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boy8cookie · Mar 1, 2004, 08:56 PM

Do you remember kineticons from the days of OS 9? Wouldn't 128x128 animated icons for OS X be awesome? The closest thing I've seen is the original folder of OS X, it opens when something is dragged to it. Well, I was wonderin g if there is a way to apply this effect to my own icons that I create. Can someone please tell if and how this is possible? What tools and skills will I need?

orangep0ny · Mar 1, 2004, 09:07 PM

where have you been?

Holigen · Mar 1, 2004, 09:21 PM

Hello there!

What you need is IconBuilder from the IconFactory. It supports that pesky open state of folders. Im afraid however that the open state only works for folders and as far as I know, icons in Mac OS X are static images. Im sorry, anyways heres the link for IconBuilder:
http://www.iconfactory.com/iconbuilder.asp

boy8cookie · Mar 1, 2004, 09:37 PM

ok so I need iconbuilder, thanks. is there anyway you can give me the steps for this? or will it be self explainatory?

phillryu · Mar 1, 2004, 09:43 PM

Considering that MightyMouse can give you animated cursors... why not folders? Time for Jason to answer here!

boy8cookie · Mar 1, 2004, 09:45 PM

goMac · Mar 1, 2004, 10:21 PM

Cursors can be controlled using the proper API. In other words, cursor changing and animating is already built into the operating system. You just need to put code in place to control that functionality.

Icons in the finder are different. There is no API for accessing those.

phillryu · Mar 1, 2004, 10:22 PM

Hmmm good point. Oh well.

boy8cookie · Mar 1, 2004, 10:23 PM

smeger · Mar 1, 2004, 10:35 PM

GoMac covered that pretty well. Mighty Mouse hooks into existing functionality, and there ain't any existing functionality for animating cursors.

Which means it'd be do-able, but a big pain.

Holigen · Mar 1, 2004, 10:38 PM

Well, I dont personally use IconBuilder. I downloaded it once and opened it up but I didnt really find icon making all that interesting at the time. Basically it presents you with a template and you just drag your icons into that for each of the main sizes of icons. Its a cool little tool and it works well. I think theres a readme in there somewhere too

boy8cookie · Mar 1, 2004, 10:39 PM

ouch

guess its back to os 9

Holigen · Mar 1, 2004, 10:49 PM

^^
Just cause of the lack of animated icons?!?!? Lighten up!!!

NetworkShadow · Mar 2, 2004, 12:29 AM

Originally posted by boy8cookie:
ouch

guess its back to os 9

lol that's sad.

TheDisaster · Mar 2, 2004, 02:29 AM

I wouldn't be too surprised if we see it implemented in some way though... I hope it does.

Holigen · Mar 2, 2004, 02:38 AM

Originally posted by theDisaster:
I wouldn't be too surprised if we see it implemented in some way though

I would

MacDog · Mar 2, 2004, 09:41 AM

I would be shocked to see it implemented in X... but I can see 128 pixel animations on my desktop, and it looks cool!

dggraphics · Mar 2, 2004, 10:30 AM

I remember reading a while back that the makers of Kineticon were working on an OS X version. This is a from their last press release on Kineticon.

"System requirements:
* 68K or PowerPC
* MacOS 7.5 or higher (not OS X - please be patient, it's a big job!)"

I don't see why it would be so hard to implement. It could be done, at least on the desktop, similarly to Konfabulator. It could use XML to display animated gif's as folder's, with rollover states. Actually you could do it with Konfabulator. Anyone care to give it a try. They wouldn't be true Icons, but more like Aliases.

goMac · Mar 2, 2004, 02:23 PM

Originally posted by dggraphics:
I don't see why it would be so hard to implement. It could be done, at least on the desktop, similarly to Konfabulator. It could use XML to display animated gif's as folder's, with rollover states. Actually you could do it with Konfabulator. Anyone care to give it a try. They wouldn't be true Icons, but more like Aliases.

That would also be very hard. You'd have to somehow draw icons over the normal ones. That means a lot of icky garbage.

Zee_on · Mar 2, 2004, 03:10 PM

I am really surprised that everyone has forgotten the most pressing and current thing having to do with animated icons, FROM APPLE ITSELF.

hmm, what apple made application now has animated icons, I just cant remember?

SAFARI 1.2

now apple just implemented animated icons into there own application, if that wouldn't lead you to think that apple will have them soon enough, I don't know what would?

Zee

goMac · Mar 2, 2004, 03:49 PM

Originally posted by Zee_on:
I am really surprised that everyone has forgotten the most pressing and current thing having to do with animated icons, FROM APPLE ITSELF.

hmm, what apple made application now has animated icons, I just cant remember?

SAFARI 1.2

now apple just implemented animated icons into there own application, if that wouldn't lead you to think that apple will have them soon enough, I don't know what would?

Zee

All the application is doing is manually pasting a new icon on every : blank : seconds. This also doesn't refresh very nicely. The file itself does not actually have some sort of special animated icon. Internet Explorer does this on OS X also iirc. I know for sure it did it on OS 9.

dggraphics · Mar 2, 2004, 06:47 PM

goMac, I didn't mean that they should be actual icons, only moving graphic representations that when clicked on launch a folder, or perform an action similar to Konfabulator. I guess you could do the same thing with Konfabulator already, but you would have to write out some xml for each folder or app icon you wanted to create. It would be easier if someone could write a small app where you could drag and drop your gif and then select the target, and it would automatically generate the code and create the widget,icon or whatever you want to call it. These would only work on the desktop, but it would be a nice addition.

Zee_on · Mar 2, 2004, 07:29 PM

Originally posted by goMac:
All the application is doing is manually pasting a new icon on every : blank : seconds. This also doesn't refresh very nicely. The file itself does not actually have some sort of special animated icon. Internet Explorer does this on OS X also iirc. I know for sure it did it on OS 9.

I know all that quite well, I was not saying that it was a "special animated icon", but it is still an animated icon non the less, you could probly change or Hack the Finder to give you the same effect as safari, but using that with folders or aliases, I have no skill in coding, but I have gone through all the plists of the finder and changed all sorts of stuff,
Just an Idea.

and goMac I know OS X really well, so telling me obvious things like that don't help much

PS: looking forward for XTender, maybe it can "inject" this code into Finder

Zee

boy8cookie · Mar 2, 2004, 09:42 PM

I downloaded and installed icon builder. But when I use it I get a line straight theough my icons. Only when I import from another icon does it work. I want to make a seperate image for when objects are dragged on, but all my custom stuff has a line through it, why?

edit: how can I edit the mask portion because thats what is all f-ed up

daiSho · Mar 3, 2004, 12:10 AM

i've been curious about this as well... on my PC's i use a program called desktopX, part of a program suite called 'Object Desktop' from Stardock for desktop and GUI customization usage... desktopX offers animated icons and they are implemented pretty well, they refer to them as "zoomers" usually. so no program out there currently can offer this sort of functionality? as a recent Mac adopter, i must admit i'm almost suprised..!

Holigen · Mar 3, 2004, 12:15 AM

Well, I dont understand why people want animated icons. It seems to me that they would get annoying, just a novelty. I cant see much of a purpose in having them. Plus they would probably put some extra load on the cpu... (mine at least, I can hardly type this with all of the smilies going)

monkeybrain · Mar 3, 2004, 12:12 PM

I can see a use by displaying a bar of space usage on volumes. I guess other fancy things could be a file instantly 'unzipping' itself, or perhaps dissolving away if you choose 'move to trash', or how about tags - like on the mail icon in the dock - displaying number of files in a folder (like show info) or the size of the folder.