Tutorial - Create an animated cursor from a FLI/FLC animation

Home > Tutorials > Create an animated cursor from a FLI/FLC animation

Create an animated cursor from a FLI/FLC animation

This article provides information on the following topics:

• Opening the FLI/FLC animation file in Axialis CursorWorkshop

• Creating the animated cursor from this FLC animation

• Setting the hot spot

Required Resources

Axialis CursorWorkshop™ 6.31 or later
Tryout or Professional Edition

We recommend to learn more about
cursors before following this tutorial

In this tutorial, we'll see how to make an animated cursor from a FLI/FLC animation file in one simple procedure. FLI/FLC is a very popular animation format used by most of the 3D rendering applications.

Other methods are available to create animated cursors from existing documents. See the following topics:

• Create an animated cursor from an image

• Create an animated cursor from several images

• Create an animated cursor from a filmstrip

• Create an animated cursor from an animated GIF

• Create an animated cursor from a FLI/FLC animation

Opening the FLI/FLC animation file in Axialis CursorWorkshop

1. Choose "File/Open", browse your folders and select your FLI/FLC file (Windows® standard dialog box).

Choose "File/New/File Browser" or press Ctrl+Alt+O. A built-in Axialis File Browser window opens. Browse your disks, see the thumbnail preview and double-click the FLI/FLC file you wish to open.

In the Recently Used zone (in the main toolbar), type the full pathname of the FLI/FLC file you wish to open then hit Enter.

2. For example, open the file located in the librarian: "Cursors\Tutorials\Arrow.flc" (). The image file opens in a document window (). All the frames included in the FLC animation are diaplayed in a list ():

Creating the animated cursor from this FLC animation

3. Choose Image/Create Animated Cursor from Selection or press "M" or click the associated button in the local toolbar ():

4. The dialog box New Animated Cursor From an Animation opens (see below).

5. In the Project Name group (), enter the cursor project name. Do not specify any extension. In Colors () and Size () groups, select the format of the animated cursor. To read more about the cursor specifications see What is a cursor topic. We recommend 32x32 RGB with Alpga Channel.

6. In Number of Frames (), CursorWorkshop has automatically specified the number of frames of the FLC file. This can't be modified.

7. In Duration of Each Frame (), specify the display time of each frame in Jiffies (1/60 sec). For example, 6 Jiffies = 0.1 sec.

8. You can also apply a smooth/sharp filter to the final images.

9. When done, click OK. The cursor is automatically created with all the frames ():

Note that despite the fact that FLI/FLC does not support transparency, CursorWorkshop has automatically detected the solid background and transformed it to a transparent background.

Setting the hot spot

The hot spot of a cursor is the point to which Windows refers in tracking the cursor's position. By default, the hot spot is set to the upper-left corner of the cursor (coordinates 0,0). But you can set the hot spot anywhere in the drawing area of the cursor (see What is a Cursor for more info).

1. Select the first format in the list. For example 32x32 RGB/A.

2. In the editor area, the hot spot is shown as a square slowly blinking from white to black. If you don't see the hot spot, activate the visualisation: choose Draw/Show Cursor Hot Spot or press Ctrl+K.

3. Select Draw/Set Cursor Hot Spot or press K. Click to the location of the hot spot..

4. The new location flashes for a short moment. The new hot spot location is now defined.

Top of Page