Startup <--- Back ---> Concept
First steps
Wildfire`s Windows and Menu
After initialization Wildfire opens it's Main-Window on a screen of
your choice. This is the default public screen for the startup.
You can change this inside the MUI preferences. Just select the MUI settings
from inside menu. There you can define a own public screen with your
personal screen depth. We recommend 24 bit if this is possible on your
configuration. 32 colors works o.k if you have no GFX-Card,
but 24 bit is recommended because it`s faster for your previews. (Wildfire
calculates all the effects in 24 Bit and so it has nothing to render
down when displaying the preview)
How to change the MUI settings (Example: select an own screen)
From the main window you can select three pages and choose some other
parts from Wildfire`s menu.
The 3 Pages
- Project
Here you can set up your project (Session) including input, output, the kind of
effects and the preview type you want to use. Furtheron you can
specify special ranges of the so called session that should be
processed.
And here you start the whole thing, using the `Single image` or the
`Convert` button you generate one single image or a complete image
sequence/animation.
- Effects
On this page you select the effects which will be inserted between the
input and the output of the project. It is possible to turn off the
effects, too. So the images will be passed directly from the input to the
output. (e.g. if you want to simply convert one anim into another format)
Depending on the kind of Effects selected on the Project page (No / Linear / Non Linear)
this effect page changes it`s outlook.
- Options
The options for the current project (Session) may be set on this page. Do not mix it
up with the preferences of Wildfire. The preferences contain settings for
the whole program, this options are just for the current so-called session
you are working on.
The Window titel
Inside the window title some informations are displayed. Between the
brackets the current so-called session you are working on is shown.
Example:
Wildfire7\PPC - �1996-98 by WK-Artworks (SequenceRollFade.session )
This means that I currently work on the SequenceRollFade.session.
Online Help
All buttons and all sub-windows of Wildfire have their own online-help
(mui-bubbles) where you can get informations about their functions.
Inside the MUI settings you can select the time you have to stop
the mouse pointer until the bubbles will be displayed.
If you want to know what a effect or a window is used for then make sure
that the window you want to get informations about is selected and your
mouse pointer is situated in front of his window (not over a gadget).
After some seconds a helpt text is displayed and tells you what you can
do inside this window.
If your mousepointer is located over a gadget then the help text from
this gadget is displayed.
Window size
Inside the right corner of all the different windows there are three
gadgets, the left one is used to iconify the window or save the current
window dimensions or start the MUI preferences progam. The other two
gadgets are standard Amiga gadgets. If you want to fix the size
of your current window then select the third gadget and choose Snapshot.
The Menu
From inside the menu (just press the right mousebutton) you can reach some
other functions and program parts.
- Project Menu
- New ... Start a new Session. This means that the effect script
and all the variables will be cleared.
Afterwards select your input, choose the output and the
type of effects and give the new Session a name using
the Save As function of the menu.
Then you are ready for playing with the effects.
- Open ... Open a saved Wildfire Session. All parameters from the 3
Wildfire pages are saved in a session. Inside the
WF:Sessions/ drawer there are a lots of prepared Sessions
which were used to create the Animations which are on the
CD.
This session drawer has the same structure like the
Animations drawer on the CD. So have a look at the Anims
and if you find something useful then simply load the
corresponding session and have a look how it is done.
- Save ... Save a session using the current filename. You see the
current filename inside the titel line of Wildfire`s
window. If you have set Expertmode=off inside the
preferences then Wildfire will ask you if you really
want to replace your old saved session file.
- Save As ... Save a session using a new filename. You will get a
filerequester where you can choose the name. This name
will be extended automatically with .session
If you have set Expertmode=off inside the preferences
and if you select a session which was already there
then Wildfire will ask you if you really want to
delete the old file.
- Help ... Open the Help file which you are currently reading.
This is possible using the `HELP` key, too!
- About WF ... Display some informations about Wildfire
- About MUI ... Get some informations about MUI, which is used as
graphical user interface.
- Preferences ... Open the preferences window where you
can adjust the settings for the whole program.
If you search for the settings for the current
project like color depth and so on the go to
the option page inside Wildfire`s window and not
to the preferences window.
- MUI Settings ... Here you can start the MUI preferences program
from where you can adjust the different graphical
parameters. If you have an unregistered version of MUI
then some parameters can not b saved/changed.
- Quit ... Quit Wildfire and free it`s memory.
- Windows Menu
- Logfile ... Open the Logfile window. Here are all things
logged which may be of some kind of interest to you.
- Clipboard ... Open the clipboard window. As Wildfire supports lots of
different types of objects (images, colors, texts ...)
we created an own clipboard where not only one but a
list of this object can be placed and so used inside
the different program parts using drag`n`drop.
- Player ... Open the (YAFA) animation player where you can adjust the
options which are used while playing (YAFA) anims and
where you can play all kind of animations directly.
- Plugins ... Open the window where you can control the supplied general
PlugIns which add some other functions as Screen grabbing
and so on to Wildfire.
- Savers ... Select the used saver for 24 bit images.
- Plugins Menu
- TMaker ... This starts Wildfire`s transition maker where you
can create transitions between two inputs in a
very easy way.
- ??? ... Here you can insert your own general Plugins. You have
to select the menu checkmark inside the General Plugins
window.
Startup <--- Back ---> Concept
�1998 WK-Artworks