The Exeter Trial – Simms Hill (10<100kb)

[AdrianHarris]

The Gif anim is a great idea John. I wonder if you are able to slow it down a bit (sometimes this can set manually), as it would give us the oportunity to take in each shot in the sequence a bit better (just a thought).

[GDN]

Damn that car in the second animation came close to going into the crowd...

[aiwa_yamaha]

Looked good fun, some nice shots.

[John_Baker]

I wonder if you are able to slow it down a bit

Adrian - It is quite easy to set and is part of the creation process. My problem was that I was trying to do it from 12 large JPG images which were massive. In PS2/3 you take the first image, then add a new layer for each picture you want to animate. Copy and paste the relevant images into the individual layers. You do the magic via “Windows/Animate” which brings up a new dialogue box and you get to set everything. Finally you save to web, this is where I downsized the images and can set the run option of once or continuous. My problem was that even shrinking them right down made the simple version nearly 1.5mb – I will have another go tonight!
It is not very simple, or particularly intuitive but I got there in the end without having to resort to the manual!

Damn that car in the second animation came close to going into the crowd.

It did, but of course they were not moving very quickly at that stage. There was lots of noise and the screeching of tortured mechanical bits and crashing sump guards, the air was heavy with fuel fumes and burnt clutches and those were the ones that made it! These were taken at around 3fps, but I did not run continuously, so there were gaps in the sequence.

[John_Baker]

I wonder if you are able to slow it down a bit

I have done another 2 of these, the first is of an - "Arkley-MG" - made up from 9 Pictures with a half second delay at 888kb...

Second set is "MG PB" - 15 pictures with a 1 second delay at 2.4mb - you need to let it load...

[El_Sid]

Stonking pix there John! Looks like you had a cracker of a day.

The animated sequences are fascinating.............even though they take an age to download......

[Nod]

Here's hoping for a fine weekend next year! Cracking set of pics, John. Was it relatively easy to get to and from and was there plenty of parking space?

[John_Baker]

Was it relatively easy to get to and from and was there plenty of parking space?

Er, that’s a No and a No – I met with Adrian in Norman’s car park (Trago) he then drove, after circling the area we finally abandoned his car in a wood near the site and walked in. Having expected minus temperatures we looked like a couple polar explorers, the trek (correct use) took us around 30 minutes. Ilsington was packed, not that there was a lot of space to start with! By the end of the trek we were soaked in sweat, clambering through the woods to the side of Simms was challenging, we stopped to admire the flora/fauna on several occasions!!

The next classic run is the Lands End Trial which takes place on the 10th/11th April 2009, the best spectator area I believe is called “Blue Hills” which is near St Agnes

Extract from the MCC Site - www.themotorcyclingclub.org.uk
Why spectate at Blue Hills?: Quite simply because it is the most spectacular setting of any trials hill anywhere in the UK, with magnificent views in both directions along the North Cornwall coastline. There are three sections - 'old' Blue Hills, which features in photographs from the 1920s and early 1930s, is tackled by Class 0, whilst Classes 1 to 8 attempt Blue Hills 1 in the bottom of the valley, and the rough-and-rocky Blue Hills 2 which climbs steeply up the south side of Trevellas Combe. As most of the action takes place on the Saturday afternoon of the Easter weekend, there is always a huge crowd and a wonderful atmosphere.

Now that will be worth organising a car share to visit – I will do a post over on the events section so people can get it in the diaries.

Nigel – sorry about the Ani Gifs, they are not really designed for this sort of thing. Once they load they work quite well. I will continue to experiment...

[Monobod]

Great to see the Hilman Imps are still around. In my car club days, a friend had one which had been converted to rally specification with a lowered roof line and smaller windows. I cannot remember who did those conversions now. It went like a bat out of h*ll!

Good time had by all, it seems and great photos as usual. Well done and thanks for the tutorial on animation, I wondered how it was done. Just one question if I may, is the first imsge in the sequence on the top layer?

[John_Baker]

Just one question if I may, is the first image in the sequence on the top layer?

Hi David, the Imp’s were great and bought back memories... Re Ani Gif, you can do it either way, I normally try to start with the first in the series as the background layer. My system is to then to add as many layers as the number of pictures in the sequence, I rename each layer, as per shot number - I did try doing it unnumbered and got in a total pickle. I was going to write a full set of instructions and then thought I would google the topic - this was a great tutorial... Video CS Animation...

Here it is, a little one I prepared earlier - My Leaping Imp from 11 images, I made this one small so the whole thing is under half a meg - GIF is set on continuous with a 0.2 sec delay... (Click image for animation).
Enjoy

[daft_biker]

Cool shots John...must find something to try the animation out on

Not fancy giving the hill climbing a go yourself? Looks like it could be fun! Were there bikes going up the same course?

[John_Baker]

Hi Andy, yes there were and they were spectacular. A colleague who was driving in the event said when he arrived at his start points (Haynes Museum, Sparkford) and this sidecar passenger came in and he could not move his upper body as his Belstaff suit had frozen solid!!

The bikes went through very early, before I arrived at this stage – I believe that there were quite a few sidecars where their passengers were ejected into the hedge! All good fun, the vast majority of competitors did seem to be elderly and have a strange glint in their eye!!!

[John_Baker]

One final one - this is worth a watch, just to show how steep this was...
YouTube - Simms Hill

Another YouTube...