GRaphics Animation System for Professionals

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GRASP

GRaphic Animation System for Professionals
Developed by John Bridges
OS DOS
Genre Graphics software

Contents

[edit] GRASP - GRaphical System for Presentation

GRASP was the first multimedia animation program for the IBM PC "Family of Computers". It was also at one time the most widely used animation format[1].

Originally conceived under the name FlashGun, the first public version of GRASP was the GRAphical System for Presentation. It later became the GRaphic Animation System for Professionals.


GRaphical System for Presentation Graphic Animation System for Professionals

[edit] GRASP - GRaphic Animation System for Professionals

[edit] GRASP 1.0

John Bridges was the primary developer of GRASP for Microtex Industries with Doug Wolfgram. Subsequent versions followed. Version 1.10c was released in September 1986[2].

Starting with John's source code for PCPaint, the painting aspects were chopped out and instead a simple font editor for Doug's slideshow program FlashGun was created. The graphics library was used to make a simple script playback that had a command for each graphics library function. It also originally used the assembly language fades from FlashGun for a "FADE" command, but those image fade routines were mode specific (CGA) and difficult to enhance. The routines were rewritten along with the script parts. It stored all the files in a ZIB archive, renaming John Bridges' program ZIB to GLIB and the archives it produced were GL files (GRASP GL library format).

[edit] GRASP 2.0

In 1987, GRASP 2.0, was released and no longer distributed as ShareWare. It became a commercial product published in the USA by Paul Mace Software, with John Bridges taking over the product.

[edit] GRASP 3.0 and 3.5

In 1988, GRASP 3.0 was released, followed in October 1988 by GRASP 3.5, bundled with Pictor Paint, an improved PCPaint minus publishing features. GRASP 3.5 "[supported] a wide range of video formats, including CGA, EGA, Hercules, VGA and all popular enhanced VGA modes up to 800 x 600 pixels and 1,024 x 768 pixels resolution. The software [displayed] and [edited] images in several standard formats, including PC Paintbrush (PCX) and GIF."[3]

Award-winning animator Tom Guthery claims that by using GRASP in 1990 his early animated computer programs "[gave] smooth movement and detailed animation to a degree that many programmers had thought impossible at the time".[4]

[edit] GRASP 4.0

In February 1991 GRASP 4.0 was released, with the ability to create "self-executing" demos (bind to make EXE added), AutoDesk FLI/FLC support, PC Speaker Digitized Sound, and a robust programming environment. It also included ARTOOLS, a collection of image manipulation tools which included an early morphing utility which tracked all points in source and destination images, creating all the in-between frames. Later that year HRFE (High Res Flic Enhancement) was offered as an add-on for GRASP, "[enabling] GRASP to recognize, import, manipulate and compile animations created in Autodesk's Animator Pro environment."[5]

In a published paper critiquing GRASP 4.0, the authors Stuart White and John Lenarcic said that "The GRASP language offers creative freedom in the development of interactive multimedia presentations, especially to seasoned programmers with an artistic inclination."[6]

A stripped-down version of GRASP 4.0 was also included with copies of Philip Shaddock's Multimedia Creations: Hands-On Workshop for Exploring Animation and Sound[7].

[edit] Multi-Media GRASP 1.0

In June 1993, Multi-Media GRASP 1.0 was released with TrueColor support.

Authorship and Ownership

Early in 1990 Doug Wolfgram sold his remaining rights to GRASP (and PCPaint) to John Bridges.

In 1994, GRASP development stopped when John Bridges terminated his publishing contract with Paul Mace Software. In 1995, John created GLPro for Jason Gibbs at IMS Communications Ltd, the newest incarnation of John's ideas behind GRASP updated for Windows. In 2002, John Bridges created AfterGRASP, a successor to GRASP and GLPro.

Although some web pages list Paul Mace Software as "buying" GRASP or "owning" GRASP, that is not correct.


[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ GRASP: Summary from the Encyclopedia of Graphics File Formats
  2. ^ http://mediasrv.ns.ac.yu/extra/fileformat/animation/gl/grasp.txt
  3. ^ http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NEW/is_1990_Oct_31/ai_9601535
  4. ^ Educational Software Cooperative (ESC) - Featured Members
  5. ^ http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NEW/is_1991_Nov_13/ai_11479624
  6. ^ IIMS 1994: White and Lenarcic - EONQUEST: An interactive multimedia learning environment for elementary mathematical problem solving
  7. ^ Shaddock, Philip. Multimedia Creations: Hands-On Workshop for Exploring Animation and Sound. Waite Group Press, Corte Madera California, 1992. ISBN 1878739263. Google Book Search: [1]

[edit] External links