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EA Movie Maker (from 1985?)


DZ-Jay

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Hi everyone,

 

Back in high school in the mid-to-late 80s, I remember using a software package called "Movie Maker" from Electronic Arts for the C=64. With it I created some fancy animations, trailers, and cut-scenes for my school's morning announcements and sports events, which I recorded onto VHS (plugging my mom's VCR to the composite video output of my C=64). These videos played on the school's CCTV network.

 

My memory may be faulty, but I remember this software being very sophisticated and allowing me to produce some very fancy animations, which impressed everybody (even teachers and the principal back then!). However, I cannot find any information on it.

 

I found the software for download in some archive on the Internet, but I can't find the manual for it. :( Anyway, I don't remember much about how I used the software. I am surprised there is no wiki or anything about it online, since I thought it was a very good program.

 

I am very interested in learning more about the program and how it was made, and what tricks it used to work as well as it did. I recall that once you completed the animation sequence, you could run a "smoothing" routine to remove jitter and flicker, and you end up with a really good and smooth animation.

 

Does anybody remember this program? Has anybody else used it? I can't believe it has been lost in the past, because it was really good and powerful -- at least from what I remember.

 

-dZ.

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Does anybody remember this program? Has anybody else used it? I can't believe it has been lost in the past, because it was really good and powerful -- at least from what I remember.

I have the full package, though I never used it back in the day. I'll look over all the documentation when I dig it out.

 

Truly,

Robert Bernardo

Fresno Commodore User Group - http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network - http://www.portcommodore.com/sccan

June 9-19 Pacific Commodore Expo NW 2018 - http://www.portcommodore.com/pacommex

Aug. 11-12 Commodore Vegas Expo v14 2018 - http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

Edited by RobertB
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You can find some documentation about Movie Maker here: http://www.bombjack.org/commodore/applications/

 

It seems Reston Computer Group first published it in 1984, then Electronic Arts picked it up and published an improved (??) version in 1985, same developer.

 

Thanks, that manual looks different, it must be the original one from Interactive Picture Systems (Reston Computer Group), but it's probably the same. I had the Electronic Arts version.

 

Man, that thing was sweet back then. I recall that my friend had been making the school's graphics and trailers by hand by coding them in Graphics BASIC, and along came I with EA Movie Maker and stole his thunder. Hehe.

 

I didn't use any of the stock movies, I made my own animations and backgrounds, then I would record them on a VCR while mixing in a musical soundtrack from my DJ mixing console and turntables.

 

I wish I kept some of it, but what really surprises me is that not many people have even heard of the program!

 

-dZ.

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I just read through the manual and played with the program for a bit, and I am now even more impressed than what I recall from my youth! The designers managed to make a simple and intuitive program which simplifies the techniques and processes involved in creating artwork and collateral for an animated movie.

 

It is brilliantly conceived, especially considered in the context of its time and the constraints of its platform. Both the manual and the program are genuinely aimed at the regular user. This is as opposed to many "game makers" and "movie makers" of the time, which seemed so complicated that only programmers would understand it. All functions are easy to follow, with simple commands and menus.

 

Even the main menu is a masterstroke of simplicity, breaking down the full process into four steps:

  • Compose: Create shapes (sprite animation frames) and backgrounds (scenery).
  • Record: Putting animated shapes on the background as "actors," moving them around, adding music and sound effects, and essentially creating the movie itself.
  • Smooth: Process and render the movie animation files to remove flicker and create the final movie asset.
  • Play: Play your finalized movies.

It is a shame this program doesn't get the recognition it deserves. Perhaps it's because it is not a game, but I personally would rank this program up there with other seminal applications such as SpeedScript, Koala Painter, The PrintShop, or even GEOS; as a significant achievement in bringing easy and accessible computing power to the masses -- with the extra credit for doing it on an 8-bit machine with very limited resources.

 

I have very fond memories of spending several 15 and 20 hour days of my misspent youth, focused intensely in making movies with Movie Maker and letting my creativity soar. After trying it out for a little bit again now, I am still convinced it is as versatile and powerful as I remember it. It's not perfect, and indeed some parts of the interface could be done differently to better effect, but it was definitely ahead of its time.

 

I'll try to find out more about the Reston Computer Group and the development team at Interactive Picture Systems.

 

-dZ.

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I see that everything I find on the software and the developers is related to Atari 8-bit computers. I also found some references on Movie Maker for the Apple ][.

I guess when EA released it for the C=64 it didn't do a good job of advertising it, or perhaps the games-minded audience on the C=64 were not really interested in a sophisticated productivity application like this. Oh well. In either case, once I removed "c64" or such from my search queries, I get a lot more information!

 

-dZ.

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Nice finds. I wonder why Spinnaker Software published Trains and Aerobics, while Reston published Paint and Movie Maker (the latter apparently republished by Electronic Arts). Perhaps Spinnaker weren't into strictly productivity software, more interested in educational and recreational software.

 

I've got the word processor Cut & Paste published by Electronic Arts 1983. I would suppose it is not widely recognized as well. It is one more example of what the Xerox Corporation cultivated, as the lead designer Tim Mott used to work from them and according to the liner notes also worked on the Apple Lisa for a while.

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Nice finds. I wonder why Spinnaker Software published Trains and Aerobics, while Reston published Paint and Movie Maker (the latter apparently republished by Electronic Arts). Perhaps Spinnaker weren't into strictly productivity software, more interested in educational and recreational software.

 

I've got the word processor Cut & Paste published by Electronic Arts 1983. I would suppose it is not widely recognized as well. It is one more example of what the Xerox Corporation cultivated, as the lead designer Tim Mott used to work from them and according to the liner notes also worked on the Apple Lisa for a while.

 

Very interesting.

 

One thing that I find fascinating and brilliant in equal measures is how IPS simplified the graphics sub-systems of the Commodore 64. As we all know, the C=64 has support for 8 independently controlled MOBs (sprites), and hi-res bitmapped graphics that support up to 3 colours per 8x8 block.

 

Rather than force the user to learn concepts like sprites and colour boundaries, etc., Movie Maker throws all that away and instead applies a strict 4-colour palette to everything: 1 background colour, and 3 foreground colours. "Actors" (animated and moving sprites) and background scenery are all drawn using this palette. To the user, the entire system is a single graphical environment with four colours, with no worries about character boundaries or other colour limitations. In fact, both the interface and the manual conspire to keep the user blissfully ignorant of all that complexity.

 

This simplification of the graphics sub-system, to me, is a brilliant insight: it maintains the high level framework of a traditional animation studio without any of the underlying complexities of rendering it on an 8-bit machine. And lest you think that 4-colours are too limited for anything, the sample movies prove otherwise. Ink and paint have always been expensive commodities, and the worlds of traditional animation and print publishing are replete with comic books and cartoons beautifully painted in four glorious colours.

 

I can imagine a more "powerful" package allowing the user to do fancy, full-colour images and to take advantage of the built in MOBs for faster smoother animation features. But then again, it would never have been as simple to use nor as versatile as Movie Maker.

 

I'm interesting in learning more about the technical details of the program. So, if anybody has any insight or can figure out how it works, please let me know. In particular, I'm interested in knowing how the "smoothing" feature works -- it appears to act in a similar fashion to the "rendering" stage of modern animation software -- except that I can't imagine it renders each frame into a full screen bitmap, because there wouldn't be enough time to refresh the screen nor enough space to store all potential 330 frames (plus music and sound effects) in memory.

 

-dZ.

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Also interesting is that Spinnaker Software/Fisher-Price Learning Software did release Movie Creator in 1985 and that even Activision jumped on the trend with Movie Studio in 1986. Mindscape also released Show Director in 1985. Which of these programs was most versatile and easiest to use is beyond my knowledge, and perhaps the sudden amount of similar programs made neither of them stand out.

 

Movie Creator:

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Interesting point. I've used Movie Creator at least and I remember it being cumbersome and flakey. It also depends in using MOBs for sprites, which complicates its use and prevents one of the best features of Movie Maker: the ability to create full bitmapped sprite actors of any shape or size.

 

I do not know about the others, but it could be that kids back then had more interest in playing games than in making stuff. Then the sudden flash of movie making tools remained a niche of limited appeal, which eventually died out.

 

dZ.

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I suppose there may be some crossover with storytelling programs meant for small children, like Story Machine (also Spinnaker Software 1983), Story House (Creative Sparks 1984) and Kermit's Electronic Storymaker (Sierra Online/Walt Disney 1984). Obviously those programs are nothing like the later movie making programs but some software publishers may have thought the later programs to be extensions of the earlier ones.

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I suppose there may be some crossover with storytelling programs meant for small children, like Story Machine (also Spinnaker Software 1983), Story House (Creative Sparks 1984) and Kermit's Electronic Storymaker (Sierra Online/Walt Disney 1984). Obviously those programs are nothing like the later movie making programs but some software publishers may have thought the later programs to be extensions of the earlier ones.

 

I think you may be right. The strange thing is that, if you play with the software, you realize is not really aimed at small children.

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Hi everyone,

 

Back in high school in the mid-to-late 80s, I remember using a software package called "Movie Maker" from Electronic Arts for the C=64. With it I created some fancy animations, trailers, and cut-scenes for my school's morning announcements and sports events, which I recorded onto VHS (plugging my mom's VCR to the composite video output of my C=64). These videos played on the school's CCTV network.

 

My memory may be faulty, but I remember this software being very sophisticated and allowing me to produce some very fancy animations, which impressed everybody (even teachers and the principal back then!). However, I cannot find any information on it.

 

I found the software for download in some archive on the Internet, but I can't find the manual for it. :( Anyway, I don't remember much about how I used the software. I am surprised there is no wiki or anything about it online, since I thought it was a very good program.

 

I am very interested in learning more about the program and how it was made, and what tricks it used to work as well as it did. I recall that once you completed the animation sequence, you could run a "smoothing" routine to remove jitter and flicker, and you end up with a really good and smooth animation.

 

Does anybody remember this program? Has anybody else used it? I can't believe it has been lost in the past, because it was really good and powerful -- at least from what I remember.

 

-dZ.

I had this program on the Atari, and yes.. it's weird how it's disappeared down the memory hole!

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  • 1 month later...

I had no idea this program existed, I would have bought it immediately!
(And now I have actually, since reading this. Disks only though, no box or manual) :)

 

I used C64 OCP Advanced Art Studio to do text and graphic intros and record them onto VHS.

 

No animations of course but it was OK. I remember someone shouting "How did you do that?!" when me and some friends did a movie project in high school and had an actual real text/graphics intro.

 

If we had had Movie Maker our schoolmates would have fallen off their chairs...

 

I also loved doing this and could be at it for hours and hours.

 

Later I did the same thing with DeLuxe Paint III on the Amiga although I was aware of programs like AniMagic, TV-TEXT and TV-SHOW. I don´t know why I never bought any of those.

 

Anyways, thanks for an interesting post

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I had no idea this program existed, I would have bought it immediately!

(And now I have actually, since reading this. Disks only though, no box or manual) :)

 

I used C64 OCP Advanced Art Studio to do text and graphic intros and record them onto VHS.

 

No animations of course but it was OK. I remember someone shouting "How did you do that?!" when me and some friends did a movie project in high school and had an actual real text/graphics intro.

 

If we had had Movie Maker our schoolmates would have fallen off their chairs...

 

I also loved doing this and could be at it for hours and hours.

 

Later I did the same thing with DeLuxe Paint III on the Amiga although I was aware of programs like AniMagic, TV-TEXT and TV-SHOW. I don´t know why I never bought any of those.

 

Anyways, thanks for an interesting post

 

Yeah, I know the feeling. Indeed, my schoolmates (and teachers) "fell off their chairs" when they saw what I did with Movie Maker. At one point I was personally asked by the school principal to make a short video for a big PTA meeting they were having. I recall that at the end, I rolled the credits, which included me as "graphics and animation." When it rolled up to my name, it froze on the center of the screen, and little glimmering flares burst around it. Hehehe...

 

The next school day, some teachers and parents pointed it out to me with comments such as "hehe, putting your names up in lights, uh?" I guess I may have over played it a bit. :ponder:

 

It was indeed an awesome program. I wish I had copies of the videos I did just to reminisce.

 

I hope you don't just keep your disks, but use them. I look forward to seeing what you can come up with. :)

 

-dZ.

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