Dimp Animator

Dimp Preview is out!

2008-12-31T19:41:00.000-08:00

A Public Preview version Dimp is now available for download from Hyzkia ! Grab your free copy of Dimp right now!

Have a play around with it to get used to the way Dimp will work in the future. Don't forget to take a look at Dimpleton.net, the new official Dimp forums, for some helpful guides, information on the Preview and of what Dimp 1.0 will have (that Dimp Preview doesn't).

Haven fun guys!

New Dimp Community website: Dimpleton!

2008-12-28T07:29:00.000-08:00

Dimpleton has just been officially announced and released by lead and sole Developer of Dimp Animator: Sijmen Mulder.

It features a new banner (by yours truly :P) and so far is made up of only a single forum with 4 topics that you can venture into, an Official news topic, general Dimp conversation, Art gallery section and finally what no thread would be complete without: an Off-Topic section!

Development is far from over with the website, and don't be surprised if certain items on the page are moved/added/deleted because Dimp hasn't even been released yet!

On that note, Sijmen has made a public announcement today that contains useful information on the full Dimp program as well as the upcoming Public Preview version that you could have access to within the week!

This version will be far from the finished program, but will contain the essential basics to get you started and having a feel for Dimp Animator.

Be sure to check out www.dimpleton.net and sign up, leave a post and have a read of the official events.

Note: I will be hence-forth using the username "Sean" on the forums. ;)

A new lick of Paint and more!

2008-11-22T04:42:00.000-08:00

www.dimp-animator.com has received a fresh new look! Check it out to see the work that Sijmen has put into renovating the website - Dimp-style!

Not only do we get a mention on the front page but you can send Sijmen Mulder your feedback, sign up to find out the latest about Dimp and speculation is renewed as Sijmen is quoted to say under the sign-up box to hear about Dimp's "nearing release"!

If you've got a moment go check it out, let Sijmen know what you think and join up with it so you'll know exactly what's happening and you won't miss a thing!

Be prepared for a whole lot more in the coming month!

~ Kryn

Dimp Animator Blogspot - Google!

2008-11-18T21:53:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure how I was "Googling" the words "Dimp Animator" yesterday but I've found that we're now actually half-way down the front page!

Anyways, I believe this has something to do with the title of each new post.

Enough said, I'll check in on you guys again shortly. :)

~ Kryn

What's new at Dimp Animator - Blogspot!

2008-11-18T06:03:00.000-08:00

You haven't heard from me in a couple of days, so it's time for a quick check-up on what's happening with Dimp!

Firstly new videos have and are being released on YouTube of Dimp by Sijmen Mulder (the Developer) frequently, so don't forget to check into his YouTube Channel Sjmulder at http://au.youtube.com/user/sjmulder (you'll come across some other non-Dimp-related videos as well, might be worth having a peak?).

The time is counting down until the release of Dimp. So far, Sijmen has not announced a Beta release of Dimp so don't expect to have your hands on the final version for the next month minimum. He frequently reports to be frustrated at having to finish "another project" before finalizing Dimp, but with the Festive season in his sights, a Beta version should be out by the latest after Christmas and a final version within the next 2 months from now or so. Don't quote me - but that's the probability of the matter.

Dimp-animator.blogspot in the lime-light! Well not quite the center of attention, but http://dimp-animator.blogspot.com has finally earned a place in Google's search-engine so now it should be easier for more people to discover us! What's more, with more than 450,000 search results for "Dimp Animator" already, we're half way down the 2nd page! Just nice to know we're on the map.

Get back to you guys soon,

Kryn

New Dimp Video: Long Jump - by Me!

2008-10-30T05:54:00.000-07:00

I'm one of the lucky few to have managed to get my hands on the Alpha version of Dimp Animator. After a bit of practice I decided to have a serious go at making a small animation. Here's a 19-second aprox. video of a guy taking a run up doing a long-jump. Gotta' love that flailing body in the air!

Watching it here:

Dimp Animator home-page Widescreen!

YouTube Version

Official Interview with Sijmen!

2008-10-23T11:43:00.000-07:00

Here's the interview that we got with the Developer, Sijmen! It's the first official interview with the programmer behind Dimp Animator!

Kryn, the head of the first Blog/Fan-site of the upcoming Dimp

Animator, animation program for the Mac OS X, organizes a short

interview with the Developer, Sijmen Mulder.

K: What made you consider making Dimp?

SJM: For a class back in school I had to create an animation with

Pivot Stickfigure Animator. Unfortunately I did not have a PC at my

disposal, so in two or three frantic nights I wrote most of the basic

functionality. From some Google searches it appeared that I certainly

wasn't the only one looking for such software, so I uploaded two

videos to YT to get some feedback.

K: Do you enjoy developing your new project?

SJM: Yes, this program is exactly what I had in mind for creating fun

software. It was kind of accidental how it started out, but all the

pieces came together beautifully. The genre is perfect because it's

very visually oriented and creative. I love to use it myself, too—

even though it's far from finished right now. The timing was perfect

because Leopard was out for a while already so I could use all the new

fun stuff it has for programmers. Also YouTube was a hit because

there's a huge concentration of Pivot users and lovers there. Lastly,

a program like this has huge potential besides being just a Pivot

clone (which it was only in the beginning), since it has a very low

barrier to entry. Oh and I can play around with Final Cut 'for work'.

And all the feedback from people on YouTube, much more than what I

expected.

K: At what stage in development is Dimp now? And what have you gone

through so far to produce Dimp?

SJM: It's still in alpha, and only a few people have a current copy of

the app. As for what I've gone through, not much. It has been a fairly

straightforward project so far, didn't really have any show stoppers.

K: What would be, for you, the most frustrating thing you've

encountered so far whilst creating your latest piece of software?

SJM: That I have to beat people with a stick before they let go of my

laptop once they try it, haha. No, the problem isn't really with

developing the app itself. I also have to do some client work, which

takes up a lot (the majority) of my time, so I can't finish Dimp as

quickly as I would have wished. If I'd known that beforehand, I would

not have put up videos on YouTube that soon.

K: What do you aim to achieve with Dimp?

SJM: The most important goal is to make an animation program for the

Mac that everyone can use and enjoy. Catering to the Pivot Stickfigure

Animator users is what naturally follows from that. Also, I want to

have some sustained income to allow me to make some more consumer apps

without doing b2b projects, which are not my primary interest.

Eventually I want to keep making programs like this for a living.

K: Any ideas on how long we have to wait to get our hands on Dimp?

SJM: Giving estimations is always risky business, but I'm hoping to

release a public version before the end of this year. That can be

either the full, final version for sale, or 'just' a beta. At first I

planned on releasing before the holidays but there's no way I'm going

to make that, unfortunately.

K: Could you let us in on any pre-release information?

SJM: Haha well it's just an animation program, what is there to know

about? I think that for Pivot fans the most important thing is that

you will be able to save and load Pivot 2 STK files. This means that

there's instantly a lot of content available to stat working with.

There won't be compatibility with the animation files though, Dimp

Animator is just way too different for that.

The biggest difference between Dimp and Pivot is that in Dimp, time

and space are infinite. Pivot has frames for the time, which means

that you only have as much precision as the duration of a frame.

Instead, Dimp uses tweening. There's a timeline without fixed steps.

You can go to one part of the timeline, put the guy's arm up, then go

two seconds further, and put the arm down again. Dimp wil smoothly

animate the in-between (hence tweening which stands for in-

betweening). Now the cool part here is that time isn't in fixed steps,

you can make parts of the animation faster or smoother without loss in

animation quality.

For space, Pivot uses a fixed-size canvas. With Dimp, you'll have an

infinitely large (and precise!) canvas to work on. You'll even be able

to zoom in out and out as far as you wish. Figures can also be scaled

without loss of quality. And the camera is not tied to the canvas,

instead there's a separate camera rectangle that you will be able to

move around.

Only when you finally export to a video, the animation will be

rendered into frames and pixels. So you can make an HD widescreen

animation or a YouTube video from the same animation. Of course

there'll be export presets for both.

K: Finally, has Dimp been your most fun/exciting project so far?

SJM: Yes it has been great so far indeed.

K: That's all for now. We'll try to catch a hold of you later on down

the track in your development of Dimp Animator. Thanks for your time

Sijmen

SJM: No prob, fun to see a site dedicated to Dimp so soon already!

Hope you all enjoyed that!

Dimp Activity 23/10/2008

2008-10-23T02:07:00.000-07:00

What's up with Dimp? Want to know what the Developer is up to lately? Well this month, Sijmen Mulder has Dimp already released under its "alfa" stage and is currently working to improve the software from user feed-back and from what he's been planning.

So far he's planning to improve the ease of using and creating great animations with Dimp Animator and is working towards creating a simple yet powerful editing "tablet".

Dimp is going to undertake some great improvements soon and make sure to check out the links so you don't miss out when the developer announces the Beta testing of Dimp! We'll keep you up to date so you're not left behind!

~ Kryn

Dimp Information!

2008-10-20T07:02:00.000-07:00

Here is some information that is currently known about Dimp! Firstly it is an animation program that uses figures and modern limb-joint connectivity to create a flow of movement: an animation. But unlike what you may have seen before, it will also come with a few surprises along the way!

For now, here's what we know, Dimp will feature:

- A FREE trial version will be released.

- Readability of .stk/"Pivot" files.

- A revolutionary animation system will be used: keyframing. Create a start position and an end position for a joint, leaving Dimp to create a smooth animated movement!

- An Incredible new free-camera filming technique. With unlimited space to create an animation, the screen is set only by the way you move the camera.

Hope that'll keep you satisfied until we find more out about the Dimp Animator!

Dimp videos and official website!

2008-10-20T05:36:00.000-07:00

Take a look at the latest Dimp videos and pre-release glimpses as the Alpha Testers have a play around. Check it out at the developer's website here!

www.dimp-animator.com

Welcome!

2008-10-20T05:24:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Dimp Animator Blog!

Dimp is an upcoming "Pivot-stick" animation program for Mac users! Sijmen Mulder brings the only of its kind and will bring many new features to the market that we're sure to fall in love with! Dimp is going to set some new standards and bring forth ground-breaking new ideas, together in an easy-to-use format, it will prove to be a fantastic new way to make simple, yet wonderful, animations.

Keep watching to hear of the latest Dimp news and information!