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Text File | 1994-11-27 | 18.5 KB | 484 lines

· : ¦ . _________ ________ _____________ ._____¦ | · __ / : ___________/ _ \ \ __ _ / | \ |____: : \_/ -A : \______ \ | \_ _: \_/ \_/ | \ ¦ | ¦ \_ ··D_ / / _/ | / |___/ \_ | : : | |_______/ `N· _/ \ \_________/ | \________/ ¦ |_____¦ ¦ | : \__________/ \ ¦ \_ : : \__________| \___________/ . · CRaZY GaNG . +--------------------------------+ BRILLIANCE VERSION 2.0 USER GUIDE ADDENDUM ========================================== TYPED BY SHARD-N&B Welcome ------- This manual is a supplement to the original Brilliance manual and should be used in conjunction with it. The first part deals with new features and changes in Brilliance Version 2.0. The last part deals with corrections to the original manual. Version 2 0 of Brilliance has many new features that will enhance your creativity. . Elimination of the Security Key . Magnify with True View Option . Rub Thru . Improvements to Tweening including: Changes in Tween interface Saving and Loading of Tween Paths Key Stroke Equivalents . Flip Book . Load any IFF ILBM bitmap (including HAM, 24 Bit, and other deep color images) into Brilliance (the non-HAM register based Brilliance) . Animation Presentation Mode . Speed and usability increases. In addition to these exciting features above, much work has taken place behind the scenes that will help improve the speed and usability of Brilliance. Elimination of the Security Key ------------------------------- We listened to the registered users of Brilliance 1.0 and took their advice We eliminated the Security Key. We took this action for the following reasons; . To eliminate the possibility of professional users losing the Security Key at crucial times such as at presentations or during the creative process. . To free up the second mouse or joystick port for use with other programs and hardware such as Real 3D Ver 2.0. Aladdin 4D. and Video Toaster third party add ons using the GPI trigger. . To make it easier for the Amiga artist that does work at both a studio and at home (Brilliance may be used on only one machine at a time.) What Digital Creations did in Brilliance 2.0: . We increased the features . We removed the security key . And we drastically reduced the price What your responsibilities are: To help insure that Digital Creations (and all Amiga developers continues to upgrade products and support the Amiga platform PLEASE AVOID giving this software away. Software piracy is not only unlawful but it can and will erode the longevity of a computer platform. Please return the registration card. Ignore the serial number information. Magnify with True View Option ----------------------------- Magnify with the True View Option allows the artist using True Brilliance to see the a better representation of a magnified view rather than seeing a magnified view of HAM fringing. The True View Option is activated in magnify mode by clicking and holding the "TV" gadget using the Left Mouse Button. The "TV" gadget is located just above the Undo gadget on the magnify Drag Bar. The example on the bottom left is a magnified view of a HAM image. The example on the right is the same image with the True View button pressed. Releasing the Left Mouse Button returns the view to the regular HAM mode. Rub Thru -------- Rub Thru allows the merging of two buffers by combining the swap buffer with the current buffer. You "RUB" out an area in the current buffer and the spare buffer comes "THRU". Choose Rub Thru from the Draw Mode Menu. (Rub Thru replaces the drawing mode NOT found in Brilliance Version 1.0. Brilliance Rub Thru (Register based) ----------------------------------- If Transparency is not turned on and the two buffers have different palettes, then Rub Thru will change the palette of the area brought through to the current palette. Spare buffer color #5 will be current buffer color #5 without regards to the actual color. If Transparency is turned on and the palettes differ then the area brought through will try to be remapped to the best current color. True Brilliance Rub Thru ------------------------ Palettes are of no concern when using True Brilliance Rub Thru. Tweening -------- The physical layout of the Tween interface has been changed slightly in order to add gadgets for saving and loading tween settings. The Load gadget and Save gadget (like others you use in Brilliance) have been added at the top Left of the Tween menu. The swap buttons S->E, E->S, and S<->E all appear on one line providing the same functions as in the first release of Brilliance. The new gadgets (from left to right) are: (Left Arrow) = Copy End setting to Start setting (DoubLe Arrows) = Swap End and Start Settings (Right Arrow) = Copy Start setting to End setting Saving and Loading of Tween Paths --------------------------------- All of the settings that you make in the Brilliance Tween section can now be saved for later use. The Load gadget and Save gadget found at the top left of the Tween menu provide the means to save and recall motion paths. TIP: Create and save several paths and then put them back together to make longer and more complicated movements. Use the END setting of one to make the START setting of the next. New Tween Key Stroke Equivalents -------------------------------- The following are available within the Tweening Adjust Mode. Some are the same as from the main menu. C/c .................Cancel and exit Tween adjust mode D/d .................Draw the Tween J/j .................Spare screen P/p .................Preview the Tween u .................Undo Shift-u .................Redo Alt-u .................Undo All Shift-Alt-u.................Redo All Ctrl-u .................Reset Undo Buffer V/v .................Move Command Bar Vertically (Toggle) 1 .................Back one frame Shift-1 .................Go to first frame of animation 2 .................Forward one frame Shift-2 .................Go to last frame of animation 7 .................Back one frame on Animbrush Shift-7 .................Go to the first frame of Animbrush 8 .................Forward one frame on Animbrush Shift-8 .................Go to the last frame of Animbrush F1 .................POS: XY F2 .................POS: Z F3 .................Rot: X F4 .................Rot: Y F5 .................Rot: Z F6 .................Start/End Toggle Shift-F6 .................Copies current Data (Start or End) to the opposite one F7 .................Brush/Screen Toggle F8 .................Swaps Start/End Data F10 .................Remove/Replace Command Bar SpaceBar .................Remove/Replace Command Bar ESC .................Abort Drawing or Escape from Tween adjust mode RETURN .................Accepts changes and exits Adjust Mode ENTER .................Toggle in and out of Adjust Mode * (Requires having a brush as the current drawing tool) ALT x,y,s .................Resets the brush handle (left/right, up/down, center) Arrow .................Move view small step SHIFT-Arrow.................Move view big step ALT-Arrow .................Move to edge of view .................Right Mouse button Is used to draw once when clicked once or will draw continuously if held down with the Left Mouse Button Other Changes ------------- Many behind the scenes changes have taken place in Tween. Here are some of the more important ones. Antialiasing is faster and more accurate. Clicking on one of the RESET buttons will set all controls back to zero for either START or END settings. Holding down SHIFT and clicking on One of the RESET buttons will set all controls back to zero for both START and END settings. The numeric key pad ENTER key has been added to facilitate entering the Tween adjust mode from anyplace in the program. The Ease Control has been altered to allow for smoother transitions as well as negative damping. When ease values are above 75 (plus or minus) the brush will move backwards (negative damping) a few frames before going forward. This may not happen in all situations so please experiment with the ease settings. Flip Book --------- Flip Book allows the animation artist to view ranges or segments of the animation he or she is creating, It does this in a manner similar to the traditional "flip book". When the animator presses the key to activate the Flip Book it will show one frame at a time from the current frame until it reaches the preset Flip Book Flip Frames limit. When it reaches the limit it will reverse the direction and show the frames back to the current frame. It may be flipped in either direction. Set the number of frames desired for flipping in the Buffer/Preferences/ Flip Frames requestor. The number of frames is the number in addition to the current frame. Use the Keyboard shortcut of Amiga+Shift+1 to reach preferences quickly. To activate Flip Book press 3* for Forward Flip Mode, Pressing this key will rewind the frames backward one frame at a time and then show them forward up to the current frame. For example string on frame 9 with Flip Frames set to 5 - you will see frames 9,8,7,6,5,4,5,6,7,8,9. Press Shift+3* for Reverse Flip Mode. Pressing this key will advance the frames forward one frame at a time and then show them in reverse to the current frame. For example starting on frame 9 with Flip Frames set to 5 you will see frames 9,10,11,12,13,14,13,12,11,10,9. The Flip Book will wrap around in some instances. For example - in a 30 frame animation string on frame 2 with Flip Frames set to 5 you will see frames 2,1,30,29,28,27,28,29,30,1,2. Regardless of the number of Flip Frames. Flip Book will not wrap completely around to the current frame. * found on the main keyboard. NOT the numeric keypad. Loading IFF ILBM Bitmaps Including HAM & 24 Bit Images ------------------------------------------------------ It is now possible to load images with more colors than the current mode. HAM images (HAM6 or HAM8), 24 Bit 15 Bit, or images with more colors than the current screen mode can now be loaded into the regular Brilliance program. The effect of the reduction in colors from 4,096 or 256,000 down to 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, or 256 colors can be very harsh with some pictures. Brilliance will pick the best possible color for the image to be converted into. In order to achieve the best looking image when Loading these pictures dithering takes place. This option, Dither True Color, found on the Load Picture requester, may be turned off or on as desired. The image on the Left is a HAM image and the one on the right is a 32 color image. Remember to save the new image with a new name to prevent destroying your original image. The ability to load these colorful images will be appreciated by those people saving 24 Bit images from DCTV, The Video Toaster, True Brilliance, or other programs with similar output. Animation Presentation Mode --------------------------- As a direct result of listening to Brilliance users we created the Animation Presentation Mode. This mode allows users who have created an animation to easily play and record the animation. After loading the animation into the current buffer, the user does the following; 1. Presses the 0 (forward play) or 9 (reverse play) key to the start the Set Animation mode for playback. At this point the cursor, any active brush, and all menus disappear. The first frame (or last in reverse) displays and waits for the Play Trigger. 2. Presses the Play Trigger The Play Trigger can be either the Left or Right Mouse Button or any key on the keyboard except SpaceBar, F10, and ESC. When the Play Trigger is activated the animation begins to flip through the frames in the order desired (0 or 9). The Speed is controlled by the FPS on the Animation Menu. The entire range of the animation will play unless the Animation Menu Play Range is selected and a range set. When the last frame of the animation or the last frame of the desired play range is reached that frame will display and wait patiently for the End Animation instruction sent by either mouse button or by any key other than the SpaceBar or F10. 3. The user presses one of the keys or mouse buttons ending the animation The Brilliance environment will return to its pre Animation Presentation Mode state including menus, brushes, and the previously current frame of the animation displaying. Key Strokes ----------- 0 ..............Set Animation (Forward) 9 ..............Set Animation (Reverse) Any Key...........Play Trigger (except SpaceBar, F10, Or ESC) LMB or RMB .......Play Trigger Any Key ..........End Animation (except SpaceBar or F10) LMB or RMB .......End Animation ESC .............Abort playing of animation Speed controlled by Speed setting on Animation Menu Play Range = ALL unless Play Range set on Animation Menu Hint: When designing animations it may be desirable to start and end the anim with a blank screen Corrections ----------- The following are corrections to the main Brilliance manual. We suggest making the following changes in the original Brilliance manual. Changes Among the changes found in this version of Brilliance is a lifting of the restriction that screen sizes had to be a multiple of 16. The artist is free to choose any size screen to paint on now. Addendum to the Brilliance Manual --------------------------------- The following information has been changed or added since the Brilliance manual was printed. Cutting or carving a brush while in the stencil draw mode cuts out a stencil. Page 2-21: #24 Please replace Zero button with Reset Button. Page 2-22: #26 Please change Press the [D] key to read Press the Right Mouse Button. Page 3-27: Please change the word Standard on to read Graphics. Page 3-55: The Cut Brush tool works by clicking and holding down the Left Mouse Button at the point of origin of the brush. Then dragging the mouse and releasing the Left Mouse Button will complete the cut. Page 3-58: Using Paste from the Clipboard is no longer needed to place a brush in multiple wells. Simply place in multiple empty wells. Page 3-89: Please delete this sentence from the COUNT section (Note that this setting cannot be larger than the total Number of Frames setting in the Animation menu but it can be smaller. Page 3-131:Segmentation is only available in regular Brilliance and not in True Brilliance. Appendix C: The Save Brush and Save Picture requester now saves either HAM 6, HAM 8, 15 Bit RGB, or 24-Bit RGB files depending on the setting you have previously made to the Screen Mode in TrueBrilliance (HAM). Appendix C: The Load Anim requester has an added feature. A "# of Files" gadget has been added that allows load multiple files into the current buffer. These files may be single frame images, animations, or a combination of the two. When performing this load, Brilliance will load the first file and the remaining files in sorted order. If Append is checked the files will be appended to the file(s) in the current buffer. The current buffer (with Append) or the first file to be loaded will determine the resolution and number of colors for the rest of the files. DCTV owners will find this feature very useful for loading multiple DCTV frames to create a DCTV animation in Brilliance (register based) Appendix C: The Save Anim requester has a new gadget called Seq. Files. The frames specified in the Frame Range gadgets will be saved as individual files (each containing a single frame) using the name you give it plus the extension .0001, .0002, .0003, etc based on the actual frame number. See the ReadMe file on Disk #1 regarding the various tool types that may be saved as part of your Brilliance configuration. By default Brilliance and TrueBrilliance will close the Workbench unless other programs have a window open on the Workbench. To change this to keep the Workbench on select the Workbench option from the Preferences requester of the Buffer menu of Brilliance or set the tool types to read PREFS WORKBENCH = On. Keyboard Shortcuts The following keyboard Sbortcuts are new or corrected: Page B-2 , (comma) ............Picks foreground or background color from picture - depending on left or right mouse button ` (accent grave) .....Toggles stencil off and on (see page 3-97) ~ (tilde) ............Toggles draw stencil mode Amiga-? ..............Brings up the About screen Ctrl-b ...............Remaps brush with menu`s paLette * ....................Turns transparency on and off ** + ....................Turns transparency on and increments it 1% ** Shift-+ ..............Turns transparency on and increments it 10% ** - ....................Turns transparency on and decrements it 1% ** Shift-- ..............Turns transparency on and decrements it 10% ** ** numeric keyboard only, not available to A600 owners Page B-3 Alt-[ ................Use Previous Gradient Alt-] ................Use Next Gradient Alt-p ................(DELETE this keystroke in your manual) Ctrl-t................(DELETE this keystroke in your manual) Alt-t ................Toggle transparency Menu off and on Page B-4 Shift-J ..............Copies the current buffer to the spare buffer Amiga-A ..............Save (As) Image Amiga-O ..............Load (Open) Image TAB ..............Note: Color cycling only works in the register based mode. See Appendix D for single keystroke Menu Hotkeys ----------------------------------END-------------------------------------