I was trying to convert a GIF image (Ajax waiting like):
to AVI that will be used with TAnimate control (win32 animation control).
I have tried a few tools, but the problem is that the output AVI is either not suitable for the Animation control or not transparent.
Notes:
I don't use windows XP Themes manifest (D5).
the Common Avi's are transparent even if my program is not themed.
Using the GIF itself to show animation is not an option.
Do you know any tool that can help me with this conversion?
EDIT:
I have tried using ImageMagic with ffmpeg as described here. but I can't seem to set ffmpeg to encode to msrle.
Jasc Animation Shop is able to directly read an animated GIF and write out a compressed AVI. This is an old program that appears to be no longer offered by Corel (who acquired Jasc), but you may still be able to find the free trial version for example.
You could try the TGIFImage component (written for Delphi 5), which claims not only to support Animated GIFs, but also Transparency, as well as a means of converting a GIF to an AVI (and vice-versa).
Whether it does all that or not I cannot say as I haven't personally tested it. Like TLama mentioned in the OP comments above, I use my own means of playing each frame in an animated fashion (only mine uses a RES file and a TImage, where each frame is stored as a PNG for full semi-transparency support).
Many commercial tools do this conversion, including Corel Photo Paint, and others. A free trial is available for Corel Photo Paint, which comes included in the Corel Draw package. (Warning: It's huge, and expensive.) I don't think the transparency will be solved any more by corel photo paint's conversion than by anybody else.
Typing some words into Google, also reveals that DSPack from ProgDigy might help you.
The last time I did this, I abandoned the attempt to convert GIF transparency into AVI-with-transparency, because no AVI-encoding tool that I could find would preserve transparency. Thus the solution of leaving it as a gif, and putting a new control into your app (as LaKraven suggests) may be superior in the end, to fighting it.
I would suggest using GDIPlus native image renderer which can easily handle animated GIFs as well as many other image types, including multi-frame TIFFs (no MNG so far). I was able to find an example component which animates TImage instance:
http://www.progdigy.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=13156
Please note I am aware that you are looking for a solution to AVI transparency, this is just an alternative way of presenting user with a "progress", which seems to be more lightweight (no dependency on windows media playback facilities) and flexible (such animation controller can be used on any image).
Related
TdxComponentPrinter is a componenet that allow me print a TPanel on a paper. But there is problem and when the panel contains TImage, the background of the image will be converted to black in the paper.
Before print :
After print (on the paper) :
I have tried different ways to solve this problem. for example i used Repaint; method of TPanel,...
but doesn't work and the background of image is still black. I don't know why!!!
Help me please.
This is a png file, which might not be supported completely in your Delphi version. Did you try to change it to a TcxImage which might be more compatible with the DevExpress printing system?
It also might be worth it to submit this issue to DevExpress if you can't fix it. They reply really quick and know more about their components then all of use here on SO :-)
If it is already a jpg then you should improve the quality of the jpg. It looks like the black parts are compression artifacts where there is a mix between white and another color. If you clean up the background of the image with a paint program it will probably look a lot better.
I got a jpeg image in which is 1020x780, I am trying to resize this to 111x85 (which is in proportion) but it comes out pixelated.
I am tried just
a) Assign the image to a TImage component and set the Scaled/Resize property.
b) The resize code here http://www.delphigroups.info/2/4/313095.html
c) The resize code here http://www.swissdelphicenter.ch/torry/showcode.php?id=1896
However they all come out pixelated.
If I resize in Photoshop then it comes out nice. Getting it THAT good would be ideal, however I know they spent a lot of time/code into resize so something even halfway between would be great.
Any suggestions?
Have a look at Graphics32 library. It implements various image resampling and transformation algorithms for 32-bit bitmaps.
In my blog I talk about resize images using/implementing antialiasing.
Read the article and test the code here. It's writed in Spanish but you can use authomatic translate. In any case you can read only the code.
See the difference of apply and not apply the code:
The code work with BMP, but you can convert the image first and apply it.
Instead of using the built-in TImage for scaling, you could use an external library or component, e.g. ImageMagick or some off-the-shelf component. There exists at least one Pascal wrapper for ImageMagick
http://wiki.freepascal.org/PascalMagick)
, but I've never used it myself.
I have successfully used HiComponents ImageEn library to resize an image down to approx 250 pixels. It was a while ago, but I recall that the results were quite pleasing. http://www.hicomponents.com/main/products/products-imageenvcl - it's free now, and well worth a look if you're doing any graphics programming in Delphi.
Is there some simple component that could display PNG 32-bit images and alpha-blend it to another image on mouse enter and on mouse leave? Or even just a simple image that can load 32-bit PNG and additionally would have Alpha parameter...
I suppose I could use some skin library (alphacontrols?) or some graphics library, but for some simple purely visual effects that would be quite an overkill and I can't seem to find a simple one that does it for me and would work on Glass surface as well...
It is not quite a component, but here is a link to a good article on how to do it yourself. Its just a few lines of code:
http://melander.dk/articles/alphasplash/
The basic TImage is capable of displaying a PNG image and alpha-blend-it to whatever is behind it. You just need to add the "pngimage" unit to the uses clause of your form. You didn't mention the version of Delphi you're on: Delphi 2010 has this unit, but I have no idea with what version of Delphi they started shipping it. For Delphi 7 I know for sure you'll need to find the open source "pngimage".
If you need to do this when the user moves in and out of your control, consider caching the state images in bitmaps: it will be faster at runtime and you can use a single TImage that shows the current image, you don't need two overlapping TIMage controls.
i use to create a full transparent form, but the png and the 32bit image will not blend to the form and images is not properly displayed its trnsparency. i get the concept here but i cannot put button on it. all abject are invisible except the image backgound. by the way my compiler is delphi7 and D2009
Seems that Andreas Hausladen stumbled upon a similar problem and has already implemented a solution: he rewrote TJvTransparentForm in the JVCL library.
Even if you are not going to use that component directly you may gain some insight by studying the source.
Here is the link to Andreas' article.
If you want to use a PNG to control transparency you might want to look into "layered windows":
SetWindowLong(Handle, GWL_EXSTYLE, GetWindowLong(Handle, GWL_EXSTYLE) or WS_EX_LAYERED);
UpdateLayeredWindow
This allows you to have variable transparency accross the window, just as PNG allows! The problem is, controls on layered windows don't really work, I guess it's a Windows issue. My solution was to actually brake up the big window into multiple smaller windows, with all the controls on non-layered windows. This creates yet an other problem, because you now have multiple windows and you want them to move like a single window. The solution: implement your own algorithm for moving the window accross the screen and use:
BeginDeferWindowPos
DeferWindowPos
EndDeferWindowPos
... to move all windows at once, so the user has no idea she's looking at multiple windows! Finally, if you want to get fancy, you might want to look into SetWindowRgn: this allows you to create a window with a non-rectangular shape.
P.S: Reading Andrea's link from Uwe Raabe, he's using the same technique, only he packaged it ready for action!
Is there a good image watermark control for Delphi? It would be nice if it could receive both text and images to insert in a base photo.
I would also prefer it was free.
I couldn't find any pre-packaged controls. But watermarking is not very hard at all. All you simply need to do is draw an image on top of another image with the use of alpha blending. This site has a whole section on alpha blending in Delphi. They provide links to graphics libraries which have implemented it.
However if you're using Delphi.NET, and can access the relevant classes in the framework, there is an easier way using only framework methods.
Take a look at Graphics32 together with GraphicEX.
Or see if PascalMagick does the trick.