Animator32

Animation Studio:

This software package allows you to develop animations on a 30x32 mono-colour LED display
unit. You can make personal animations, or download ready-made animations directly on the
grid panel. For better results, it is recommended (while downloading animations from different
source) that the resolution of each frame be maintained as 30 pixels x 32 pixels. If higher
resolution images are loaded, the software will automatically adjust them to 30x32 pixels.
Note: Here, each pixel represents an LED.

On loading the software, you will be prompted to choose the display width and height. As this
is a 30x32 application software, do not change them. Now choose the microcontroller you want
to load your final file into. Depending on the selection of the microcontroller, the memory
space (number of bytes) to load your frames will be calculated – more the memory, more the
number of frames you can create and eventually load. Select the option carefully before
proceeding. However, you have the flexibility of changing this option later.
All the microcontrollers mentioned are based on the 8051 architecture and differ only in terms
of (code) memory. Thus, you can use any microcontroller that is designed on 8051
architecture.

In order to use the Animation Studio effectively, a general understanding of the interface is
necessary. Here are some of its salient features:

Animation Grid: After creating a new project, use this grid to create animation frames. You
can manually create your frames (as shown in the figure) or load an animation directly.

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Add Frame: Once you have created the frame, use this option to transfer your animation to
the Grid Panel. Once transferred, you can now create another frames. The frame thus created
will be dynamically stored in memory.

Colour choose : Choose the colour of LED in which you prefer to see your animations in. This
option is for simulation purpose only and will not effect the final file.

Grid Panel: When frames are created on the animation grid and added, they get stored on the
grid panel. The frames can be reviewed on this panel. There are three more functions that
operate within this panel. On right-clicking a frame, you are provided with three options (as
shown in the figure):

1. Load frame: Loads the current frame on the Animation Grid. Once done, you can
edit/modify it.
2. Remove frame : This option deletes the selected frame.
3. Insert frame : Inserts the existing frame (displayed on the Animation Grid), prior to the
selected frame.

Preview: This lets you preview your animation (created using frames on the grid panel). It
also provides you an outlook of how your animation would look when transferred on the display
unit. You can play, pause, fast-forward and fast-rewind your animation. In order to change the
speed, vary from 1 (fastest) to 10 (slowest) from the Speed drop-down box as shown in the
figure.

Memory Space: Each frame is made up of 128 bytes. Depending on the IC selected, the
remaining number of bytes left is shown.

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Toolbar:

File: Create a new animation project or load an existing project.

New Project: Create a new animation project. Save the project in the desired location
after naming it. Once you have created a new project and saved it, you can start
framing animations on the grid (displayed in black and gray, where each gray dot
indicates a single LED). Before commencing your animations, it is recommended that
you select the colour in which you want the frames to be displayed. In order to make
your animation manually, left-click on pixels (dots). Alternately, you can also drag
(while keeping the left-click button pressed). On the other hand, to remove a coloured
pixel, right-click. Similarly, drag around the area (while keeping the right-click button
pressed) to deselect pixels.
Open Project: Open an existing project. Animation studio can be launched directly by
clicking the existing intermediate file (.apj file). Once loaded, you can add or delete
frames in the existing project. Note that if the project is being loaded from Animation
Studio the width and height should be set correctly while loading. If there is a
mismatch, none of the frames will be loaded.
Save : Saves the project with your existing frames. This will create an intermediate file
(.apj file) that can be opened and edited later also.
Add

Image: You can add ready made animations to animation studio by selecting
this option. Animation Studio will automatically break your existing animation
into a number of frames and calculate the memory consumption of the same.
It is thus advisable to make sure that the IC selected initially should support
your animation. In a situation where the number of frames is more than the
memory capacity of the selected IC, the frames at the end will be truncated. It
is to be noted that this option is activated only when a new project is created
or when an existing project is opened.
Image (Color Invert): Same as Add Image function. Only the colours will be
inverted, i.e each frame, when loaded, will be loaded as an inverted frame.
Exit : Quit Application. Shortcut Alt+ F4.

Edit : There are four options here, wherein any part/section of a frame can be edited by
means of cut, copy, paste and delete. When any of these options are selected you will be
prompted to choose the row and column number. This can seen on each of the frames as
position number, where the first digit indicates rows, and, the second digit indicates columns. It
will always be in RxC format. To find out the position number of any of the pixel (LED), hover
the cursor over it. The position will be displayed at the bottom. For editing frames, these
positions are to be tracked.
The entire frame can also be cleared. To use the editing option, you need to have at
least one frame in the grid panel.
Cut (Ctrl+x) : Use this option when you want to cut a certain section of the frame
and paste it elsewhere. You can paste the selected portion on the same frame or on
various other frames after loading them. Here’s an example:

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Fig 1.1 : Cut Example – Frame Loaded

In order to modify figure 1.1, follow these steps:

Fig 1.2: Selection of Rows and Columns for the Cut Option

Choose the Cut option (Ctrl+X or from the Edit drop down menu). You will be
prompted for the row and the column number. In the example shown, rows from 11 to

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22 and columns from 9 to 10 are selected. The selected portion will be trimmed from
the existing frame and ready to be pasted elsewhere.

Fig 1.3: Using the Paste option after Cutting

To paste the selected pixels, press Ctrl+V (or select this option from the
menu).
Now, left click on the pixel where the selected cells are to be pasted.

Copy: Use this option when you want to copy a certain section of the frame and paste
it elsewhere. Unlike cut, this option will not trim the existing pixels. You can paste the
copied pixels on the same frame or on various other frames after loading them. Here’s
an example:

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Fig 2.1: Selection of Pixels for Copy option

Choose the Copy option (Ctrl+C or from the drop down menu). You will be prompted
for the row and the column number. In the example shown, rows from 11 to 22 and
columns from 9 to 10 are selected. The selected portion will be copied from the
existing frame and ready to be pasted elsewhere.

Fig 2.2: Using the paste option after copying.

To paste the selected pixels, press Ctrl+V (or select this option from the menu).

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Now, left click on the pixel where the selected cells are to be pasted. Unlike cut,
the selected pixels that were copied are still intact.

Paste (Ctrl+V): The option is to be used after the Cut/Copy option. After selecting the
pixels to be either cut or copied, press Ctrl+V (or select it from the Edit drop down
menu) and click on the pixel where selected cells are to be pasted. In case of an
overlap, the existing pixels will be overwritten. For details, refer example in the Cut /
Copy section.

Delete (Del): Use this option when you neither want to cut/copy the selected pixels.
The ‘Delete’ just deletes the selected pixels. Note that unlike Cut, Copy and Paste, this
option is limited only to the current frame and cannot be used in other frames. Every
time you load a frame, you need to select the pixels to be deleted. Here’s an example:

Fig 3.1 : Using the Del option

Choose the Delete option (Del or from the drop down menu). You will be prompted for
the row and the column number. In the example shown, rows from 11 to 22 and
columns from 9 to 10 are selected.

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Fig 3.2 : Selected pixels deleted from the existing frame.

From fig 3.2, you can see that the selected portion is deleted from the existing
frame. Note that this cannot be pasted elsewhere.

Clear All (Ctrl+B) : Use this option when you want clear the entire frame.

Tools :
IC Select (Ctrl+M): You can select amongst 4 different IC’s (microcontrollers) to load
your code into. They are SM8958 (Syncmos), AT89S51, AT89S52 and AT89C55WD.
Depending on the controller selected, the usable/available space (in Kb) will be shown.
Note that a single frame consumes 128 bytes of memory.
Create IC File (Ctrl+D): Once you have created all your frames, the last step is to
create the IC file. By clicking this option, the final file is created (in bin format). Load
this file in the application software of your programming device. Program your
controller and test it on the hardware.
Record Animation (Ctrl+P): This option records your frames/animation and converts it
in a movie format (.gif). Once saved, this feature can be predominantly used when you
want to see/review the animations without opening Animation Studio.
Preview (Ctrl+U): Preview the animation in Full Screen Mode. Left-Click twice to exit
this mode.

Effects: These are some in-built effects provided in Animation Studio that help you create
animations automatically. Using these options creatively can save you a lot of manual work and
time. In all the options here, you need to select the rows and columns for which the effect is to
be used for.
Flash: Use this option when you want flash your frames. This option can be used in two
different ways:
Flash the complete frame.

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Flash a certain section of the frame (after selecting the corresponding rows and
columns).

These two examples will help you understand its usage better:

Example: Flashing of complete frame.

Fig 4.1: Flash example for complete frame.

This can be used when you want to flash the entire frame. After creating your
frame choose the Flash option. You will then be prompted to select the rows and
columns. Keep the default settings and proceed. Once done, you will see (on Grid
Panel) that a blank frame is preceded with the original frame. Depending on the
number of times you want to flash your frame, keep selecting this option.

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Fig 4.2: A blank frame precedes the original frame.

Example 2: Flashing only a certain section of the frame:

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Fig 4.3: Flashing only a certain section of the frame.

In order to flash only a certain section of the frame, select the rows and columns
accordingly. From Fig 4.3, let us assume that only character ‘C’ is to be flashed. As
shown in the figure, start and end columns are selected as 4 and 13 respectively;
start and end rows are selected as 1 and 13 respectively. Once done, a new frame
(as shown in fig 4.4) is created (which precedes the original frame) without
character ‘C’.

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Fig 4.4: Flashing a certain section of a frame.

Curtain: There are 6 sub-categories in this section.
Left to Right: This curtain effect divides your animation frame into number
of frames from left to right. Depending on the number of columns selected,
your animation frame will be divided accordingly. For e.g. if you select your
start column and end column as 5 and 12 respectively, your animation will be
divided into 7 frames. Note that for curtain effects Left to Right and Right to
Left, the creation/division of frames depends on the difference between the

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start and end columns.

Fig 5.1: Selection of rows for Left to Right Curtain Example

As shown in the figure, select the start column and end column. If you intend
to create a left-to-right effect on the complete frame then selecting the start and
end rows is redundant. If, however, you want to create frames selectively on
only a certain section of the frame, you have to choose the start and end rows
too. According to the rows and columns settings, Animation Studio will divide
either the entire frame from left to right or only the selected section as per the
settings.

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Fig 5.2: Single frame divided from Left to Right

From Fig 5.2, you can see that the complete frame is divided into 15 frames as
per the selection of columns (from 10 to 24, Fig 5.1)

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Right to Left: This effect works in accordance with the Left to Right curtain
effect.

Fig 6.1: Selection for Right to Left Effect.

In order to use this effect, create your animation frame and then select the
‘Right to Left’ option and shown in Fig 6.1.

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Fig 6.2 : Selection of Rows and Columns for Right to Left Effect

As shown in fig 6.2, select the start column and end column. If you intend to
create a right-to-left effect on the complete frame then selecting the start and
end rows is redundant. If, however, you want to create frames selectively on
only a certain section of the frame, you have to choose the start and end rows
too. According to the rows and columns settings, Animation Studio will divide
either the entire frame from right to left or only the selected section as per the
settings.

Tel : 91-33-3052 1316, Fax: 91-33-3052 1319.

Fig 6.3: Single frame divided from Right to Left

From Fig 6.3, you can see that the complete frame is divided into 15 frames as
per the selection of columns (from 10 to 24, Fig 6.2). It is to be noted that even
if the effect divides the frames from Right-to-Left, the start and end columns
must be specified from left to right. So, from the aforementioned example see
that the start and end columns are selected as 10 and 24.

Top to Bottom: Unlike Left to Right and Right to Left curtain effects, the
division of frames for Top to Bottom and Bottom-to-Top curtain effects is based
on rows instead of columns. According to the rows and columns settings,
Animation Studio will divide either the entire frame from top to bottom or only
the selected section as per the settings.

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Fig 7.1: Top to Bottom Curtain Effect

Right-to-Left option and shown in Fig 6.1.

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Fig 7.2: Selection of Rows and Columns for Top to Bottom curtain effect

This curtain effect divides your animation frame into number of frames from
top to bottom. Depending on the number of rows selected, your animation
frame will be divided accordingly. For example, if you select the start row and
end row as 7 and 25 respectively, as shown in Fig 7.2, the animation will be
divided into 18 frames. Note that for curtain effects Top-to-Bottom and
Bottom-to-Top, the creation/division of frames depends on the difference
between the start and end rows.

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Fig 7.3: Single frame divided from Top to Bottom.

From Fig 7.3, see that the complete frame is divided into 18 frames as per the
selection of rows (from 7 to 25, Fig 7.2)

Bottom to Top: This effect works in accordance with the Top to Bottom
curtain effect.

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Fig 8.1 : Bottom to Top Curtain Effect.

‘Bottom to Top’ option and shown in Fig 8.1.

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Fig 8.2: Selection of Rows and Columns for Bottom to Top Curtain Effect

As shown in fig 8.2, select the start row and end row. If you intend to create a bottom
to top effect on the complete frame then selecting the start and end columns is redundant. If,
however, you want to create frames selectively on only a certain section of the frame, you have
to choose the start and end columns too. According to the rows and columns settings,
Animation Studio will divide either the entire frame from bottom to top or only the selected
section as per the settings.

Tel : 91-33-3052 1316, Fax: 91-33-3052 1319.

Fig 8.3: Single frame divided from Bottom to Top

From Fig 8.3, see that the complete frame is divided into 18 frames as per
the selection of rows (from 7 to 25, Fig 8.2). It is to be noted that even if the
effect divides the frames from Bottom-to-Top, the start and end rows must be
specified from Top-to-Bottom. So, from the aforementioned example see that the
start and end rows are selected as 7 and 25.

Left Corner:

This curtain effect divides your animation frame into number of frames from
the top left and bottom right corner. Depending on the number of rows and
columns selected, your animation frame will be divided accordingly. For this
effect to work, it is mandatory to select equal number of rows and columns.
For better results, you should make your animation frame in a way that utilizes

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same number of rows and columns. Here’s an example:

Fig 9.1: Left corner curtain example.

In order to use this effect, create your animation frame and select the ‘Left
Corner’ option as shown in Fig 9.1. Note that in order to use this effect
effectively, ensure that the number of rows and columns selected are equal.
For e.g., a square block (as shown in fig 9.1)

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Fig 9.2: Selection of Rows and Columns for Left Corner Curtain Effect

As shown in fig 9.2, select equal number of rows and columns. You will be
prompted to do so, if the selection is incorrect. From the figure, see that rows
from 10 to 23 and columns from 10 to 23 are selected. Animation Studio will
divide the entire frame starting from top left corner and bottom right corner,
into a number of frames. Note that unlike all the other curtain effects,
mentioning both rows and columns is mandatory for this effect.

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Fig 9.3: Left corner curtain effect

From fig 9.3, see that the initial frame is divided into number of frames starting
from top left corner and bottom right corner simultaneously. It is worth
mentioning again that this effect is only possible when the desired frame
formed is framed with equal rows and columns.

Right Corner:

This curtain effect works in accordance with the left corner. It divides the
selected animation frame into number of frames from the top right and bottom
left corner. Depending on the number of rows and columns selected, the
animation frame will be divided accordingly. For this effect to work, it is
mandatory to select equal number of rows and columns. For better results,
make the animation frame in a way that utilizes same number of rows and
columns. Here’s an example:

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Fig 10.1: Right corner curtain example.

In order to use this effect, create the animation frame and select the ‘Right
Corner’ option as shown in Fig 10.1. Note that in order to use this effect
effectively, ensure that the number of rows and columns selected are equal.
For e.g., a square block (as shown in fig 10.1)

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Fig 10.2 Selection of Rows and Columns for Right Corner Curtain Effect

As shown in fig 10.2, select equal number of rows and columns. You will be
prompted to do so, if the selection is incorrect. From the figure, see that rows
from 10 to 23 and columns from 10 to 23 are selected. Animation Studio will
divide the entire frame starting from top right corner and bottom left corner,
into a number of frames. Note that unlike all the other curtain effects,
mentioning both rows and columns is mandatory for this effect.

Tel : 91-33-3052 1316, Fax: 91-33-3052 1319.

Fig 10.3: Right corner curtain effect

From fig 10.3, see that the initial frame is divided into number of frames
starting from top right corner and bottom left corner simultaneously. It is worth
mentioning again that this effect is only possible when the desired frame
formed is framed with equal rows and columns.

Help
About Us: Animation Studio is developed by Conic Systems Private Limited, Kolkata,
W.B., India. For more details and other software related products please visit us at
http://www.conicsystems.net. We have tried our best to provide you with a robust help
documentation. In case you still have any queries regarding Animation Studio, please
mail us at support@conicsystems.net and we’ll be glad to assist you.
8051 Pin Diagram: You can refer this pin diagram while configuring your hardware. For
further details, refer datasheet of any 40-pin DIP microcontroller that is based on the
8051 architecture.

Tel : 91-33-3052 1316, Fax: 91-33-3052 1319.

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