HoM: Programs: RISC OS Avatars


	House of Mabel Design: Programs: RISC OS Avatars


	ADFS::Web.$.programs.avatars/html

RISC OS Avatars Background Some time ago I designed a set of graphics for the ArgoNet Voyager version of ArcWeb which included an image on/off button of a girl who stuck her tongue out when you clicked on the button. When ArgoNet wanted to move to Browser (and later ended up with Fresco), I redesigned the graphics to a more minimalist style and the girl only lived on in the custom directory sprite (using the Desktop+ module, and with the tongue sticking out when you opened the directory). When I started designing HTML³ I noticed that Netscape Composer had images to show how alignment would affect the images within the text of a web page, and I thought I'd go one better - as well as the boring standard way of showing lines of fake text and bits of colour to show how where the images would lie, I resurrected the girl and had her look in the direction of the alignment. Time passes and HTML³ is starting to get a bit long in the tooth; the windows are getting a bit cluttered and yet I want to be able to add even more options. So I'm thinking of a fairly major re-write, possibly even scrapping it and starting on HTML4. One of the ideas this threw up was to get rid off all the individual girl images and have one über-image drawn on the fly, which would allow for better colour handling, more animation and so on. This idea snowballed, and took in a custom smiley project I was working on for Acorn Arcade/The Icon Bar's forums. Ideas Configuration Gender Male Female Special character (see below) Skin colour Caucasian Afro-Caribbean Asian Oriental Skull Same face shape for all (except skull), just change colours. Need three colours for shading Hair colour Black Brown Red Blond Grey White others possible, such as blue and green. Again, basically change the colour variables And at least two, maybe three, colours for hair shading Hair length long short halo none Implementation could auto-change based on colour? ("long" would look different between races?) Weight regular heavier Eye colour brown hazel green grey blue red Only need one colour; might need to make sure black is included though. Use circles not points in vector mode - remember that it can be scaled Facial hair moustache beard both goatee sideburns fringe Could be implemented by combining. Eyebrows automatically bigger for male than female Glasses small small (John Lennon student style) large comedy large sunglasses (small) sunglasses (larger) Specials monkey robot vampire red squirrel smiley face (if using fully customised smileys on online forums) These would be one-offs, and not configurable - blonde goateed monkeys would just be too silly Configuration via a single program in !Boot.Resources.Configure in RISC OS 4 style boot sequence, or Apps in older versions. As long as it's seen on bootup it can be called via a system variable from any program that needs it. Implementation Versions generate short alphabetic code (I'd be something like :MWYSRGGO:, a monkey would be :s:monkey: and so on) On-the-fly drawing code to be written Scalable - defined a using ColourTrans for dithering (can use subtle colours and let OS worry about how to display it in low-colour modes) animating (require some kind of binary representation to handle combinations) tongue close eyes screw up eyes mouth open (chin moves down) oo-sound mouth open bit + oo-sound bit = grimace Uses: tongue sticking out + screw up eyes + mouth open = proper tongue sticking out configuration Uses: mouth closed, open and oo-ing should be enough for faux speech animation Uses: close eyes + oo-ing = yawn Random stuff can happen - leave a window open too much and get yawns, burps etc. No eye animation - custom job for HTML3(/4)? Or allow for mouse follow in other apps? GIF version for use in HTML3(/4) documentation - copy in on change (or use directly from !Boot location) so all docs have you personal avatar to guide you. Author to pre-render all smiley combinations for online usage. DrawFile version for DTP Sprite version? Number Personal (online presence etc.) Assistant (for help docs etc.) Can clone assistant from your own image. Uses HTML3(/4) - images window especially, but could be on all windows? Could replace !Help and BubbleHelp with avatar plug in support for speech synths? Speech changes based on gender - possible on older SupSoft module with tone change? Online smileys Add to email headers, display image of sender in Posty etc. Mouse follow silly; could add in clocks, random cookies, download weather info, other reporting functions. NO BLOODY PAPERCLIPS! Avatar animation (work so far)

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