NetNews Offline 2/NetNews Offline Volume 2.iso/news/comp/sys/amiga/programmer/5533

Text File | 1996-08-05 | 9.6 KB | 194 lines

Path: uu4news.netcom.com!genesplicer!209-254-8!joey.mcdonald
From: [e-mail] (Joey McDonald)
Date: 15 Mar 96 10:50:54
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: DCTVpost 5/5
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Organization: The GeneSplicer

CHAPTER 3:
DCTV TIPS and TRICKS!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
⌐ copyright 1996 Joey McDonald


If you have any Tips or Tricks of your own to share with DCTV owners send them
to:

[e-mail]
[e-mail]

You will be given full credit for your tips/tricks.

Tip #1: Solving the DCTV "wipe" problem.... By Joey McDonald
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, you have a program such as TV-SHOW that has a huge number of wipes at your
disposal.. but they don't work with your DCTV images. WRONG! get the program
Dswitch (it should be available on any good BBS) and run it in RGB mode
("dswitch R") and almost every wipe will now work properly with your DCT
images. The dswitch program was not designed for this purpose.. but I
discovered that it has a very nice effect on wipes. I'm really not sure why..
perhaps a programmer can come up with an even better solution. You will EVEN be
able to use wipes that scroll from the BOTTOM > UP or MIDDLE > OUT! as ong as
there is a prior DCTV image on screen (one DCTV image wiping to the next). This
tip opens up a HUGE assortment of effects to DCTV owners! You can find Dswitch
on my local BBS "ICON" [phone]. Just issue an "FI" command and search
for "DC".


Tip #2: Quick Titles!.... By Joey McDonald
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If all you need are one or two color titles (white/black/grey/etc) over million
color backdrops.. try this little trick.

This Tip will show you how to save time and create quick titles for your DCTV
productions. The titles created can be used as a quick preview to get an idea
of what your finished product will look like, or perhaps as low-budget titling!

Load your DCTV picture into DeluxePaint or similar paint program. try a
3-bitplane image.. Some 4-bitplane images seem to have a few problems handling
this trick. De-select the menu bar to see the picture. Go to a spare page (j)
and use one of the available colors to create a title.

Now cut-out the title as a brush and hit the J key to return to the DCTV image.
If you check your DCTV output.. you'll see that you are now actually displaying
an RGB brush OVER the dctv composite output. two of the colors available in the
color selector will cause severe distortion so you'll need t select the correct
colors. Try selecting the "color" option and browsing through the available
colors to see how it appears on the composite output. (you may have problems
with distortion when using very large fonts). From here on.... just create your
title as if you were working with a standard IF pic.

You can use the move requester to flip, rotate, spin... and animate your title
OVER the DCTV backdrop. Because the text is RGB it will be much more crisp than
the text created within the DCTV paint program. (ALWAYS BE SURE NOT TO LET THE
TITLE BLOCK OUT THE TOP Line or left "zipper" lines.. that wil distort the
image or cause DCTV to not display it at all).

With a little practice you can get great results. The title cannot have many
colors... usually 2 or 3... (Black and White are always available). You should
use the outline option to outline your titles with a different color so they'll
appear more detailed. (white text outlined by black, black outlied by white..
and if your really tricky you can add a grey in there somewhere :) Also as
noted above, some 4-bitplane images seem to distort when titles are placed this
way...especially when using large fonts. But remember, you're doing something
you're really not supposed to be able to do (mixing RB with DCTV) so experiment
to see the different results.

With this approach, you can quickly add RGB titles over a DCTV image without
the use of a genlock or the DCTV RGB converter. The end result is not perfect,
but for many low-budget purposes it may be just the trick! It's also a good way
to preview an idea you may be working on.

Also, if you CUT a portion of the DCTV image and shrink it down ("-" key in
Dpaint) .. you can create neat "rainbow" brushes that you can FILL your title
with! It gives kind of a "sparkly" rainbow effect.

You can also add 2 color (black and white outlined) RGB animations (cartoons)
over the DCTV million color display.


TIP#3: Color Cycling with DCTV...(sort of).. By Joey McDonald
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Load a DCTV image into a program that can alter the color cycling information
of a picture. Because a DCTV image is really an 8 or 16 color IFF.... you can
adjust the cycling info. However, since the DCTV image data is much different
than an ordinary IFF you'll get a BIG HORRIBLE LOOKING MESS..... uless you
experiment. By the way, it seems that 16 color (4-bitplane images) work best
for this... but you should try it with both formats to see which you prefer.

The techniques in this tip are really not very practical, but you never know,
you may want to add a bizarre touch to one of your DCTV video projects.

When adjusting the cycling RANGE do not use the first two colors or any black
colors in a range (this will cause the image to blank-out).

Adjust the ranges carefully, experiment a bit and you'll see that you can get
some really weird results.


Tip #4: Pre-DCTV... By Joey McDonald
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ever need to find a DCTV image on disk and you're not sure of the name, and you
don't have your DCTV connected. Displaying the image with a viewer just gives
you a giant mess of grey pixels. Using my program; "Pre-DCTV" will allow you to
view the contents of any DCTV image through a rough "preview" isplay. It is
VERY rough and only a palette trick, but it should allow you to check the
contents of a DCTV picture without the need for a time consuming conversion...
or connecting your DCTV. If you can't find it on your local BBS.. it's
available on my local BBS "ICON" [phone], or e-mail me or it!



Tip #5: A DCTV workbench backdrop!... By Joey McDonald
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Converting a DCTV image into 2-bit mode (as described in Chapter 1) will allow
you to actually use the image as a workbench backdrop with such programs as
"simgen". It is a very bizarre effect, but with the backdrop in place, your
workbench is piped through your DCTV! Experiment with the effect and ou never
know what you may come up with.

Tip #6: DC-WB... By Joey Mcdonald
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect a cable from your Video out (mono-out for A2000 and A500 owners) to the
"Video in" on your DCTV (or run the out to a video in on whatever device you
have connected to your DCTV video in). Now whenever you issue the command
"Dswitch V" using the Dswitch program... you're workbench will be chaneled
through your DCTV. However you would still need to first switch to RGB mode to
use the CLI.. to issue the command.. which is why I created the program
"DC-WB".

If you don't want to switch between RGB and composite using your monitor
switch.. get my DC-WB program. It works in conjunction with the Dswitch
program. Simply click a button or hit a function key to bring up your Amiga
display through your composite DCTV output. NO MORE switching between RGB and
cmposite with your monitor switch! If you can't find my DC-WB program on your
local BBS.. it's available on my local BBS.. ICON [phone] or e-mail me
for it!


Tip #7: DCTV brushes and ANIM BRUSHES! by Joey McDonald
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you load a DCTV animation into dpaint.. you can pick up a quarter-screen
anim brush from the top left corner of a picture. As long as you pick up the
top line and the side zipper, you should end up with a million color DCTV
anim-brush! You use the brush in such programs as TV-SHOW and Deluxe Vide and
actually move it across the screen while it's playing! There may be some
"jitter" during playing. You can also use the same process to pick up standard
brushes and move them around the screen. If you plan ahead when creating DCTV
anims or pictures.. you can re-size screens within DCTV paint to ill only the
top left section.. so when you are clipping in deluxe paint.. you'll have a
complete picture as an anim-brush or brush.

Tip #8: A simple use for the DCTV 2bit mode: By Joey McDonald
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is a simple example of how the mode in its current form can be used on a
very basic level to achieve excellent results.

So, you have always wanted to animate in Hi-Res 16 color mode on your ECS
Amiga, but the animations always play "choppy". Well, the DCTV 2-bit mode will
allow you to play just about any 16 color Hi-Res animation at 2 or 4 color
speeds and chop your old DCTV file sizes in half!

Take a 4096 color HAM (or better) animation and re-render it to dithered 16
color hi-res. Convert the animation to DCTV 2-bit mode and there will ussually
be NO LOSS in detail between the dithered 16 bit anim and the DCTV 2-bit anim.
You can also convert existing 16 color hi-res anims and chances ar they will
convert without losing detail.

The DCTV 2-bit mode allows you to animate DITHERED 16 color hi-res animations
without the "choppy" playback that ussually accompanies such animations, while
offering incredible savings in storage space and memory use.

Once software appears that will allow you to convert anims automatically, then
there will be much less grunt work involved.

I have not tested how well this aproach works on dithered 32, 64 or 4096 color
ham animations.. but there may be some loss in the conversion. We will have to
wait for new software to see if there are ways to get the most out of the DCTV
2-bitplane pallette.