RealWorld Designer

RealWorld Cursor Editor beta is not far away and the online cursor library is going to get a small update as well. Things are going to get a little smarter.

The cursor library

The cursor editor is able to send cursors directly to the library. In the past, this was the only way, because the editor also generated a thumbnail image and extracted the attributes of the cursor (like the picture size or the number of frames).

A new feature of the library is the ability to accept normal file uploads. The library script is now able to generate thumbnails and analyze uploaded cursors on its own. Go ahead and give it a try.

Uploading from editor

When uploading a cursor, users must fill in a couple of attributes: their email, cursor name, description, license, type, role and presence of shadow.

The new version is going to make the process a little easier by being a little smarter:

• By analyzing the first frame of the cursor, it will try to guess if it contains shadow or not.
• From the position of the hot spot, it will try to determine if the cursor is meant for right-handed people, left-handed, or both.
• It will remember the last used license.
• Author’s email address will be no longer filled in in the upload window. It would be taken from the application-wide setting accessible from the Online start page.

Now, I know that it would be nice if the application would be able to guess the role of the cursor. Maybe in the future… (hint: is there a volunteer with scientific genes willing to spend a lot of time on this task?)

Summary

Smart. Smart. Smart. That’s what I want you to think about the editor. Being able to fill in at least some fields for you instead of asking you to do it is a small step in this direction. Don’t you think?

I have promised a new version of the RealWorld Cursor Editor few months ago. It is going to take few more months until it is released, but the core features are set. Today, I’ll tell you about three major ones.

Cursor editor with layers

Creating cursors with professional looks requires either talent or a capable tool. Like vector image editor, 3D editor or, you guessed it - a raster image editor with layer support.

The cursor editor can edit images and cursors. The plain image editor will be powered with the same features Paint.COM has. The cursor editor will support layers as well, but the user interface will be intentionally simplified to not intimidate people, who just want to quickly draw their cursor with the Pencil tool (and there are lots of them).

Since .cur and .ani formats do not support layers, it will be possible to save a cursor in a new .rcu format and keep the layers for future edits.

What kind of cursor?

With the new version, you would not need to choose whether to make static or animated cursor when you start. And you’ll not need to get used to 2 slightly different editors. The two are now one.

This change also simplifies conversions between static and animated cursors. Just open a static cursor and add some frames. Then choose the Save as… command and save as .ani. The .ani format will be the default choice if there is more than 1 frame.

Smarter preview

A animation preview window was one of the most wanted new features.

The animation can be running or it can be stopped and in that case the window will display the currently selected frame.

A crosshair will be displayed behind the cursor indicating where the hot spot is.

Is that all?

Yes, for now. More details will be unveiled in the future.