Animaster V2.0

[Big Sexy JC]

Gents,

Today was a very good day. For almost 2 years I've been grinding my way through the learning process of how the animations and clubs were created and modified back in the day by the animasters. Since all the animasters were no longer around for me to collaborate with, I had nobody to help accelerate my learning curve. It was a ton of failure and frustration and then an occasional breakthrough. Well today was another breakthrough day.

Warning: There might be some techie stuff below.
I had reached a point where I couldn't do any more than what I was doing with the animations and clubs. The source files and the configuration of those files were what I had to work with and I was extremely limited on how much I could change those configurations. So if an animation that was made by the animasters back in the day had 1 face, 7 pants, 10 shirts, 10 collars, 5 hats, 3 shoes and 1 skin, I was pretty much stuck with that texture layout.

I had actually figured out how to trade some pants for shirts and vice versa and I could trade some shoes for a face or vice versa and could maybe use a hat to add a skin, but since I couldn't add or subtract textures I could only do changes if I kept the character length of the texture name the same. For example, I could trade L_S01_SHOE_08.BMP for L_S01_FACE_03.BMP because both had 13 characters. If I screwed that renaming up at all I would permanently break the .l3 file and have to restore it from a backup (learned that the hard way).

Over the last month or so I've been trying to reach out to folks that might have contacts of people that could possibly have the utilities that the animasters used to create the custom texture layouts when they made new anis. Over the weekend I finally found someone that not only had the file, but was willing to share it with me. I received the file from them and tested it and I believe I'm ready to take on the title of animaster V2. I am not allowed to name the source or to share the file.

The 2nd thing I wanted to mention was that I purchased the domain of www.jclinks2003.com awhile back and was going to put all the stats, records, standings, etc. from my PGA Tour replay on that site. I wasnt going to start doing anything with that site until I actually finished the team portion of the replay in a month or so. However, with this news I am now going to also use the site to display/host my animations, apparel and clubs. I would love to put them on Links Corner, but it would be a royal pain in the ass for Andy and I don't want to burden him with that. The reason I mention the site is that I started working on it late last week and at least have the basic layout of the site finished.

There's nothing on the site to download yet and I'll start to work on adding downloadable content over the next several months. For now, check out the site and give me some feedback. I've got some cool ideas on how I want to display all the content on the site, but haven't got far enough along to know if those ideas are realistic or not. I know it's an old game and that none of us are getting any younger, but I know myself and all the course designers are trying to inject it with an anti-aging potion to keep it alive and kicking.

[Guitarzan]

This is exciting news Big Sexy! Thanks for your efforts and diligence in this.

[3 Wood]

Big Sexy,
Your Back ground in Computing is very evident in what you do for Links Corner. This website is a reflection of that ability,
it is nothing short of Beautiful and will make a great addition to this Community. Thank You for all you do for us.

[Weeler]

JC : Your idea for a V2 Animasters site is awesome ! Your ideas and talents are formidable, and very welcome to all of us. I'm very much looking forward to seeing and using the finished product !! For a couple of questions, please check your PM's.

Thanks..............Ron

[Big Sexy JC]

This is exciting news Big Sexy! Thanks for your efforts and diligence in this.

Guitarzan,

You're welcome. Glad to do it.

Big Sexy,
Your Back ground in Computing is very evident in what you do for Links Corner. This website is a reflection of that ability,
it is nothing short of Beautiful and will make a great addition to this Community. Thank You for all you do for us.

3 Wood,

You're welcome. Glad you like the site. Now I just have to get 200+ anis and about 2000 shirts, pants, hats, shoes and golf clubs on it.

JC : Your idea for a V2 Animasters site is awesome ! Your ideas and talents are formidable, and very welcome to all of us. I'm very much looking forward to seeing and using the finished product !! For a couple of questions, please check your PM's.

Thanks..............Ron

Ron,

I responded to your PM.

[shaun11]

Can't thank you enough for the work you have put into the ani's you have created.
I have been playing Links since it's inception and you have finally put to bed the years of frustration of the limited ani's we had to put up with all this time.
Again,thankyou very much.

[Big Sexy JC]

Shaun,

You're welcome man. I'm glad they've helped keep you playing Links. That was the goal. There's a lot more coming soon too now that I have all the tools the original animasters had.