                            FLI2GIF, version 1.1
                         released 6 September, 1996
                               by Jeff Lawson


***********************
****  DESCRIPTION  ****
***********************
Well folks, this is the second release of a graphics utility that should
be useful to nearly anyone wanting to develop nifty looking world wide
web pages.


This little program will take an Autodesk Flic (FLI/FLC) file and convert
all of its frames into sequential images in a GIF89a file, along with a
Netscape application extension animation chunk.  This allows you to easily
create animated GIF's that are viewable by Netscape Navigator 2 and
Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 (and above) users.


This capability is especially useful because there currently exist no
easy to use animated GIF creation programs.  Typically, if you want to
create such an animation, you must use create multiple single-image
files and use one of the various utilities available to combine them.


By using my program, you can use any animation program that can output
Autodesk Flic files.  This includes Autodesk Animator, Autodesk Animator
Pro, Autodesk 3D-Studio, and many others.  Additionally, there exist
utilities to convert from nearly any other animation format into the
flic format, allowing even more possibilities of animation conversion
without having to resort to saving out individual frames to separate files.


This package should include a 16-bit DOS version of the program, in
addition to a 32-bit Win32 command-line version.  The Win32 version will
run under Windows 95 or Windows NT at a command prompt and is better
than the 16-bit DOS version because it is not limited to only using
convention memory (below 640k).


Additionally, the included source code has been successfully compiled
under the GNU C++ compiler.  This means that you should be able to
recompile this utility under most UNIX environments without any problems.


*****************
****  USAGE  ****
*****************
Just run FLI2GIF with the filename of your flic file and the filename of
your desired GIF file.


By default, FLI2GIF will assume that color 0 is the background color used
in the animation and will try to crop each frame to the smallest region
possible.  The background color will also be made transparent in the
final GIF.  If you do not want the background color made transparent,
specify the "/T" option.


If you used a background color other than 0, you can use the "/B" option
to specify the appropriate color.  An example of using this command line
option would be "FLI2GIF myflic.flc mygif.gif /B42"


If FLI2GIF detects that it is unable to crop the animation any smaller,
your animation may already be optimally cropped, or you may have used a
background color other than 0.  In such a case, it will try to suggest
the color that dominates two of the edges of your animation and display
its number.  You can specify this color using the /B option.


You can also have FLI2GIF interlace the images in your flic with the /I
option.  This is typically not very useful in animated gifs, though it
can produce some interesting effects.


Specifying the /C option will tell FLI2GIF to do a "best crop" for each
frame.  Without this option, all frames will be cropped to the smallest
common rectangle and translational offsets will be used to properly
compensate for the different frame sizes.  Using this option will produce
slightly smaller GIFs, but be warned that not all programs correctly
interpret the translational offsets and will cause your frames to 'jump'
in position occasionally.  Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 is one of
the programs that ignores the offsets.


*****************
****  NOTES  ****
*****************
The Autodesk .FLC format allows for animations with varying color depths.
Unfortunately, I have only added support for 256 color animations.  If
you have an animation with a different color depth, you will have to
process it so that it contains only 256 colors.  A good MS-DOS command
line utility that can do this is VFD 1.6g (Video for DOS).  You can
download that handy program from various places on the Internet, including
the "animate" directory on the Simtel.net archive.  Just one of the many
URLs from which it can be downloaded from is
http://www.cdrom.com/pub/simtelnet/msdos/animate/vfd16g.zip

For more information on the Autodesk Flic format, please visit the URL
http://crusty.er.usgs.gov/flc.html



***********************
****  SOURCE CODE  ****
***********************
In this archive you will find another ZIP file containing the source code
to the FLI2GIF utilitiy.  This will allow others to possibly add additional
functionality or resolve some of its current limitations (256 color
requirement, flic only support, conventional memory requirement, etc).
However, I do request that if you make any changes to it that you at
least send me a copy of your changes so that I can continue to distribute
the latest version to those who need to download it.


All of the source code was designed to be compiled with Borland C++ 4.52,
though it is possible that it may work under compilers by different
vendors.  Similary, if you make changes that allow it to compile under
different compilers, send me a copy of the source.


I've been recently able to get the source to compile under a version of
GNU C++ on one of the UNIX machines that I happened to try it on, though I
haven't done very extensive testing of things under it.  Much effort was
made to try to make the source non-dependent upon the byte ordering used
by the target platform, so I don't expect any major problems.  Note that
UNIX machines typically expect C++ programs to have an extension of .cc
or .cxx, while all of my files are named .cpp to match the DOS standard.
You'll either have to rename them before trying a UNIX compile, or force
your compiler to do a C++ compile on my code.


The flic and gif handling code source was based on freely available code
and documentation, though everything you see in this archive has been
throughly rehacked a bit by me.



*************************
****  DISTRIBUTION   ****
*************************
Please feel free to distribute this program as much as you like.  The only
requirement is that you do not modify the contents of this archive before
you do.  That is, you must only pass on copies that are identical to what
you originally downloaded.


Although I am not personally requiring any fee for usage of this program,
I would appreciate receiving any donations to my collection of coins from
around the world.  If you have any spare coins (even U.S.!) feel free to
mail them in an envelope to me to the address shown below.


If you feel that you have received a version of this program that has been
tampered with in some way, please feel free to download a new version
directly from the author's home page, or e-mail me if you want me to
attach a copy of it to you in an e-mail message.


Note that all registered trademarks mentioned in this document are property
of their respective owners.


**********************
***  REVISION LOG  ***
**********************
28 July, 1996     1.0
    Initial release.
6 September, 1996   1.1
    Changes to source made to allow successful compilation under GNU C++,
        Borland C++ (Win32), and Microsoft Visual C++.
    Added support to flic routines to skip Animator Pro prefix chunks that
        may be found in animations.  Unknown if necessary.
    BestCrop is now disabled by default, but can be enabled with the
        new /C option.
    Now only requires one filename to be specified on the command-line (a
        target name will be made up).  Allows easy drag and drop from Win95.
    Resolved a major bug that would most definitely cause the compression
        code to lock up on complicated images (ie: when the hash table
        needed to be cleared).
    The FLI2GIF.EXE executable included in the distribution archive is now
        a dual-mode program.  When it is run at a plain DOS prompt, the
        standard 16-bit DOS version will execute.  When it is run inside of
        a Win95 or WinNT command prompt, a Win32 version will execute.  The
        Win32 version does not have the conventional memory limitation that
        the 16-bit version has, thus allowing you to convert flics as
        large as you like.
                         



*********************************
***  How to reach the author  ***
*********************************
I can reached via Snail-mail at (please note that this address is different
from the one previously stated in older versions of the editor):

        Jeff Lawson
        1893 Kaweah Drive
        Pasadena, CA 91105-2174
        USA

or through E-mail at:

        jlawson@hmc.edu    or    JeffLawson@aol.com

also via phone at:

        (213) 258-4264     or    (213) 258-5604

The latest version of this program should always be available from my home
page at "http://members.aol.com/JeffLawson/"
