Merciful 1/Merciful - Disc 1.iso/software/l/lsd_sprint_docs_disks/lsdsprintdoc'sdisk04.dms/in.adf/AegisArtPak1.doc.pp

Text File | 1990-09-07 | 11.9 KB | 345 lines

                        Aegis Art Pak 1

Introduction

Aegis Art Pak is a series of utilities designed to make your artistic
efforts easier and more enjoyable.  Art Pak contains a series of paintings
that can be used as backgrounds and components in your artistic efforts.
There are many different positions and perspectives as well.  When combined
with Aegis Animator, you can create fabulous Desktop Videos.

There are entire paintings to be used as backdrops as well as a variety of
individual objects.  The objects include such items as perfectly detailed
buildings, national monuments, cars, trucks, planes, tanks, animals,
dinosaurs, trees, and a lot more.  Many of the items are captured in
different positions so you may easily create cel animations.

The best part of all is every drawing is made with the same color palette.
This means you can cut and paste everything on the disk without once having
to worry about changing the colors of an object.  All of the images in Art
Pak were designed in the 320x200 resolution for maximum color resolution.

Also on the disk is the Aegis Player program.  With it you can create
animations in Aegis Animator, place them on a disk with Player, and give
away the disk without worrying about copyright laws.

About the Artists

When this manual was started we asked the creators of Art Pak, Sachs
Enterprises for a brief history regarding their expertise:

    "Sachs Enterprises was formed in 1983 to explore and extend
    the graphics capabilities of the Commodore 64.  State-of-the-art
    computers, such as the Amiga, are now occupying the full-time
    efforts of Sachs Enterprises.  Superior graphics and animations
    come from this progressive and innovative group of artists under
    the direction of Jim Sachs.  Contributing artists for this project
    include Jim Sachs, Dick La Barre, Doug Smith, and Steve Quinn."

As you will see while using this product, this is quite an understatement.
So without further ado...

Getting Started

The Art Pak disk has an AmigaDos system on it.  After using Kickstart, you
may boot it directly or use it in conjunction with another program.  If you
boot Art Pak directly it will automatically load and execute the Player
program.  Player looks for any animations on the disk and plays them in
sequence.

There is a sample animation created with pieces of the Art Pak which loads
and runs when you boot the disk.  The title of the animation is
Cars.script.

To start the disk and see a sample animation:

    Boot your Amiga with Kickstart 1.1 or 1.2

    Remove the Kickstart disk and insert the Art Pak disk.

To exit the animation:

Press the Menu (right) mouse button.  You will be returned to the CLI.

Making a Backup Copy

Before you start using your Art Pak disk you will want to make a backup
copy.  This is very important.  It protects you in case disaster should
befall and your disk becomes damaged.  Be sure to back up your disk!

NOTE:  The backup copy is for your use alone.  Illegal distribution of the
disk is a violation of copyright laws and Aegis will prosecute when
necessary.

To make a backup copy of the Art Pak disk:

    You will need a blank disk and the Art Pak disk.

    Boot your Amiga with Kickstart 1.1 or 1.2.

    Remove the Kickstart disk and insert the Art Pak disk.

    Exit the Player program (press the Menu button).

At the CLI prompt enter:

    Diskcopy DF0: to DF0:

    -Single-drive users will need to swap disks as prompted.

    -Multi-drive users should insert the blank disk in the external
     drive (df1:) and substitute DF1: for second DF0:.

Using Art Pak with Aegis Images and other paint programs

Art Pak may be used with paint packages to enhance your own artwork.
Individual items can be pasted into a drawing or customized, with
backgrounds providing a starting point for your own ideas.

All of the Art Pak drawings are saved in IFF (Interchange File Format) and
may be used in any program which supports IFF.  They are assigned file
extensions for ease of use with Images and Animator.

Full-size paintings have an extension of .pic.  When a picture file is
loaded into memory, its color palette will load automatically.

Many of the drawings are saved as .win files.  These are windows and appear
as frames when loaded into Images.  When you load a window, Images does not
load the color palette.  If you have already loaded one of the background
pictures the window will load properly since the palette is already
present.

The color palette is saved in a .col file on disk.  It appears as:
AP_colors.col.

To load a background into Images:

    Load Images in the internal drive (df0:).

    Choose Change Directory from the Project menu.

    Type ARTPAK:

    You will be prompted to insert your Art Pak disk in any drive.

    Choose Open and then Painting from the Project menu. A list of
    available paintings will appear in the scroll window.

    Select the painting you want.

To load the first window into Images:

    Load Images in the internal drive (df0:).

    Choose Change Directory from the Project menu.

    Type ARTPAK:

    You will be prompted to insert your Art Pak disk in any drive.

    Choose Open and then Color from the Project menu.

    Select the file named AP_colors

    Choose Open and then Window from the Project menu.  A list of
    available windows will appear in the scroll window.

    Select the window you want.

Art Pak may be used with other programs which support IFF such as Deluxe
Paint. Deluxe Paint uses brushes in the same way Images uses frames
(windows).  If you load a window as a brush you should select the brush
palette to get the colors correct.

Using Art Pak with Aegis Animator

One of the best uses for the Art Pak pictures is in the creation of Desktop
Videos.  With Aegis Animator and Art Pak you can piece together animations
in a snap.  Some of the full-screen paintings have objects in different
positions for use in cel animations.

You can even create backgrounds in Animator by loading the pieces you want
as windows (Animator will call them Cels) and arranging them until you are
satisfied.  Once the background is complete it can be saved as a pic file.
The "animation" you have created by moving the windows around can then be
deleted and the finished background loaded to start your real animation.

This technique is better for objects which will not be animated since it
saves memory.  Each window requires memory while the background remains the
same regardless of the number of objects pasted onto it.

The three kinds of files (win, pic, col) are all accessed through the
storage menu option.  The list of files which appear in the storage window
are alphabetized by Animator.  For this reason letters have been added to
the front of some files so they appear grouped by category.  There are
three such categories: animals (a), buildings (b), vehicles (v), scenery
(s), and other (o).

The next section of this book details how you can create a simple
animation.  The sample animation which comes on the disk is used as an
example.  This type of animation does simple movements of cels around the
screen.  By flipping cels and speeding up the tween time, more
sophisticated cel animations are possible.

A Sample Animation

The first item needed for this animation is the background.  This can be
found as a picture file on the Art Pak disk.

To load the background:

    Load Animator in the internal drive (df0:)

    Choose storage from the Project menu, or select the disk icon from
    the Fast Menu.

    Choose CD from the third column.

    Type ARTPAK:

    You will be prompted to insert your Art Pak disk in any drive.

    Choose color from the Project menu, or select the color icon from
    the Fast Menu.  The color requester will appear.  Select glow on
    to turn glow off.

    Select pic from the middle column.

    Select sample.city2 from the first column.

    Select load from the third column.  The background will load onto
    the screen.

The next item needed is the first car which appears in the animation.  This
is a window file.

To load the first car:

    Select win from the middle column.

    Scroll the list of files to the bottom until you see the file
    v_Accord and select this file.

    Select load from the third column.  The car will appear on the
    screen in the top-left corner.

    Move the cursor to the front bumper of the car and hold down the
    Selection button.  A reference frame will appear attached to the
    cursor.

    Hold down the Selection button and drag the reference frame to the
    far right of the screen.  Push the frame off the screen until you
    can see only its left border.  Be sure to position the bottom of
    the frame so it is above the yellow lines of the road.  Release the
    Selection button.

    Close storage (click in top-left box).

    Select path from the Fast Menu or from the Move menu.

    Place the cursor at the far right of the screen.  Press the
    Selection button and move the cursor to the left about an inch.
    Make sure the path line is straight.  Press the Selection button
    again.

    Choose Next Tween from the Time menu, or the camera icon from the
    Fast Menu.

    Now repeat the path and Next Tween commands until the car is off
    the left side of the screen.  By adjusting the length of the path
    traveled in each tween you can create an effect of the car slowing
    or speeding up.

To add a second car:

    Select the time option from the Project menu, and choose the Begin
    button on the requestor.  Press the Menu button.

    Advance the animation a few tweens.  Now repeat the steps above
    with a different car.  Be sure to place it below the first on the
    road to create the illusion it is in front.

    To view your animation, execute Play Loop or Play All.

About Aegis Player

Player allows you the convenience of giving away your finished animations
without giving away the Animator program.  Player will only run animations
made with Aegis Animator.  You are free to distribute the Player program
(provided, of course, you don't leave Art Pak on the same disk!).

Using Aegis Player

To copy Player to another disk:

    You will need a blank disk and the Art Pak disk.

    Boot your Amiga with Kickstart 1.1 or 1.2.

    Remove the Kickstart disk and insert the Art Pak disk.

    Exit the Player program (press the Menu button).

    At the CLI prompt enter MAKE PLAYERDISK.  You will be prompted as
    to your next steps.

Copying the animation to Player:

You must have all the components of an animation (win, pic, script) on
Player for it to run properly.  Loading a script name only will not load
the windows and background with comprise the animation.

Running Player:

    Boot the Player disk with Kickstart and exit to CLI by pressing
    the menu button.

    At the CLI prompt, type PLAYER followed by [RETURN], or choose
    from the options:

        "+ONCE" plays an animation once.

        "+HIDE" hides the titlebar information while the animation
        is loading.

        "+ALL" searches out and plays all the animations in the
        current directory.

        filename 1 filename 2... plays consecutive scripts.  No
        extension is necessary.

        Syntax: PLAYER [filename (filename 2...) (+ONCE) (+ALL)
        (+HIDE)]

        Example:

        1> player knight luna +hide +once

        or

        1> player +all +hide

If only a filename(s) is entered, Player will run a script(s) in a
continuous loop until the Menu button is pressed.

If no filename or options are given, a menu will be displayed showing you
every script in the current directory.

        Click on the script file you want to watch followed by
        clicking on the Play button.  If the script you want is not
        here (remember, you can scroll the listing!) point and
        click the Drawer box.  Type in a directory or device
        name and press return.  Then repeat this step.

        To stop the animation, press the right mouse button.  This
        will bring you back to the menu or to the CLI.

        Click Exit to exit.

Watch for further advancements in Aegis Desktop Video!  And send in your
registration cards for announcements of forthcoming Art Pak's.

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         DOCS PROVIDED BY  -+*+-THE SOUTHERN STAR-+*+- for M.A.A.D.
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