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To use the applet you will need to add a number of lines to your webpage. The full list of parameters and their functions are described below. Simply copy and change the parameters you require, please remember that if you do not need a parameter then don't include it on your page. The following text describes each of the parameters in turn. As with all my applet descriptions any parameter with a green background is required, yellow backgrounds indicate optional entries, default values for each parameter are enclosed within brackets next to the name. Please remember to replace the variable type in the above parameters with an appropriate entry, eg. [integer] could be 1, 2, 3, etc. The width and height of the applet will depend on the size of your image, whether you have a static image displayed below the wobbled output and how wobbly an image is desired. You should experiment until the image is displayed without losing the edges off the applet.
Mode defines how the image will be wobbled, either vertically, horizontally or both. To set the mode you should enter one of the following integers:
The default (if the mode parameter is not specified) value is 0, horizontal wobbling only. In addition setting the parameter to anything but 0, 1 or 2 will cause it to default to 0.
This parameter determines how many miliseconds should pass before a new frame is drawn. Decreasing this parameter has the effect of producing smoother animation but at the cost of increased processor use. Similarly increasing it will result in a jerkier animation but at reduced processor usage. Be very careful changing this value, remember not everyone has a Super Spiffing 1GHz machine with 512MB of RDRAM! In the vast majority of cases the default value of 10 will be more than sufficient.
This is the single required parameter for proper use of this applet, it takes as its value a path and filename. The image can be either a gif or jpeg, however remember that any gif used should not have any transparency in it (otherwise strange effects may occur due to the handling of such images internally). Keep in mind that the path and filename will be relative to wherever your .class file is (or, if you have set a value of CODEBASE in the applet tag it will be in relation to that). If no value is set a default of images/image.jpg will be used.
This parameter allows you to place a static secondary image below (or even above) the image to be wobbled. If you use this parameter you should also see the bottomimage_x_offset and bottomimage_y_offset parameters below. Like image this tag takes as its value a path and filename. No default is present.
The first parameter to directly influence the wobbling effect itself is speed_x. This basically equals the velocity of the wobble, so increasing the value will cause the image to wobble more quickly, decreasing it does the reverse. In general slow to medium speeds (eg. 3 to 10) seem to give the best overall effect. This particular parameter adjusts the speed of any horizontal wobbling effect and therefore applies only for mode equal to 0 or 2. For adjustment of the vertical speed (mode equal to 1 or 2) use speed_y (see below).
The second of the effect parameters, this alters the amplitude of the wobble. In general factors of between 4 and 12 appear to give the best results. Remember that as you increase this your image may appear to disappear off the side of the applet. If this occurs you will need to either decrease the value or increase with WIDTH of the applet. This particular parameter only effects the horizontal wobble, if you have set the mode to 1 or 2 and want to alter the amplitude of the vertical wobble you will need to alter the value of wobblefactor_y (see below).
The third effects parameter, this allows you to determine how many scanlines are effected by an individual offset_x (see below). Smaller values will give a very smooth, conistent sine wave effect but for large images this will put a significant burden on the processor (and hence slowdown). Larger values can give a jagged appearance to the effect. The value you use will depend on the size of the image to be wobbled and the effect you want, experiment! This parameter will only effect the horizontal wobbling effect, to alter the number of scanlines for the vertical effect you should use lines_y (see below).
The fourth and final effects parameter, this is basically the multiplier used to generate the sine effect. Small values will cause sequential numbers of lines_x to differ little in terms of the gap between the ends of the lines, large values will cause each set of lines to have large gaps. In general medium values (8 to 15) give the best effect but again just experiment! This parameter will only effect any horizontal wobbling effect, to alter the vertical offset (ie. if mode is 1 or 2) you should use offset_y (see below).
This parameter has the same effect as speed_x but is applicable to a vertical wobbling effect, ie. when mode is set to 1 or 2. For details please see speed_x above.
This parameter has the same effect as wobblefactor_x but is applicable to a vertical wobbling effect, ie. when mode is set to 1 or 2. For details please see wobblefactor_x above.
This parameter has the same effect as lines_x but is applicable to a vertical wobbling effect, ie. when mode is set to 1 or 2. For details please see lines_x above.
This parameter has the same effect as offset_x but is applicable to a vertical wobbling effect, ie. when mode is set to 1 or 2. For details please see offset_x above.
This parameter allows you to fine tune the position of the image within the applet. If this parameter is set to its default of 0 the applet will simply center the image within the displayed window. However, if your image needs to be offset in the horizontal plane then use this parameter. It may also be useful or necessary to alter this parameter to stop your image from disappearing off the edges of the applet when using large values of wobblefactor_x.
Just as with image_x_offset, this parameter allows you to alter the position of the image within the applet window, in this case the vertical position. See image_x_offset for more details.
This parameter only has an effect if you have supplied a value to bottomimage (see above). This allows you to provide an offset to the graphic displayed below the wobbling image. This particular parameter will alter the horizontal offset, see below for the parameter to alter the vertical offset.
Just as with bottomimage_x_offset, this parameter allows you to alter the offset applied to any graphic you have supplied as a bottomimage. See bottomimage_x_offset for details.
The final user changeable parameter allows you to set a general background colour. The default is white (FFFFFF) and the format for entry is the standard hextriplet used in HTML tags. So for example to set the background to black use a value of 000000, for pure red use FF0000, etc. I hope you enjoy this applet, feel free to email me or leave a message in the guestbook (see icons at top of page). Similarly if you have problems or suggestions for improvements drop me an email or leave a message in the guestbook. Please also remember to abide by the conditions of use you agreed to on download. |