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Graphics Animation System For Professionals




  Caption GRaphic Animation System for Professionals
  Developer John Bridges
  Operating System DOS
  Genre Graphics Software



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 formathttp://www.fileformat.info/format/grasp/egff.htm.

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.






GRASP - GRAPHIC ANIMATION SYSTEM FOR PROFESSIONALS



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 1986http://mediasrv.ns.ac.yu/extra/fileformat/animation/gl/grasp.txt.

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 ).


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.


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 " 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."http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NEW/is_1990_Oct_31/ai_9601535

Award-winning animator Tom Guthery claims that by using GRASP in 1990 his early animated computer programs " {Link without Title} smooth movement and detailed animation to a degree that many programmers had thought impossible at the time".http://www.edu-soft.org/featured/tom.php


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, " {Link without Title} GRASP to recognize, import, manipulate and compile animations created in Autodesk's Animator Pro environment."http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NEW/is_1991_Nov_13/ai_11479624

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."http://www.ascilite.org.au/aset-archives/confs/iims/1994/qz/white.html

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''Shaddock, Philip. ''Multimedia Creations: Hands-On Workshop for Exploring Animation and Sound.'' Waite Group Press, Corte Madera California, 1992. ISBN 1878739263. Google Book Search: {Link without Title} .


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.


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