FAQ

FAQ

General:



XSheet:



Capture:



Preview:





Are you ever going to sell MonkeyJam?
I have no current plans to require money for MonkeyJam although I do now take donations through PayPal. My intent has always been to provide a free tool for anyone with basic hardware to practice animation. I'll never say never but even if I released a "for pay" version of MonkeyJam, I will always keep a free version available that is complete enough to serve as a classroom and learning tool. If you think that MonkeyJam is worth paying for, please consider supporting it by Donating.


Why are all of the MonkeyJam releases Beta releases?
I've worked hard over the last year to improve the reliability of the program so barring another bug-fix release the next release will probably be the first non-Betarelease of MonkeyJam.


Why does the MonkeyJam help file suck?
Well, it sucks alot less than it used to. I completely re-wrote the help file for this release. If you find parts of it obtuse or misleading please let me know so that I can improve it.


How can I color my images?
You can take your captured images and color them in a photo editing program like Photoshop, PhotoPaint or Gimp for windows. The easiest method is to set the Image Editor in MonkeyJam Preferences and then right-click on the drawing in the Xsheet and select Edit Image. This will open the image in the program of choice.
You can also purchase professional animation programs that allow you to ink and paint your images. See Resources.


I have images listed in the Xsheet but they don't show up in the Preview?
Each Layer in the Xsheet looks in a particular folder on your computer for each image in its column. Make sure that the images in question are located in the folder listed in the Layer path display when that layer is selected. You can either find the files and copy them to the folder associated with the layer or, if all of the listed files are in the same location you can change the Layer's associated folder by editing the Layer's path property (Right click on the layer and select Edit Layer Properties).


Why doesn't the StopMotion mode have onionskin?
Because to be quite honest I haven't figured out an acceptable way of implementing it yet. It is on my to do list but I don't have a schedule for finishing it yet.


Why doesn't my Digital still camera show up?
Most Digital still cameras are not set up to be controlled by the computer. A few companies have made cameras that can be controlled by software but there is no standard so each company implements their own programming API. I doubt that MonkeyJam will support software control of Still cameras until a standard is implemented. See How can I use my Still Camera with MonkeyJam for details on how to work around this issue.


How can I use my Digital still camera with MonkeyJam?
Use your camera to take pictures of each of your drawings. It is easiest if you can shoot your drawings in sequence. Remember that you will probably playing your animation back on your computer or possibly transfering it to video tape so a resolution greater than 640x480 is probably unnecessary and will result in very large file sizes. Create a folder on your computer for the images and transfer them to it as you normally would. Usually your camera will show up as an extra drive on your computer and you can drag the images to your new folder. In MonkeyJam, Select Import > Images... from the File menu, select Import to New Layer, find the files you wish to import, add them to the import list, select a hold number and press Import. Your images should now show up in a new layer.


How can I use my scanner with MonkeyJam?
MonkeyJam works with many but not all scanners. If your scanner is not supported you can still use a scanner by scanning the images using the scanner's software and then importing the images into MonkeyJam. Make sure that your drawings are registered the same way when scanning and the same area of each drawing is scanned each time. Remember that you will probably playing your animation back on your computer or possibly transfering it to video tape so image dimensions greater than 640x480 are probably unnecessary and will result in very large file sizes. Create a folder on your computer for the images and save each scanned image to that folder. In MonkeyJam, Select Import > Images... from the File menu, select Import to New Layer, find the files you wish to import, add them to the import list, select a hold number and press Import. Your images should now show up in a new layer.


Why doesn't my "xxxxxx" work with MonkeyJam?
First thing you can do is check to make sure you have the latest drivers installed for your device and that you have the most recent version of DirectX installed.
Second, if you are using a capture card with multiple inputs, check the Dialogs in the Video Settings window to make sure that the proper input is selected.

If that still doesn't work then to be quite honest I probably don't know. I unfortunately don't have the resources to test MonkeyJam with a wide variety of hardware devices so I am generally not aware of hardware that MonkeyJam does not work with. If you run into trouble with MonkeyJam not working please send me and email at MonkeyJam Support describing your problem and I'll see what I can do to either fix it or figure out a workaround or at least post a notice about the issue.


Why do I get a "Not enough resources" error?
The preview loads all of the images into the system memory to ensure accurate playback speeds. When previewing a long Xsheet at large image sizes, this can exceed the available amount of memory. To aleviate this, you can select a smaller preview size, preview in black and white instead of color, or set the From and To values to a portion of the full Xsheet. If these don't help you may have to export the Xsheet as an Avi to view the motion.