EASTER ANIMATION
This is a Videotracker 'vidule' that can be run straight from floppy disk
on startup, since it is self-contained and has within itself all that is
needed. It runs on a bottom-of-the-line Amiga 1200 with a single floppy
disk - we turn it on and off with a timer. Simply copy all the files
to a bootable floppy and boot off it.
Contents of Archive:
vt.Easter - the vidule
s/startup-sequence - what you might expect!
easter99.readme - this file
easter99.pgs - my Pagestream file for a label
THE CONTENT
This animation is a portrayal of some of the meanings of Easter.
Is Death the end? Watch carefully: this question flashes up briefly at the
start of the animtion. Death is then shown wiping out both humanity and
nature. But when it meets the Cross of Christ, Death itself is swallowed
up, leaving the message: Christ Conquers Death. This is the main animated
sequence, and reappears in bits throughout the cycle.
Much of the cycle is pure visuals - circles, wire shapes, moire patterns,
colour cycling, and the like - which have no deliberate symbolic meaning.
At various places throughout the cycle, various short messages appear:
"Christ died for us; Christ is Risen"
"Christ - that we might truly live"
"Jesus"
and the Christian symbol of the Cross.
The Cross was the means of execution used to kill Jesus Christ nearly 2000
years ago. Nails were driven through your wrists into a cross piece, and
you hung from them, arms stretched wide in the baking sun, until you die.
The message is that Christ, both fully God and fully human, died, not just
because he annoyed the authorities of the day, but for us. To sort out the
mess we had made - and still make of the world. But God is stronger than
Death, so he rose back to life. And we celebrate this on Easter Day.
THE TECHNOLOGY
This animation is played by Videotracker, a software package for the Amiga
that puts visual events on the screen in time with a music track. Each
event - starting an animation, putting up a picture, changing colours, etc.
- is attached to an instrument and comes up when that instrument is played.
The animation makes full use of the special hardware features of the Amiga:
Fast swapping between visual fields: that is how the animation
manages to show things in fast sequence.
'Dual playfield', in which two visual fields are shown, one behind
the other: for instance, see the moire fringe effects when two sets
of circles move with respect to each other.
Copper list, in which the colour registers are changed as the
video beam makes its way down the screen: most of the screens use
eight or fewer colour registers, but the smooth shading down the
screen in some parts is from this effect.
Colour cycling, in which the colour registers are changed from
frame to frame, so that colours come and go.
Videoline shift, in which each line on the screen can be shifted
slightly to right or left: see the 'wobble' in some parts.
High efficiency: the animation is run on a bottom-of-the-range
Amiga 1200, (a mere 2 Mb of memory, 14MHz clock), single floppy disk.
Safe switch-off: as long as the Amiga is not actually accessing
the disks, it can be switched off without having to be 'closed down'.
Fast, automatic start-up: the Amiga starts up in a few seconds
from switch-on, loading the animation straight away and running it.
So the animation can be run on a timer that switches on and off at
times of our choice, and saving power at other times.
Andrew Basden, Main Street Chapel, Frodsham, 21 March 1999.
http://www.basden.demon.co.uk/andrew.html
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