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Digital_Illusions_Doc
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Digital Illusions
+++++++++++++++++
WHAT DOES IT DO?
Digital Illusions is a higly professional image processing program. Not
only is it capable of processing still pictures, but it will also let you
create stunning animations from ordinary flat pictures using a powerful
'In between' tecnique.
REQUIREMENTS
You will need an Amiga with at least 1 mb RAM. This is the absolutely minimum
amount of RAM, and at least 2MB is recommended!
If you have only 1 MB you should not use [QSAVE], [Reset from RAM] nor large
pictures. The animation mode is not designed to work with that little RAM,
so be careful! You can also try to close the workbench if you are running
out of memory.
A hardisk is also very useful when you are dealing with large animations,
but Digital Illusions will work fine without one too.
WHAT KIND OF PICTURES CAN BE USED?
All IFF images are supported (I hope... There are some strange hybrids out
there. Any problems? Let me know...) including HAM, EHB and 24 bit images.
In fact, all images are converted to 24 bit format when loaded to ensure
high image quality. You can also save all kinds of formats. In the theory
it is possible to load pictures up to 1024x1024 pixels (if you have enough
memory), but the program has mainly been tested with 320x200 pictures.
WHAT'S WHAT?
Use the left and right mousebuttons on the boxes to change settings.
Screen type
-----------
In this section you choose which output format your image will be rendered to.
[2/4/8/16/32/EHB/HAM/Preview] - Choose the number of colours to use.
The [Preview] option will give you ultra fast rendering, but only in black
and white and with no dithering. This option is ideal when you just
want a quick preview.
[Non Laced/Laced] - Interlace on/off.
[Low Res/Hi Res] - High resolution on/off.
Color control
-------------
[Dither: On/Dither: Floyd] - Dither on/off. Dithering is used to simulate
more colors than there actually is on the screen.
[Palette] - Will let you create your own palette.
[Unloced/Locked] - If the palette is locked it will always be
used during the rendering instead of the colors that Digital Illusions
usually generates automatically.
[Random] - Creates a palette of random colors. This effect can be
quite fancy when it is used together with [Sort].
[Sort] - Left button will sort the colors from light to dark.
The right mousebutton will sort from dark to light.
[OK] - Confirms your choice of colors.
[Copy] - Copy the current color to the one you choose.
[Swap] - Swap the current color with the one you choose.
[Spread] - Spread colors between the current color and the one you
choose.
[Cancel] - Cancels your colorchoice.
[QSAVE] - Save the current 24 bit image into the undo buffer.
[QKILL] - Erase the undo buffer.
[Quick Load] - Load the image in the undo buffer.
Commands
--------
[Save] - Save the rendered picture in any desired IFF format.
[Load] - Load an IFF picture.
[Config] - Not implemented, yet.
[Redisplay] - Show the rendered picture.
Image Operators
---------------
This is only a quick introduction to all the functions in this program.
A better manual will be made for the 2.0 version.
To choose page you must click on the title bar or use the right mousebutton
in the 'image operators' menu.
[Scale] - Enlarge or scale down your image (includes intelligent antialiasing).
[Crop Visual] - Cut out a piece of the image using the mouse. Press the right
mousebutton to switch the help screen on/off. Press enter to crop the
image, press ESC to cancel.
[Brightness] - Choose new brightness of the image.
[Filter] - Filter the red, green and blue intensities of the image.
[Color to Gray] - Convert picture to gray scale (it will still be
represented as 24 bit internally).
[Horizontal Flip] - Flip the image horizontally.
[Vertical Flip] - Flip the image vertically.
[Negative] - Invert the image. This works well with [Emboss].
[Line Art] - Shows only parts with high contrasts (B/W).
[Horizontal Quake] - Dissorts the horisontal lines of the image in a random
manner with a defined radius.
[Vertical Quake] - Dissorts the vertical lines of the image in a random
manner with a defined radius.
[Horizontal Wave] - Generates smooth horizontal waves with a given radius,
frequency and offset.
[Vertical Wave] - Generates smooth vertical waves with a given radius,
frequency and offset.
[Hor Deepth Wave] - Make the image look like it's been held under water
with horizontal waves above (works good with animation).
[Vert Deepth Wave] - Make the image look like it's been held under water
with vertical waves above.
[Hor Shade Wave] - Make horizontal waves with shades (works good together
with horizontal waves).
[Vert Shade Wave] - Make vertical waves with shades (works good together with
vertical waves).
[Motion Blur] - Give the impression that the image is moving in any direction.
[Random Shade] - Your image will look like a disturbed TV picture.
[Star] - Create one star with the mousepointer. The size of the star is
calculated automaticly for you from the brightness of the image
underneath. If you want a brighter star just click several times.
[StarBurst] - Let the computer place stars on the brightest parts of the
image. The X/Y coordinates of the stars are random, so you can use this
effect in an animation to produce interesting effects.
[Spiral] - Twist your picture in a spiral based manner. Neat!
[Mosaic] - Pixelizes your image.
[Metamorphose] - Chose another image to overlap the current. The images
will be combined and works nice with animations. This is also a powerful
tool with several of the other operators. Try to use Metamorphose together
with other operators on the same image...
[Splatter] - Remove a number of pixels at random (does not check to ensure
that no point is removed twice - will fix this in 2.0!)
[Emboss] - Make your image look like it's been made in stone. Nice! If you
want colors on this one, just combine an embossed image with the
original using [Metamorphose]. If you want to invert the effect
simply use [Negative].
Render
------
To render the image, simply press the button [GO!]. If you want to stop the
rendering simply press and hold down both mousebuttons. This will also
abort the animation process.
MULTITASKING
If you want to switch between the workbench and Digital Illusions simply
press <Left Amiga>+<A>. During rendering the multitasking will be shut
off (for faster processing), this will be optional in later versions.
QUIT
----
To quit Digital Illusions just press the box in the upper left corner.
HINTS
-----
If you want the extra touch of quality you can try to double the image
size before you manipulate it. When you are finished, just reduce the image
to normal size again. This will give you an excellent antialiasing effect.
I will also strongly reccomend that you upgrade to version 2.0 for better
results...
ANIMATION
The real interesting aspect of Digital Illusions is the animation part.
This part is very simple to use, yet extremly powerful.
Once you have an image ready just press the [Animation] button and the
animation menu will pop up (Press the [Control] button to return).
First a quick overview of the buttons on this screen:
[Reset from Ram/Reset from File/No Reset] - This button indicates how, if
at all, your image will be reset after each frame have been processed. The
[Reset from Ram] option will copy the current image into RAM when the
animation process is started. After each frame has been processed the
image in RAM is copied to the current image. The
[Reset from File] option is almost the same, but not so memory hungry.
After each frame is processed the image is reset from the current open
image file. This works fine, but it is a lot slower than the Reset from RAM
option.
[No Reset] means that the image is not reset after each frame is
processed. This can give quite interesting results. Try it out!
[Motion Blur: Off/Motion Blur: On] - This button indicates if the animation
is to be motion blurred. This can be a very nice effect.
[Base pic:] - This will let you choose the base picture of your animation.
An animation process will create several files. One file which contains
the name of all the frames and all the image files. If your base picture is
called "Anim" then the script file wich contains all the names of the
animation frames is saved as "Anim". The images will be saved as "Anim001",
"Anim002" etc. No animation file is created. You have to generate this
using Dpaint, makeanim etc. If you want to use Dpaint simply choose Load
Picture from the menu. Choose the first frame and enter the number of
frames in the animation. Click 'load' and your Animation will be
generated for you by Dpaint.
[Show Animation] - Press this button if you want to look at an animation. This
animation can either be in a comressed ANIM5 form or in uncompressed
frame-by-frame Digital Illusions format. If you want to show the latter
you must choose the animation script file.
Frames
------
Choose the number of frames in your animation using the gadget labeled
'Frames'.
Script
------
The script window is the hart of the animation system. Here you
can create a script of operations which is to be used on each frame of the
animation.
Let me give you an example on how this works. Let us say that you want to
create an animation of a logo waving in the wind:
- Load the image.
- Press [Animation].
- Find the [Horizontal Wave] button and press it. It will now be copied
into your script.
- Now, press the [Vertical Wave] button and it will be copied into the
script.
- Set the number of frames to 36.
- Click on the first item in the script window (Horizontal Wave). You can
now select settings for the FIRST and the LAST frame. The settings on all
of the frames in between will be calculated automaticly. Press the
[First] gadget (or the right mousebutton) and set the offset to 120.
Click [Exit]. Note the * symbol in front of the first script line.
This symbol means that the settings are changed for this script item
during the animation process.
The offset setting will now change from 0 to 120 when the animation is
created.
- Do the same thing with the last script item.
- Press [Base Pic:] and choose the name of your animation script file.
- Press [GO!] and your animation sequence will be generated for you using
the current output modus (Preview is the fastest output mode).
- When the process is finished you can preview the result by using [Show
Animation].
You could also have made this animation using a different tecnique,
try it out yourself...
Some handy tools when you want to edit the script:
[Move] - Move the selected script item to a new position.
[Edit] - Edit the selected script item.
[Delete] - Delete the selected script item.
[Clear] - Erase script.
ALL THIS FOR FREE?
Well, this program is shareware. This means that it's your own choice wether
you want to send me some cash for all my hard work and sleepless nights. If
you hate the program, it's okay. Just format the disk and chew it to pieces.
On the other hand, if you find it useful and want the latest version (strongly
recommended since your copy is only the Alpha version) then send $15 to the
address listed below.
Anyway, feel free to copy this product to your friends/enemies as long as
you do not change it in any way. The main program and this doc file MUST be
included.
Now, just take a look on the new features I will add in release 2.0 (some of
them are already implemented):
- Faster processing.
- Much better palette optimization (means much better image quality!).
- Support for the new AGA chipset.
- Faster IFF loader/saver.
- Animation processing (process entire animations with one touch of a
button!).
- 24 bit animation output.
- Your settings can be loaded and saved.
- New hires display will contain more useful information.
- Better user interface based on the principle 'What you see is what you
get'.
- More powerful editing will let you combine pictures easily.
- Title your pictures with text (transparent, realistic shadow, outline
etc.).
- More effects: waterwaves (imagine your image is underwater. Digital
Illusions will then let you create all sort of waves!), real morphing(!),
3D rotations with perspective and shading + much more.
- The new version will be converted to C. This will make it more workbench
compatible and faster. More of the routines will be converted to machine
code.
And it will be all yours for just $15!! What are you waiting for?! This is
the chance of a lifetime!
While you're at it, please send me bug reports. If you have comments or new
ideas don't hesitate. Send it all to:
Tonny Espeset
Postboks 183
1301 Sandvika
Norway (explains the awful English, eh?)