| This article is not supposed to be another | | | | added a program profile and disabled hardware |
| bashing of the latest Microsoft OS product. I | | | | acceleration. This made a smile appear as my |
| just want to mention a few specifics here to | | | | preview window showed the little man waving |
| help out my friends in the animation world. | | | | instead of a black void. |
| | | | |
| Like a number of folks I have been | | | | Another program that has been around a while |
| disappointed and, at times, even frustrated | | | | is Stop Motion Animator. Obviously this |
| by Windows Vista. Compatibility issues, | | | | program is used for capturing frames of stop |
| hardware and software anomalies and the never | | | | motion animation. It's superb for onion |
| ending struggle between good and evil I have | | | | skinning the frames as you capture them from |
| termed THE CODEC WARS have cost me hours of | | | | you camera. The problem here was again not |
| productivity that could have spent actually | | | | being able to see the preview in SMA of what |
| creating the things that fulfilled the | | | | was appearing on the camera LCD. After a |
| purpose of my most recent technology | | | | number of failed attempts, the solution, |
| purchase. That said, being a person who has | | | | believe or not, actually came from a Windows, |
| worked with, trained others on and repaired | | | | um, feature? In Vista you can right click on |
| reclaimed technology for the past 13 years, I | | | | a program and select the |
| understand that the more and better the | | | | "Properties" option. This gives you |
| technology, the more and more complex the | | | | a tabbed dialogue. One of the tabs in Vista |
| problems that come with it. So, whatever. | | | | is "Compatibility". Checking the |
| | | | "Run this program in compatibility mode |
| I use a program named CreaToon, version 3.0 , | | | | for:" box gives you access to a list of |
| to create simple Flash type animations. It is | | | | OS options you can select. I selected XP |
| a very compact and intuitive program. I am | | | | Service Pack 2 and, just for good measure, |
| thinking of teaching my 4 year old to use it. | | | | chose to run the program as adminstrator. |
| It's that simple. Bringing that program to | | | | And, voila!! It worked. No hunt for a mystery |
| Vista was problematic for one major reason | | | | codec needed. Incidently, running programs as |
| that I recall-the preview window was always | | | | administrator has resolved a number of |
| black. I am not sure if it was a Microsoft | | | | issues, with Motorola Phone Tools for |
| mismanagement of resources or an actual video | | | | example. May not be the best way, but it has |
| problem, but after a series of codec updates | | | | worked for me. |
| that accomplished nothing but wasting | | | | |
| bandwidth, I solved this problem through the | | | | So there is a sample of my personal, |
| video control panel itself. | | | | problem-solving experiences with Vista. There |
| | | | are others. Adobe Premiere and After Effects, |
| I have an NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE adapter on | | | | for example. I do not guarantee that these |
| board an HP Pavilion Slimline, dual Athlon | | | | suggestions will work for you on your |
| 64. When you right click on the desktop, you | | | | particular computer, but who knows? Certainly |
| can select the NVIDIA Control Panel option. | | | | not tech support. Give it a try. Don't be |
| This brings up numerous options to control | | | | afraid of Vista. It's just and operating |
| how video elements are represented, 3d and | | | | system, after all. |
| otherwise, on you compy. For CreaToons, I | | | | |