A video camera flashing pictures offscreen.

Could you show me some of your animations of your mind game?

Last updated: Apr 21, 2006
Level 3 update on Oct 13, 2006

New animations last added on Nov 4, 2006

1 Introduction

1.1 What this is about

Jumping 90 feet in the air, sky diving without a parachute, crossing a river almost unpowered at 300 mph, and performing otherwise crazy stunts are common things in my mind game. Simply explaining what goes on in words often isn't enough. Making animations that otherwise replicate my mind game and the strange things I do in it for entertainment have been the main focus of my animations, however, I do have some other ones.

1.2 These aren't like animated GIFs on the web...

Unlike most animated GIFs on the web where they rarely exceed 20 frames, these animations are far longer and far more complex than most anything you'll see on the web (You should see the spreadsheets I use for the planning.). Care for an animated GIF with, say, 3000 frames? 3000 frames is near my greatest potential and the longest one here has 3444 frames (3634 if not optimized). Just compare the common animated GIFs to my latest animated GIFs:

	Typical animated GIFs	My animated GIFs
Length	2 to 20 frames	100 on the low end to even 5000 or more (limited by system memory)**
File size (bytes)	3000 to 20000	30000 on the low end to potentially 6,000,000
Behavior complexity	Medium-low (just move a few things here and there, and change some text)	Spreadsheets and constant calculations on almost everything ensure realism and accuracy (The "Mountain Fun" animation is an extreme example of this complexity)
Purpose	Advertising and simple decoration	Entertainment and reproducing my mind game in a visual manner
Frame delay	Varies greatly (commonly 50 to 200 centiseconds)	10 centiseconds (10 fps) is the basis with duplicate frames extending it
Colors per frame	5 to 100	10 to 50
Time to make*	About 3 to 90 minutes	24 to 900 hours (combined total) using the old method, 3 to 200 hours using the latest method (almost fully automated)

Table footnotes:
* My latest method is almost fully automated. I still have to create the plan and scenery as well as finalize and test the output, the long process of moving the layers individually and manually opening and saving each frame as GIF are automated. By reusing scenery from past animations, I can use greater complexity in less time. It took me 2 1/2 days to make the scenery of my "The Mega Race" animation and another 3 days to make the foreground objects, one day to make the plans for this 3600+ frame animation, and another day of finalizing and testing. By reusing the background scenery from this animation, I save 2 1/2 days. However, I don't know how long it takes for the typical animated GIFs.
** The longest animation is 3634 base frames, 3444 optimized. It took over 1.1 GB's worth in memory in true color and when indexed, it took nearly 400 MB. Windows Task Manager shows impressive values as a result of making that animation.

In some cases, my animations are quite similar, but the length and file size (even optimized) are the two big odd ones. A 5000-frame animated GIF at 160x120 resolution is no joke. Although the batch converter would be running for nearly 80 minutes (theoretical), the planning could take 2 hours, the scenery could take about an hour, and the frame processing could take about 40 minutes, I could still make such an animation like the ones available below within just one day, even two such animations, depending primarily on the complexity of the calculations. If I had an animation where I glid from stopped to the full 800 mph, the plan would take only 20 minutes to make and still would easily mean 1600+ frames. The animation called "Mountain Fun" needed a whole day just to process the complex equations and algorithms (care for sine and arctangent functions being extensively used) and it has 795 actual frames. The calculations involved with the artwork are not part of the plan (fog formula is the most common). The only limit is the available system memory. For a 320x240 animation, I could get at most 3000 frames with moderate certainty (depending mainly on how much change is used between frames). For 160x120, 8000 frames is the safe point, 12,000 at moderate likelihood. If I had 4 GB memory instead of 1.5 GB or another trick to work around the extreme memory consumption, the frame count is otherwise unlimited (except by the file system, normally about 4 GB). The plan may call for 20,000 frames, but that doesn't mean 20,000 actual frames as it could just mean 2 frames as all frames that are identical don't get included.

1.3 Brief history

I've been making animations since at least 2002, likely into late 2001 at the very earliest. This section contains all of my known animations that I have and that I am aware of. Note that many of the animations were made in 2004. It was during this time that I was dishing out at least one animation every month (sometimes 2 in a month) and I refer to it as the prime time. However, since manually saving each BMP frame as a GIF file not only takes long, but it's boring. I began a search for a working BMP to GIF batch converter and after 2 years of searching and downloading about 70 programs, (yes, 2 years and 70 programs - that's not a typo) I finally got one. Today, I can now almost make 5 500-frame animations in one day with even greater detail than most of my animations had, provided the scenery is pre-created and the calculations are not complex to work with. For a more in-depth history and the likely future I may have with making animations, go here.

2 Notes about the AVIs

The AVI videos don't use codecs as no commonly available codec does better than Winzip in compression. Because Winzip seems to have a bug in it and that the ZIP file compresses 70%, I double-compressed the AVIs. To view them, first download the video. Next, unzip the ZIP file. Open the folder and unzip the ZIP file in there (note the 99% compression) to get the video. Then either double-click it or open it with your favorite video program (I recommend Virtual Dub as it has a very smooth playback). If you can't unzip the ZIP files, look into Winzip and other related programs. You don't need to create ZIP files, just unzip them. Windows XP, as far as I know, has some built-in utilities to unzip ZIP files.

I only use AVI when the frame rate is over 10 fps. This is because of a browser limitation. The bulk of my animations (all but two) are suitable for GIF so the browser limitation isn't a problem in most cases. AVIs are the only way I can use frame rates above 10 fps more reliably, but the simplicity of using 10 fps and the many inconvieniences of the system used for AVIs, makes animated GIFs the better choice. After all, I don't use sound and there are rarely any more than 50 colors per frame, or 100 colors as a grand total. With a tested and proven discovery using my frequently-used color-averaging formula, I have a way to convert the AVI videos into an animated GIF but still keep the sense of the original frame rate.

3 The list of available animations

Preview	View*	Specs	Description
	1x	Red Popup Numbers Specs File size: 2131 (283,648 full*) Type: AVI Date made: Oct 3, 2002 Size^†: 78x36 Frame rate^‡: 30	Demonstrates how the popup numbers caused from damaging things behave.
	1x	The Supercatapult Specs File size: 53,328 (49,578,496) Type: AVI Date made: Mar 21, 2003 Size: 160x120 Frame rate: 20	The world's most powerful catapult throws you 20,625 feet straight up.
	1x 2x 3x 4x 6x	The Pound Stomp Specs File size: 29,851 Type: GIF Date made: Dec 23, 2005 Size: 320x240 Frame rate: 10	Using the pound stomp can generate an intense shockwave.
	1x 2x 3x 4x 6x	The Fall-glide Specs File size: 26,480 Type: GIF Date made: May 27, 2005 Size: 320x240 Frame rate: 10	Using the fall-glide eases downward acceleration.
	1x 2x 3x 4x 6x	The Long Fall Specs File size: 286,398 Type: GIF Date made: Oct 8, 2003 Size: 320x240 Frame rate: 10	Falling 10 miles is common in my mind game, even if it means falling faster than 999 mph. This animation shows the speed stat maxing out at 999. It is the best animation of my AVI days.
	1x 2x 3x 4x 6x	The Spinning Board Specs File size: 98,106 Type: GIF Date made: Dec 16, 2004 Size: 320x240 Frame rate: 10	If I want some serious height, I cast create to make a spinning board with an extremely powerful spring to get swatted often 5 miles high easily passing 999 mph. It's one of the worst of my AVIs as it seriously lacks detail.
	1x 2x 3x 4x 6x 8x 12x	The Video Game Specs File size: 38,585 Type: GIF Date made: Oct 1, 2003 Size: 80x60 Frame rate: 10	The player character gets bounced around by springs repeatedly losing and regaining health. This is one of the very first animated GIFs I made.
	1x 2x 3x 4x 6x	The Unexpected Obstacle Specs File size: 192,428 Type: GIF Date made: Apr 11, 2006 Size: 320x240 Frame rate: 10	An unexpected rock disrupts a peaceful float run causing the character to get tossed up very high then splash in the lake. This is my most mathematically accurate animation yet.
	1x 2x 3x 4x 6x 8x 12x	The Amazing Race Specs File size: 9990 Type: GIF Date made: Feb 28, 2004 Size: 80x60 Frame rate: 10	Using the speed blast to race across water makes winning a race a snap. This animation was one of my first attempts at 3D with perspective but the scale is considerably wrong.
	1x 2x 3x 4x 6x 8x 12x	The Amazing Stunt Specs File size: 25,368 Type: GIF Date made: Mar 14, 2004 Size: 80x60 Frame rate: 10	Jumping out of a rocket going 550 mph, landing, then stopping is a stunt no one could do.
	1x 2x 3x 4x 6x 8x 12x	The Transatlantic Race Specs File size: 17,935 Type: GIF Date made: Apr 25, 2004 Size: 80x60 Frame rate: 10	Using my mind game's time control feature, winning a race to cross the Atlantic Ocean will only take a minutes' time at 256x true time. It would still only take 4 hours at true time. It may seem that there is a long delay of nothing happening, it's supposed to happen.
	1x 2x 3x 4x 6x 8x 12x	The Meeting Specs File size: 19,984 Type: GIF Date made: May 27, 2004 Size: 80x60 Frame rate: 10	A comedy with a meeting-like atmosphere. This is the funniest animation I've done so far.
	1x 2x 3x 4x 6x 8x 12x	The New Way to Light Fireworks Specs File size: 17,052 Type: GIF Date made: Jun 29, 2004 Size: 80x60 Frame rate: 10 and 20^††	Lighting a firework using a fire spell instead of a punk is a rather weird way, but it still works if done properly. The old way and new way are compared.
	1x 2x 3x 4x 6x 8x 12x	Float-running Through the Mountains Specs File size: 13,817 Type: GIF Date made: Oct 8, 2004 Size: 80x60 Frame rate: 5	With mountains whizzing by at 200 mph in the background, this animation is both simple and nice-looking.
	1x 2x 3x 4x 6x	Balloon Skydiving Without a Parachute Specs File size: 324,571 Type: GIF Date made: Mar 30, 2005 Size: 320x240 Frame rate: 10	Sky diving without a parachute is dangerous to almost anyone, but not in my mind game, even if it means bouncing around at 800 mph. This is the first animation I made showing the flare effect and it is the most complex I've ever made as of Apr 21, 2006 (and it was done entirely in MSPaint).
	1x 2x 3x 4x 6x 8x 12x	Jumping Toward the Clouds Specs File size: 27,630 Type: GIF Date made: Oct 6, 2004 Size: 160x120 Frame rate: 10	Don't you wish you could just jump up and touch the clouds flowing above? With a combination of several special abilities, jumping past 8 miles high is easy, given about 2 to 3 minutes at it. All but the fall-glide-hop are used.
	1x 2x 3x 4x 6x 8x 12x	The Speed Blast Specs File size: 11,336 Type: GIF Date made: Dec 30, 2004 Size: 160x120 Frame rate: 10	Need to get going? Gather up a few gigajoules of energy and blast away, at up to the speed of sound. This is one of my few attempts to get 3D effects as, at the time I made this animation, I didn't know the 3D formula.
	1x 2x 3x 4x 6x 8x 12x	Ferris Wheel and Clouds Specs File size: 11,336 Type: GIF Date made: Apr 20, 2004^‡† Size: 80x60 Frame rate: 10	The colorful ferris wheel's lights dazzle while clouds flow gently above. This is the prettiest and most colorful animation I've ever done.
No preview available	1x	Credit Card Debt Cartoon Specs File size: Type: Multi^†‡ Date made: 2004? Size: unknown Frame rate: varied	Spending on a credit card too much and racking up a heavy debt can be a serious problem, but don't you wish you could just go to file > new and start over? Just download this and let it run for an hour or so and see what happens.
	1x 2x 3x 4x 6x	Cruising Through the Mountains Specs File size: 282,179 Type: GIF Date made: May 1, 2006 Size: 320x240 Frame rate: 10	Having written a program (with 3DGS) to automate the animation process, I created this replica of the first version of this animation for testing purposes. Unlike before, this animation has 8 layers, it's 120 frames, and demonstrates jumping in mid-air with the pound stomp used to land.
	1x 2x 3x 4x 6x	Extreme Mountain Climbing Specs File size: 604,288 Type: GIF Date made: May 3, 2006 Size: 320x240 Frame rate: 10	The best way to climb any mountain in my mind game is to just float-run up it, all the way up. Not only were angle calculations used, but this animation is 4 times as complex as any of my other ones and has 556 unique frames.
	1x 2x 3x 4x 6x	Mountain Fun Specs File size: 655,584 Type: GIF Date made: Oct 12, 2006 Size: 320x240 Frame rate: 10	Twice as complex as my previous animation, "Extreme Mountain Climbing", this animation is more realistic and much more to scale and is an extention to it. Float-running up a mountain is the easiest way to climb it, and it's also the easiest and fastest way to get back down. A shockwave is emitted from impacting a wall. Each loop lasts 80 1/2 seconds!
	1x 2x 3x 4x 6x	The Mega Race Specs File size: 4,275,669 Type: GIF Date made: Oct 29, 2006 Size: 320x240 Frame rate: 10	Complete with realistic lighting effects, including the characters, a richly-detailed scene with strong 3D effects, this animated cartoon is my first animated cartoon and it may be the world's biggest, most complex animated GIF. It's about 8 minutes long comprising of 30 layers of objects and well over 3000 frames. It is the closest insight to my mind game and 5 times as complex as the Mountain Fun animation. It gives an insight on how I do races in my mind game and demonstrates the many special abilities.
	1x 2x 3x 4x 6x	All About the Spinning Board Specs File size: 2,948,999 Type: GIF Date made: Nov 4, 2006 Size: 320x240 Frame rate: 10	Ever wonder what the spinning board is like in my mind game? This animation explains what the spinning board is in my mind game, the effects it has, and the immense speeds it offers (mach 2 is just for starters) where all it takes is jumping up into it (and becoming a ball). Like my "The Mega Race" cartoon, this animation has the rich lighting and 3D effects, and it uses the the same background scenery as well. It lasts about 3 minutes.

Table footnotes:
* 1x is normal size. Higher values are just stretched so you can see the detail more closely. All magnification settings use the same image file. Magnification does not apply to AVIs, however.
** Based on the file size you download (so 10 KB would download fast, even on dial-up). Value is based on bytes (1 kilobyte is 1024 bytes, 1 megabyte is 1,048,576 bytes.
*** This only applies to AVI downloads of which is based on the file size of the fully uncompressed AVI file.
^† Some of my older animations use 80x60, a few use 160x120, but the most common is 320x240. It's always the width first followed by the height.
^‡ GIFs cannot go above 10 fps due to browser limitations. AVIs are the only file types I know of and can make that support above 10 fps. The most commonly used is 10 fps since it makes the mathematics behind them easier and faster to work with.
^†† Though suitable for GIF, there are time gaps of 150 milliseconds, or 3 frames at 20 fps, but the bulk of the animation is based on 10 fps, not 20 so it'll run fine in the browser.
^‡† I actually made two versions of this animation. The latest version is shown in this case.
^†‡ This animation is actually 7 files stitched together seemlessly into 1 whole animation. Due to the limits of GIF not going beyond 65535 centiseconds between frames, I had to break up part of it and since I don't know how to seemlessly merge the animations to use fewer files without gaps (due to different row and column breakups), this is the best method I can come up with. The download size is the total of all of the animations and objects put together. Due to the fact many images are stitched together, it's much more difficult to determine the width, but even when running at 640x480 resolution (the minimum), you shouldn't have any problems.

4 FAQ

Here are some (potential) questions that have been (may be) asked related to this:

Q. How do you make your animations behave so realistically and 3D-like?
A. One word: calculations. During the planning phase, the first phase (of three), I make a spreadsheet containing every detail and tons of calculations that are surprisingly easy to set up. Some of the 3D effects come from the scenery phase (the second phase) when creating the scenery. This is the fog and considerable perspective effects. This tutorial covers everything from forming the basic plan to testing the final result and in great depth, complete with 19 screenshots to help explain. This tutorial is the full behind-the-scenes look at how I did the "The Unexpected Obstacle" animation. By utilizing Gamestudio, I can add more layers to the animation to increase its complexity ten-fold in the same amount of time it would normally take using the method described in the tutorial.

Q. What about Flash animations?
A. Flash is way too expensive for what I need out of it (Care to spend $400 for it? I don't think so.) and the price is ridiculously high. The only advantage it has over my animated GIFs, as far as I can tell, is just a higher frame rate, of which I almost never use anyway. My animated GIFs are seemingly flash-like in behavior and design as it is anyway. I don't need much - infinite looping, no scripting, and the simple act of moving layers, just like my animated GIFs. It's not worth spending an excessively high $400 to get it. If I want more complex or more detailed animations, I could just take out Gamestudio and build a whole true 3D animation instead, something flash can't directly do, as far as I know.

Q. How come there are very few animations from 2003 and 2005, but lots from 2004?
A. As far back as I have my files, those from 2003, this is as far back as I can go. I do know, with high certainty, I have some from early 2002, and with medium-low certainty from late 2001. As for 2005, this is because I was in the middle of my 2-year search for a batch converter that works. See the history page of the tutorial in the link above for what the problems were. In 2004, it was the prime time of my animation creation. Even without the BMP to GIF batch converter, I was still making about 2 animations per month for about 5 months. Since my animations just got longer and having to save each BMP file (a frame) as a GIF file manually one at a time was very boring, that was taking my motive away and since, after downloading about two dozen programs, I couldn't find a working BMP to GIF batch converter, I lost a great deal of interest in making animations. Now with new-found programming skills and the batch converter, my animations can grow to extreme complexity, 5000+ frames with 200+ layers of objects, likely even more complex than that. If you know of a program that does all this for making Flash animations for under $100, let me know:

It must allow infinite looping of the animation - all my animations are like that.
It must allow me to set positions from a source (whether an Excel spreadsheet or, as with Gamestudio, a TXT file). From when I had the trial version of Flash MX 2005 (or was it 2004?) just to see what it was like, this didn't seem possible.
It must support hundreds of layers and any image size to even 1280x960. As my animations grow in complexity, more and more layers will be added and I can envision some cases where 120 layers are needed for starters, not including the foreground which is also set through a small program in Gamestudio but determined through the contents of the TXT file. The "Mountain Fun" has 17 layers for the background scenery alone, let alone another 3 for the foreground and maybe others for special effects.
It must support 24 or even 32-bit color (32 means having 8 bits for alpha channel) and more than 256 colors, but must support at least one transparent color.
It must support moving the layers individually by having the positions set through my extensive planning in the spreadsheets. Unlike animated GIFs where each frame is just another image, each layer is another image and the frames are just set positions of these layers (of which the positions must be able to go negative).
(optional) - the frame rate could go clear up to 60 fps, but 30 is sufficient enough. I know Flash supports at least 15 fps from what I've seen, but I don't know its upper limits.

These are the major, most important things covered in pretty much every single animation I have. See my animation tutorial for further details on just how I make animations.

Q. What is the 3D formula?
A. See section 2.5 here. This is the trig-free method and is as simple as multiplying fractions. Although I still don't actually know the real 3D formula, I use slope ratios to compute it. atan(xy_pos_from_center/distance) gives the angle. The position is determined by the field of view. For a 60° field of view, anything beyond 30° is off the view. If something was 50 feet distant and offset to the left by 12 feet from the center (a -12 - left is X-negative), the angle is -13.4957°. For any given field of view less than 360° (it still works with that well above 360°, but additional steps are needed), the position is determined by this formula:

Image_vertex_X_position = image_width*((angle_offset+(field_of_view/2))/field_of_view);

If the image was 640 pixels wide and the field of view was 60° (about typical for a standard camera (digital or film)), this would work out to an X position of 176.0455 which rounds to 176 (round to the nearest integer). The same thing is used for the Y position only the vertical is used (down is Y-positive in computers, rather than the more natural Y-negative) and the field of view is changed to that of the height:width aspect ratio. For a 4:3 aspect ratio, the vertical field of view is 45° (3/4) for a 60° width. For a 16:9 aspect ratio, the vertical is 33.75° (9/16). This is the closest I can get at the moment.

Q. Why double compress the AVI videos?
A. There seems to be a flaw in Winzip where Winzip doesn't compress any better than 1024:1. Yes, I've actually compressed a ZIP file 99% (Want proof of this? This is a real ZIP file compressed nearly 300:1 and this ZIP file contains a BMP file that is viewable (caution: requires 300 MB memory to load); zipping this downloaded file also has an unusually high compression.) then compressed this again for another remarkable compression ratio (like 5:1 if I recall correctly (or 80%)). Would you spend several minutes (or even hours for dial-up users) to download a 140 MB video that lasts but one minute? I doubt it. How about a 380 KB single-compressed ZIP (which is already half that of the best codec I've tried)? That's much more feasable, but what about a 112 KB double-compressed ZIP file? That's still 70% compression (on a ZIP file even, normally not meant to be compressed that good). Because website bandwidth is almost important (I can get 3 times as many downloads available with a 112 KB file than with a 380 KB file), using the double-zipped version is better. Zipping it a third time only gives 3 to 6% compression, not much worth using. By using some of my newest tricks, I can reduce the frame rate but keep the sense of the original frame rate due to yet another variant of the color-averaging formula.

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3.1.1 My mind game - all about my mind game from it's history to how it works and what I use it for.
3.1.1.1 Mind game home - the introduction to my mind game
3.1.1.1-1 What my mind game is
3.1.1.1-2 "Example" of my mind game being played
3.1.1.1-3 Common questions about my mind game
3.1.1.1-4 Playing my mind game
3.1.1.2 History - the history of my mind game from birth to it's possible future
3.1.1.2-1 The precursor to the birth
3.1.1.2-2 My mind game was born
3.1.1.2-3 Examples of long-term activity
3.1.1.2-4 My mind game today
3.1.1.2-5 The future
3.1.1.3 The main view - how I "see" things in my mind game
3.1.1.3-1 A typical example of activity
3.1.1.3-2 The main "screen's" info
3.1.1.3-3 Playing my mind game
3.1.1.4 Special abilities - the commonly used special abilities such as the flash attack, float run, glide, and stomp
3.1.1.4-1 Introduction
3.1.1.4-2 List of special abilities
3.1.1.4-3 Special ability statistics
3.1.1.5 Menus - the menus in my mind game
3.1.1.5-1 Menu screen basics
3.1.1.5-2 The menu items
3.1.1.5-3 Menu usage
3.1.1.6 How I do things in my mind game - Explains common scenarios and what various things I do with them
3.1.1.6-1 Introduction
3.1.1.6-2 Sports
3.1.1.6-3 Common tasks mind game style
3.1.1.6-4 Movies and TV
3.1.1.6-5 Dream worlds and other things
3.1.1.7 When I play my mind game - story-like cases of typical things I do in my mind game and how I do it
3.1.1.7-1 Introduction
3.1.1.7-2 The concert visit
3.1.1.7-3 Sky diving without a parachute
3.1.1.7-4 Detective work made very easy
3.1.1.7-5 Olympics made easy
3.1.1.7-6 Being in high school
3.1.1.8 Story-creation with my mind game - how I use events in my mind game and put them into my stories
3.1.1.8-1 My story's plot
3.1.1.8-2 Using my mind game for ideas
3.1.1.8-3 The side effects
3.1.1.9 Uses of my mind game - what uses my mind game has
3.1.1.9-1 The pros
3.1.1.9-2 The cons
3.1.1.10 Funny things I do - strange and bizarre things I've done in my mind game for humor and/or entertainment
3.1.1.11 Playing my mind game - how you can get a taste of what my mind game is like
3.1.1.11-1 What is this game?
3.1.1.11-2 The editions
3.1.1.11-3 System requirements
3.1.1.11-4 Returns, submissions, and beta versions
3.1.1.11-5 The future
3.1.1.12 Videos of things I do in my mind game in AVI or GIF format - my collection of animations of various scenes in my mind game in the form of animated GIFs
3.1.1.12-1 Introduction
3.1.1.12-2 About the videos
3.1.1.12-3 How to view the videos
3.1.1.12-4 The list of available videos
3.1.1.13 Mind game FAQ - frequently asked questions related to my mind game
3.1.1.13-1 Playing my mind game
3.1.1.13-2 Using my mind game
3.1.1.13-3 History and evolution

Footnotes:
None.