Subject: ARRIBA (Warning: semi-commercial post)
From: James Jones/Nibbles and Bits <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 17 Mar 1996 20:44:35 -0800

Having noticed a few comments lately regarding the need for a program 
that will batch-process images, rename them, etc., I thought I'd take 
this opportunity to mention that I am close to completing just such a 
program. Before I finalize the design, I'd like to request some input on 
what features are deemed necessary, what file formats should be 
supported, and so on.

The program will be available for the Intel platform running Windows NT 
and Windows 95 and will be sold commercially. (Price to be announced.) 
I'll also make a demo version available when the program is released in 
oh, say 2 or 3 months... (give or take 4-6 weeks. :)

Here's a general description of the current state of ARRIBA(tm) (A Really 
Radical Image Batch Application):

ARRIBA will hopefully remedy the lack of inexpensive, easy-to-use, 
animation- and video-oriented batch-processing software for the PC. It is 
designed for the manipulation of images used in video and commercial 
animation. ARRIBA is _not_ designed for interactive painting, desktop 
publishing, palletized images, or AVI construction.

Major features:

ARRIBA can batch process thousands of images and apply one or more 
image-processing operations to each file.

ARRIBA is simple and straightforward to use, with an easily understood 
graphic user interface -- buttons have real text in them (like LW), not 
funky little pictures. No ungainly pull-down menus. Designed for high 
productivity, quick response and fast processing.

A varied collection of common (and some not so common) image-processing 
operations are included.
Partial list:
Crop, very high quality Scale, Color-to-Gray, Gray-to-Color, Flip, 
Rotate, Roll, Blur, Unsharp Mask, Convolve, Negative, Median Filter, Add 
Alpha, Split Alpha, Interlace, Deinterlace, Dissolve. In the works are 
3/2 pulldown conversion, arbitrary pulldown conversion and 
time-expansion/contraction.

ARRIBA also has an extremely flexible file renaming ability. (Change the 
base name, number of digits, period or no period, start frame number, 
frame increment number: positive or negative, extension or no extension. 
For example, reverse an entire animation in a couple of seconds!)

ARRIBA will, when you double-click on a file name, tell you the file 
type, resolution, etc., and let you see a thumbnail of the picture.

ARRIBA's preview function lets you see the result of your operations 
before processing all the images.

ARRIBA works great with LightWave and the PVR.

File formats currently supported (both load and save):
	IFF	(24- and 8-bit grayscale)
	TARGA	(32-, 24-, and 8-bit grayscale)
	BMP	(24- and 8-bit grayscale)
	JPEG	(24- and 8-bit grayscale)
	I might also add PICT, TIFF and PhotoShop.

I'd appreciate any comments you might have...

Please reply directly to:  [email-masked]

Thanks!

-Jim

James G. Jones
Nibbles & Bits