Panavision), 16:9 (Wide) or 4:3 (Standard). These screen ratios not only serve best for your Comixware presentation but also are compatible with industry standards used today.

For asset of bitmap media, the other factor to consider is whether you intend to output your movie for other uses. If you do, in what resolution and for what purpose the movie is to be exported. For example, if you want to do a HDTV output you should prepare your original bitmap assets according to HD standard: 1280 X 720 (or 1920 X 1080) in 16:9 ratio. Remember, for bitmap media the output can only be as good as its source.

HINT: For vector media (such as SWF) there is no resolution restriction by the original. Since it's resolution independent, you can blow up vector artwork to ANY output size.

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 that. 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 lengthen the clip with Scene Length control in SC mode.

4. IMPORTANT: Your SWF file should NOT be COMPRESSED. This measure ensures your SWF assets work and export correctly from Comixware. The best way to avoid confusion is to always publish your SWF in Flash 5 format. See instruction.

5. Make sure your asset's file name contained NO SPACE in it. For example, "My_Animation.swf" is ok, "My Animation.swf" is not. Also don't use any illegal character such as: \ / : * & . " ? < > | for your file name.

6. Locate the directory where you store your Timeline Assets. On a PC the path to this directory is usually C:\Comixware Assets\user\timeline\. You will see 10 bin folders under this directory, "bin1" through "bin10". Place your BG file(s) in desired bin(s). See The Physical Store of User Assets for more info. The next time you launch Comixware, thumbnail(s) of respective BG clip(s) will appear in the respective Timeline Asset Bin(s) ready to be used.

NOTE: Comixware creates asset thumbnail for you on-the-fly, dynamically drawing picture from the first frame of your BG clip.

7. There is a sample user BG file come with your Comixware package. Look for an empty Flash source file named "sample_bg_clip.fla" in bin1 of your "timeline" folder (C:\Comixware Assets\user\timeline\bin1). Use it as template for creating your own SWF BG clip.

8. The way to use your own assets is exactly the same as using Comixware vendor assets. You simply drag and drop your clips into Timeline for movie composition and editing.

9. A word of caution, depending on your system, clips of large file size and/or complex graphics (especially vector gradient composition) 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.