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>  The Anonymous GIF Animation Tool - 'AGATe' - v1.2  <
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This little tool is designed to allow users of Apex
Animator (Apex Media) to generate animated GIF files
from 256 colour FLIC animations.

The process is automated to a very high degree, and
the tool will attempt to save only the animated portion
of the file, even if the FLC is 640x480 pixels in size.

Background and Transparent index colours can be auto-
detected if they are not specified on the command line.
This is done by examining the colour at the lower right
corner of the first frame in the animation. If you want
'blue' to be your transparent index, simply flood-fill
each frame with blue and the transparent colour will be
detected automatically. If auto-detection is not what
you want, you can specify the index on the command line.

Interlaced output is also supported if it is needed,
although multiple palettes are not yet implemented. The
playback speed will be taken from the FLC file, so you
will need to use Apex to set this up before saving the
animation prior to conversion.



Usage:  agate.ttp {filename.fli/c} [options]
 

Description of available options:

-i [Interlaced output]
 
 This switch will force AGATE to generate interlaced
 GIF files. This is most useful for large images in
 HTML documents, since the image is displayed gradually
 as it is decoded over an extended period of a few
 seconds. This is probably not all that useful for
 small animated GIFs, since each frame is normally
 relatively small and won't benefit from an incremental
 viewing approach.
 
-t[n] [Transparency [index] ]

 This switch must be used if you wish the output file
 to contain transparent pixels - normally a transparent
 background. Using the '-t' switch without a value will
 lead to auto-detection of the transparent colour. This
 will pick up the background colour from the lower-right
 corner of the FLC animation file. Using the switch with
 a specific value '-t30' will force the transparent index
 to be colour 30, and autodetection will be disabled.
 
-b{n} [Background index]

 The '-b' switch must be followed by a value indicating
 the background colour. This has nothing to do with
 transparency, and is ignored by most GIF decoders, but
 it is supported for the sake of completeness.
 
-d{m} [Disposal method]

 The disposal method is the method used by the animated
 GIF viewer to redraw the image background after every
 frame is displayed. Normally, this is up to the viewer
 in question, but the GIF file format supports user-
 definable methods for the image-update process.
 
 -dn [no disposal]
 
  The '-dn' method instructs the GIF viewer to ignore
  the mess left by each frame of the animation, which
  will normally lead to a trail of pixels left behind
  the image if transparency is used.
  
 -dc [restore to background colour]
 
  The '-dc' method erases each frame of the animation
  using the background colour specified either with the
  '-b{n}' switch or via autodetection (default).
  
 -db [restore to previous background]
 
  The '-db' method instructs the viewer to redraw the
  background using whatever was there to begin with.
  This will normally be the HTML background texture or
  whatever is behind the GIF.

