I'm trying to make my second animated boot logo. Oddly, I didn't document the process from my first ABL, so I'm starting from scratch.

In ImageReady 7, how do I convert my 25 frame animated PSD to a 4 color animated GIF? In Photoshop 7, I'd use the Image > Mode > Indexed Color > somehow select a palette (next question) and try each of the different dithering options and percentages. This option doesn't appear to be in ImageReady. Or did I do it in Photoshop (frame by frame?!).

Also, can anyone verify that I'm building the four color palette correctly. My previous ABL shows I used the colors 000000 (black), FFFFFF (white), 505050 (dark gray, 80% for R G B), 606060 (light gray, 96% for R G B). The only place I see to set this palette is in the above mentioned Index Color mode change window, which I don't see in Image Ready. I got these values from the FAQ, but I'm not sure I'm using them correctly.

My test animation, using frames from the source videos, is attached. Volvo 740 wagon fishtailing and a Benz E55 AMG wagon (newer body than mine) power sliding. The frame rate is very low in order to fit the whole clips, which I may change once I know it will look ok after dithering. I also need to stabilize the left video, but only if the test looks ok.

Thanks!

You might wanna try just opening it in the Jemplode animation editor as-is and seeing if it works. Maybe it'll just do the color reduction for you. It might not dither, but for a video like that, you might not need dithering and solid color posterization would work best anyway.

I personally don't know how to use ImageReady. It might not even have the option you're looking for... so many modern graphics tools are geared towards modern systems with unlimited color display capabilities. Palette manipulation tools are getting rarer and rarer.

Found it. In ImageReady, it's all about "optimization". First, use the Color Table palette (Window > Color Table) to create the 4 color empeg palette described above.

Open the Optimization palette (Window > Optimize). Tell it to use the Custom color table whose dropdown should show 4 colors. NOW you can change the dither method and the % amount of dither.

Then the magic happens: 4-up view, showing original and three different dithers at once. Click View then Show Optimized, then again click View and Show 2-Up. Click a view and set its dithering options in the Optimization palette (ie: view 2 uses Diffusion, view 3 uses Pattern, view 4 uses Noise; or view 2 has 100% dither, view 3 has 85% dither, and view 4 has 70% dither).

Adjust brightness and contrast to modify how the empeg-optimized image, using hilights and shadows to show the most detail with those few colors. Keep trying different dither methods and percentages until one looks good. The method can make the 4 color result look quite different.

When finished, click File then Save Optimized As. That gives you an animated GIF (and if you don't know how to create the animation part to begin with, well I don't really either; I just keep inserting layers and frames, then showing a different layer in each frame). Done.

so... how does it look?

Looks kind of bad; not enough contrast where it's needed. I started painstakingly increasing the brightness in one area of each frame, which helped. If only I had software which "tracked" like I saw on the Lord of the Rings behind the scenes footage. I'll still try stabilizing the left video.

It's attached, if you can make out what's what in the gray mess.

I may just have to simplify things, but the lack of contrast still gets me.

If you haven't already, try uploading it to the player and see if it looks OK on the actual screen. Those shades of gray in your animated GIF preview, look like they're darker than what will actually appear on the screen, so it might come out all right in "real life".

Uploading logos to player software 1.03 is a bit tedious, so I'm holding off for now. I promise that I'll get my memory board installed and upgrade to 2.0 very soon.

From my notes:

Quote:
How to upload boot logos to 1.03:
11/28/04 -
Use Tony's logo editor to add Hijack 380.
Start Jemplode 45 and have it connect to the player.
Wait. It will give an error message. Wait some more. It will reboot and give another error message.
It won't show the database but will show the space used and space free.
Applications > Animation Editor
Load the animated .GIF or .RAW.
File > Upload animation
It will appear to freeze. Wait up to a minute. It will say when animation is uploaded.
Through Hijack on the player, reboot to see the new animation!!!!!!!!!!!!!

These sound like boot *Animations*, not boot *Logos* (completely different beasts, though we could get rid of Logos someday, I suppose..).

Here's the "simplified version". I really need to not get so carried away. I think it looks great, needs a tad more work, and could shave some of the 31 frames.

For the record, an updated process for uploading animated boot logos to a 1.03 player. The only thing I couldn't do without my 2.0 spare was have Jemplode animation editor convert the animated .gif to .raw. Could this be done in ImageReady?


Another boot logo upload method for 1.03:
10/22/06 -
Use Tony's logo editor to add Hijack 462.
Connect the spare empeg running 2.0 to ethernet and power.
Run the latest Jemplode (70), open the animaged gif, and Save As a .raw. Exit Jemplode.

Upload and set the .raw animated logo:
Download Mark's aniwrite
See this thread for uploading files
LITERAL and QUOTE invoke FTP commands.
SITE must be a local command that invokes commands on the local machine, not FTP commands.
See this FAQ for all info on FTP with Hijack

Run Windows cmd and FTP to the player.
Leave user blank and press Enter.
Issue the following commands:
LITERAL site rw
cd /empeg/bin
Use LCD to change local directory to empeg software.
Upload aniwrite (no extension) using SEND or PUT.
Use LCD to change local dir to empeg boot logos.
Upload animation .raw file using SEND or PUT.
Issue the following commands:
LITERAL site chmod 0755 aniwrite
LITERAL site exec /empeg/bin/aniwrite <animation.raw> (where <animation.raw> is the file name, no <>'s).
LITERAL site ro
LITERAL site reboot
Watch closely to see the new animation which everyone says can't run on 1.03!!!!!!!!