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-
- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=-.
-
- -= MandAnim v 1.1 =-.
-
- Manual.
-
- Table of Contents:
-
- ***********************************.
-
- - Permission.
- - Thanks.
- 0. General.
- 1. Quick Start.
- 2. KEYS.
- 3. MENU.
- 4. NO-ACTION.
- 5. MAKE BASE-PICTURE.
- 6. COLOR.
- 7. NEW ANIM.
- 8. POSITIONS.
- - Bugs.
- - Mail.
- - P.S. (commercial).
-
- ***********************************.
-
-
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-
- Permission.
-
- MandAnim has especially been written to be added to the Public
- Domain series by Fred Fish. Everyone has explicit permission
- of the author to:
- - copy (together with this manual),
- - use,
- - and recommend this program to others (give them a copy too!).
-
- It is -evidentially- not permitted to sell this program
- (except as Fish-Disk) and also the developing and/or selling
- of programs that make use of the "MAND" (IFF-) chunk or the
- "AnimFile" is forbidden without written permission of the
- author.
-
- Ekke Veheul.
- 09-08-'90.
- Rotterdam.
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- \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \
- \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \
-
-
- Thanks.
-
- I want to thank the writers of "ARP"; MandAnim makes grateful
- use of the FileRequester of version 1.3 , so that version
- should be in 'LIBS' (use `ARPtoDF0' if convenient).
- I want to thank Arnout Grootveld for his work on the assem-
- bler routine that calculates the iteration-value of a pixel;
- MandAnim wouldn't have been written without him.
- I want to thank Erwin Fasel for his suggestions to improve
- the control of version 1.0; version 1.1 has it all...
- I want to thank Ruud de Greef for suggesting the basic idea
- of MandAnim, it took me only :-) three months sparetime to re-
- alise this fantasy of his...
- I want to thank Minouche Dukers for checking this README-file
- trying to improve my language.
-
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-
-
- 0. General.
-
- MandAnim was meant to be a program to create a moving fractal-
- background for handmade lowres animations. The fact that is
- hasn't been used for that purpose yet , can be explained by
- the beauty of the backgrounds themselves and the shortage of
- memory in my Amiga. Or maybe it's just more fun to use
- MandAnim than it is to paint ...
- Most of my energy was used creating a simple interface ; you
- don't need knowledge of fractals to use it. You do need
- DPaintIII to make an animation out of the IFF-pictures made
- by MandAnim though, and make sure you know how to use that.
-
- All IFF-pictures made by MandAnim contain a special chunk with
- the positions of its borders in the x-y-world of Mandelbrot.
- This was done to make each picture a potential basis for new
- animations ; you can load a picture and thereby set the
- defaults automatically. An animation does need a base-picture
- so there is a way to make one, and only save it when you're
- satisfied; the animation-pictures are all saved by MandAnim,
- and this can only be stopped by the right-mouse-button.
-
- The program was written in 'C' -except for one routine- on an
- Amiga-500 (1.2) with one Mb. (without even a hard-disk ,it
- can be done) . It was checked on:
- Amige 500 (1.3, 512 K)
- Amiga 2000 (1.3, 3 Meg, 1 Mb CHIP (sticky pointers!))
- Amiga 2000 (1.3, 40 Mhz TurboCard and 32-bits RAM )
- Amiga 3000 (1.3 and 2.0)
- I thought it worked propperly on those, but I'm not sure about
- NTSC (how could I).
- DO send bug-reports !
-
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-
-
- 1. Quick start.
-
- 1. HOW TO MAKE A BASE-PICTURE OUT OF NOTHING:
-
- - Install ARP.library (v1.3 ) on your boot-disk and start the
- program by selecting its icon.
- - If there is no picture called 'MA-BASE' in the same direc-
- tory as MandAnim then the program will say so. Just hit the
- window with the left-mouse-button.
- - Select the 'MAKE' gadget of 'BASE-PICTURE' and don't touch
- the new ones. Only select 'RENDER'.
- - When the picture is ready, return to 'MENU' and select
- 'SAVE'.
- - Search for MandAnim's directory and save the picture as
- 'MA-BASE'. Every time you start the program, from now, it
- will come up with this picture.
-
- 2. HOW TO MAKE AN ANIMATION:
-
- - Select 'NEW ANIM'.
- - Let's make a small animation, let's say 30 frames; so type
- '30' in the string-gadget called 'FRAMES:'.
- - Where do we come from and where do we go to. That is the
- question. Select the gadget with the mouse-image and paint
- two quadrangles (in the dpaint-way) on the base-picture.
- - Hit the RETURN-key (or the right-mouse-button).
- - Check the frames by selecting 'PREVIEW'. If you don't like
- it, go back to the mouse-gadget ,type 'c' (= clear) and try
- again.
- - Or select the 'RENDER'-gadget and set the path to an empty
- formatted disk (or hard-disk) and choose a name for this
- anim.
- - MandAnim will create a 'MandAnim-File' containing the in-
- formation for all pictures in the animation ,called
- 'name.maf'.
- - After this , hit the window somewhere and all pictures will
- be rendered and saved automatically, as 'name.000' to
- 'name.029'.
- - Then 'EXIT' from MandAnim and load the pictures into
- DPaintIII as 16 (or 32, if you want to add something) color
- -lowres- pictures by selecting the first (name.000) and
- setting the '# of frames:' to 30 (you'll need at least 1.5
- Mb. of memory).
- - Then push the '6'-key and smile.
-
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-
-
- 2. KEYS.
-
- In NO-ACTION, MENU, MAKE, ANIM and COLOR, the next keys have
- a meaning:
-
- *****************************************
-
- L -> Load BasePicture.
- M -> Make BasePicture.
- S -> Save BasePicture.
- A / N -> New Anim.
- O / R -> (Render) Old.
- Esc -> Sleep.
- Arrow Down -> NoAction.
- C / P -> Color.
- HELP -> Menu.
-
- *****************************************
-
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-
-
- 3. MENU.
-
- The MENU-field contains seven gadgets ; most of them have
- obvious meanings, but I will deal with them all.
- Base Picture:
- - Load : Pops up the FileRequester to let you choose a new
- background (base-) picture.
- - Make : see MAKE BASE-PICTURE.
- - Save : Again the FileRequester , to save the base-picture
- to (hard-) disk.
- Anim Series :
- - New Anim : see NEW ANIM.
- - Old : Once again the FileRequester , this time select a
- 'MandAnim-File' ("name.maf"),to finish an interrupted
- animation OR to re-render (parts of) an animation if
- you lost (some of) the pictures.
- Use the 'HELP'-key after you've loaded that file if
- you want to change the first-to-render frame-number.
- System :
- - Sleep: A temporary way out of the program , without losing
- the settings . All chip-memory will be freed, the
- base-picture will be kept in fast, compressed.
- Sometimes a simple `Amiga-N' can be enough, though.
- - Exit : Careful! There will be no request about your real
- intentions.
-
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-
-
- 4. NO-ACTION.
-
- A complete fractal-animation is fun , but some people even
- like single pictures of this kind. For those, it is possible
- to enjoy the whole picture -t.i. whithout gadgets- by clicking
- on it (the picture) with the right-mouse-button.
- Okay, some pictures really deserve a close look. I even imple-
- mented a 'cycle-mode' for a real festive mood : use the 'TAB'
- -key (as in DPaint) to (de-)activate and the '<-' and '->'
- to change directions. You can't change the speed, sorry.
- All 'KEYS' are active , but also the 'E' is; and that means
- EXIT, without a warning... be careful.
-
-
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-
-
- 5. MAKE BASE-PICTURE.
-
- This field has 18 gadgets; in a left-to-right sort of order:
-
- StringGadgets (4):
- - You could type some particular positions here, for some
- reason, but you can't pass the +/-3.0 border.
- MouseGadget:
- - You'll want to use this to set the positions, if they stay
- within the borders of your base-picture. Read 'POSITIONS'
- for special features.
- Render:
- - When you've done all the adjusting, sit back, render, and
- wait...
- Menu/Color (2):
- - Return to 'MENU' or set the 'COLORS'; you can also use
- the keys here.
- Speed:
- - Three possibilities: Normal (100 %), PASS-X (+/- 56 %) and
- PASS-XY (+/- 38 %). The last two are 'cheat' options that
- leave the result almost intact. If you want to see the
- difference; make three pictures with the same settings,
- except for the speed, and load them together into DPaint.
- Iterations:
- - The number of calculations per pixel. It effects the result
- and the time it takes to render. You can experiment on one
- and the same picture by interrupting RENDER somewhere half-
- way and continue rendering after you've changed the iter-
- ations.
- The only time the program will re-render a not-finished
- picture is when you've changed the positions, or pretended
- to have changed them by selecting a string-gadget and
- giving a RETURN after that.
- IT->C (8):
- - I've picked 8 variations to convert an iteration to a color-
- number. I could have picked others, but I didn't. The first
- five are straightforward, using one to five iterations for
- one color; the last three go up and down from color 0 to
- color 15 and back, using one to three iterations per color.
- They all start and end with color 0.
-
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-
- 6. COLOR.
-
- All colors can be changed and I implemented all DPaint's
- features to help you. You will easily find your way. Some
- remarks:
- - With 'UNDO' (or 'U'-key) you can switch to the previous pa-
- lette, and back.
- - 'Load Palette' lets you copy the palette from any IFF-pic-
- ture with at least 16 colors.
- - Selecting 'READY' leads you back to where you came from; if
- you don't want to go there, use the keys.
-
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-
-
- 7. NEW ANIM.
-
- Most Gadgets here are already familiar to you - see 'MAKE
- BASE-PICTURE' - so we can concentrate on:
-
- Path:
- - Three possibilities: PingPong Chain, Straight Chain and
- Single Pictures. They provide the way the frames are
- calculated between the given positions . 'Single Pictures'
- allows no extra frames at all, 'Straight Chain' only divides
- the space between two given positions in equal steps but
- 'PingPong Chain' divides that space in a sinus-like way so
- the DPaint-option 'PingPong' (key 6) works out fine.
- I want to implement some more pathways later, so if you can
- spare some ideas, you're welcome ( mathematical approach,or,
- even better, a 'C'-function would be lovely ).
- Frames:
- - Just the number of frames you want to get rendered. Type the
- number into the (string-)gadget and RETURN (!).
- If you're using more than two borders to set the path it's
- possible MandAnim is gonna change that number. It has to be
- ( X * number-of-borders + 1).
- The maximum number of frames is 8191 ; I doubt you'll ever
- try that, it would fill about 250 disks (200 Mb)...
- Preview:
- - You can check the path with this, but don't expect the
- speed to be the same as in the animation, it isn't.
- MouseGadget:
- - Like in 'MAKE BASE-PICTURE' but it doesn't turn back
- automatically, here. The program doesn't know how many
- borders you want to make. Click the right-mouse-button
- when you're done. DO read 'POSITIONS'.
- Render:
- - This is the very last action to be taken. You'll be
- prompted to set the path and name of this shot, a
- MandAnim-File will be created (allowing you to finish
- this anim later) and all pictures will be rendered - until
- you select the right-mouse-button.
-
- IMPORTANT:
- A Disk-Full message will only stop MandAnim from rendering
- until you have:
- - selected 'Cancel' ,
- - clicked the WorkBench to the back ( the message brings
- that to the front; our palette would make the requester
- unreadable),
- - replaced the full disk with an empty formatted (!) one,
- - and clicked somewhere in the picture-window (left-mouse-
- button) to signal you're ready.
- The program will have deleted the (half) picture on the
- first disk, copied the MandAnim-File to the new disk
- and will continue rendering after saving the last picture
- again.
- P.S. The only (?) way to make an animation out of pictures
- that are saved on several disks is to make a small
- animation of each disk, binding them together later, using
- the load- & append- Anim options of DPaintIII.
-
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-
-
- 8. POSITIONS.
-
- Selecting the mouse-gadget in NEW-ANIM or MAKE-BASE-PICTURE
- leads you to new surroundings with new key-options. When
- making a picture you might want to use:
-
- HELP:
- - Pops up a window with the result of ( Width / Height ) which
- are the real (x,y) sizes of your border. If you want to
- hold on to a realistic proportion, this result should be
- (about) 1.
-
- Arrows:
- - While drawing a border it often happens (to me) that it's
- hard to get the object you picked centered if you also
- want to hold on to a certain proportion. Using the arrow-
- keys while holding down the left-mouse-button allows you to
- change the position of the left-top corner... DO try this
- one, I like it and hope to find this in DPaint once...
-
- While selecting multiple borders in NEW-ANIM, you also
- might want to use:
- BACKSPACE '<-' or 'Del' : - To delete the last added border.
- 'C' (clear): - To delete ALL borders (no undo possible !).
-
- To return to the 'ANIM'-gadgets you can use the 'return-key'
- or the right-mouse-button, or you can go on drawing borders
- until you reach the maximum... 999. I kill me.
-
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-
-
- - Bugs.
-
- No known bugs. Honest. Do let me know if you find something
- that shouldn't be found. I'll fix it. That is, if I can...
-
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- \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \
-
-
- - Mail.
-
- Information about the assembler-routine, or any other Amiga
- specific stuff, get it from :
-
- Arnout Grootveld
- Hoekblok 36
- 2291 XW Wateringen.
- phone: 01742-4421 or (??)-3117424421
- Electronic mail (prefered):
- FidoNet: 2:281/600.2
- UseNet : ...!hp4nl!neabbs!amg
-
-
- Any questions , suggestions , bug-reports ,but CERTAINLY your
- prettiest ANIMATION, please send them to me.
-
- Digital Pro Motions
- p/a Ekke Verheul.
- Stroveer 120.
- 3032 GA Rotterdam.
- the Netherlands
-
- You can call me too, see: 010-4660503 or ( ?? )-31104660503
-
- Finally:
- Thanks for reading 'till here and lots of fun using MandAnim.
-
- Ekke.
-
-
- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=-
-
-
- P.S.
- VIDEO and (local) BROADCAST companies and home-artists,
- you might want some information about (DTV-) programs like:
-
- ** Scroll Module. v 2.11 .
- - Horizontal (overscan) scrolling of 'BlitFonts';
- All resolutions with maximum 1600 pixels scrolling per
- second (!), adjustable in 32 steps, REAL TIME control.
- No limit to the number of words/characters, NO stutter.
- Especially made to work FAST, and save time.
- Lots of (color-) ScrollFonts available already.
- © Digital Pro Motions (Ekke Verheul)
-
- ** Subtitle Module. v 4.03 .
- - Professional subtitling in seconds... Works with all Amiga
- fonts. Shadow and edge made by the program,set by the user.
- Colors, spacing, height ,two fonts and justification are
- adjustable. Text is edited within the program and can be
- saved along with the settings for later use. REAL TIME
- mouse-control.
- © Digital Pro Motions (Ruud de Greef)
-
- ** Start. v1.01 .
- - Counting down in seconds or (video-) frames. From 1 to
- 10 seconds to zero-> and Black, in beautiful animation.
- You might even want to broadcast this. Names and information,
- dates and times (Auto-date), can be edited internally on
- three lines of colored text.
- © Digital Pro Motions (Ekke Verheul)
-
- ** Color Master. v1.02 .
- - 256 colors HIRES/LACE for all your IFF-pictures. Cuts your
- painting in pieces and gives every piece its own colormap.
- No visible boundaries. Nice interface. A Video MUST.
- © Digital Pro Motions (Ruud de Greef)
-
- ** ShowTime. v2.02 .
- - Loads an IFF-picture and lets you put a digital clock in
- (8 different) colored digits over it . On any place, in any
- resolution. All settings from within the program.
- © Digital Pro Motions (Ekke Verheul)
-
-
- For a complete summary with description and price-list send
- your (firm-) name and address to me on a postcard and add :
- "Amiga DTV-Tools Summary". You will receive the list as soon
- as possible.
-
- Ekke.
-
-
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