A simple question on Images....

Hi there...I need to write a program to perform the following task:

- Open a designated folder with a series of targe sequence images in it (these could be individual frames of an .avi file)
- Pick up at random, say, 10 images
- Perform some basic image manipulation tasks such as reducing opacity of successive images, juxtaposing it onto the previous one...stuff like that


I was told to check out Allegro...but isn't that a game programming library!?...where should i start?...is it possible in C (i'd prefer to do it in C than Macromedia Director's Lingo!).

Please advise.

cheers!

>is it possible in C
Of course, but it's not terribly easy. If you don't have to write the manipulation routines yourself then you can probably find a good library for it on google. Past that it's just a matter of writing the drivers.

-Prelude

wow!...that was...greek to me!...ha...please elleborate, my friend, in language of the common man...drivers, routines...i would consider myself a novice, an aspiring one at that, so those words of urs are pretty much...well, more than i can chew...lets just leave it at that!; )

anyways..."If you don't have to write the manipulation routines yourself ..."
->is there a way around it...i don't quite know how to (wouldn't mind learning) write these routines...what r these routines anyways?...what sortof functions and libraries do they require?...i am a simple fseek and fopen kinda guy as far as file manegement goes...some1 told me i can't use those functions for image handling...so where do i start?

what's the deal with the drivers?...greatly appreciate all ur inputs!...please advise...

I did this once using OpenGL, quite easy with GL.
To get you started, learn OpenGL: http://nehe.gamedev.net/
REALLY good site, learn a lot from there and talk to the owner of the site he is quite skilled and helped me alot.

By routines I mean the functions that actually manipulate an image. A driver is the program that uses those functions to bring everything together.

>i would consider myself a novice
Then I would consider using a library such as OpenGL or DirectX. Allegro is also good for two dimensional images, it's not just for games and simple enough so that you can write your program with relative ease.

-Prelude

> Past that it's just a matter of writing the drivers.

No, it's just a matter of writing the routines-- not *drivers*. Drivers are a special snippet and refer only to code that talks to hardware (disk driver, scanner driver, video driver, mouse driver, etc.)

Please make sure you are using the proper terms consistently. That's one of the reasons programmers in general today are so sloppy, lazy, and lost. Because they hear terms used in the wrong context, and they adopt them in the same way.

In fact Prelude is correct, a driver is also the program which creates one of all the small functions. For example, you can write a large set of functions for creating and manipulating binary trees. A program which uses those functions, perhaps a test program, is called the driver for those set of functions.

A driver which talks to hardware is called a device driver.

>programmers in general today are so sloppy, lazy, and lost.
Prelude does not fit that catageory. Please make sure you don't tar everyone with the same brush in future.