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1993-03-21
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Digital Illusions
+++++++++++++++++
WHAT DOES IT DO?
Digital Illusions is a higly professional image processing program. Not
only is it capable of processing still pictures, but it will also let you
create stunning animations from ordinary flat pictures using a powerful
'In between' tecnique.
REQUIREMENTS
You will need an Amiga with at least 1 mb RAM. This is the absolutely minimum
amount of RAM, and at least 2MB is recommended!
If you have only 1 MB you should not use [QSAVE], [Reset from RAM] nor large
pictures. The animation mode is not designed to work with that little RAM,
so be careful! You can also try to close the workbench if you are running
out of memory.
A hardisk is also very useful when you are dealing with large animations,
but Digital Illusions will work fine without one too.
WHAT KIND OF PICTURES CAN BE USED?
All IFF images are supported (I hope... There are some strange hybrids out
there. Any problems? Let me know...) including HAM, EHB and 24 bit images.
In fact, all images are converted to 24 bit format when loaded to ensure
high image quality. You can also save all kinds of formats. In the theory
it is possible to load pictures up to 1024x1024 pixels (if you have enough
memory), but the program has mainly been tested with 320x200 pictures.
WHAT'S WHAT?
Use the left and right mousebuttons on the boxes to change settings.
Screen type
-----------
In this section you choose which output format your image will be rendered to.
[2/4/8/16/32/EHB/HAM/Preview] - Choose the number of colours to use.
The [Preview] option will give you ultra fast rendering, but only in black
and white and with no dithering. This option is ideal when you just
want a quick preview.
[Non Laced/Laced] - Interlace on/off.
[Low Res/Hi Res] - High resolution on/off.
Color control
-------------
[Dither: On/Dither: Floyd] - Dither on/off. Dithering is used to simulate
more colors than there actually is on the screen.
[Palette] - Will let you create your own palette.
[Unloced/Locked] - If the palette is locked it will always be
used during the rendering instead of the colors that Digital Illusions
usually generates automatically.
[Random] - Creates a palette of random colors. This effect can be
quite fancy when it is used together with [Sort].
[Sort] - Left button will sort the colors from light to dark.
The right mousebutton will sort from dark to light.
[OK] - Confirms your choice of colors.
[Copy] - Copy the current color to the one you choose.
[Swap] - Swap the current color with the one you choose.
[Spread] - Spread colors between the current color and the one you
choose.
[Cancel] - Cancels your colorchoice.
[QSAVE] - Save the current 24 bit image into the undo buffer.
[QKILL] - Erase the undo buffer.
[Quick Load] - Load the image in the undo buffer.
Commands
--------
[Save] - Save the rendered picture in any desired IFF format.
[Load] - Load an IFF picture.
[Config] - Not implemented, yet.
[Redisplay] - Show the rendered picture.
Image Operators
---------------
This is only a quick introduction to all the functions in this program.
A better manual will be made for the 2.0 version.
To choose page you must click on the title bar or use the right mousebutton
in the 'image operators' menu.
[Scale] - Enlarge or scale down your image (includes intelligent antialiasing).
[Crop Visual] - Cut out a piece of the image using the mouse. Press the right
mousebutton to switch the help screen on/off. Press enter to crop the
image, press ESC to cancel.
[Brightness] - Choose new brightness of the image.
[Filter] - Filter the red, green and blue intensities of the image.
[Color to Gray] - Convert picture to gray scale (it will still be
represented as 24 bit internally).
[Horizontal Flip] - Flip the image horizontally.
[Vertical Flip] - Flip the image vertically.
[Negative] - Invert the image. This works well with [Emboss].
[Line Art] - Shows only parts with high contrasts (B/W).
[Horizontal Quake] - Dissorts the horisontal lines of the image in a random
manner with a defined radius.
[Vertical Quake] - Dissorts the vertical lines of the image in a random
manner with a defined radius.
[Horizontal Wave] - Generates smooth horizontal waves with a given radius,
frequency and offset.
[Vertical Wave] - Generates smooth vertical waves with a given radius,
frequency and offset.
[Hor Deepth Wave] - Make the image look like it's been held under water
with horizontal waves above (works good with animation).
[Vert Deepth Wave] - Make the image look like it's been held under water
with vertical waves above.
[Hor Shade Wave] - Make horizontal waves with shades (works good together
with horizontal waves).
[Vert Shade Wave] - Make vertical waves with shades (works good together with
vertical waves).
[Motion Blur] - Give the impression that the image is moving in any direction.
[Random Shade] - Your image will look like a disturbed TV picture.
[Star] - Create one star with the mousepointer. The size of the star is
calculated automaticly for you from the brightness of the image
underneath. If you want a brighter star just click several times.
[StarBurst] - Let the computer place stars on the brightest parts of the
image. The X/Y coordinates of the stars are random, so you can use this
effect in an animation to produce interesting effects.
[Spiral] - Twist your picture in a spiral based manner. Neat!
[Mosaic] - Pixelizes your image.
[Metamorphose] - Chose another image to overlap the current. The images
will be combined and works nice with animations. This is also a powerful
tool with several of the other operators. Try to use Metamorphose together
with other operators on the same image...
[Splatter] - Remove a number of pixels at random (does not check to ensure
that no point is removed twice - will fix this in 2.0!)
[Emboss] - Make your image look like it's been made in stone. Nice! If you
want colors on this one, just combine an embossed image with the
original using [Metamorphose]. If you want to invert the effect
simply use [Negative].
Render
------
To render the image, simply press the button [GO!]. If you want to stop the
rendering simply press and hold down both mousebuttons. This will also
abort the animation process.
MULTITASKING
If you want to switch between the workbench and Digital Illusions simply
press <Left Amiga>+<A>. During rendering the multitasking will be shut
off (for faster processing), this will be optional in later versions.
QUIT
----
To quit Digital Illusions just press the box in the upper left corner.
HINTS
-----
If you want the extra touch of quality you can try to double the image
size before you manipulate it. When you are finished, just reduce the image
to normal size again. This will give you an excellent antialiasing effect.
I will also strongly reccomend that you upgrade to version 2.0 for better
results...
ANIMATION
The real interesting aspect of Digital Illusions is the animation part.
This part is very simple to use, yet extremly powerful.
Once you have an image ready just press the [Animation] button and the
animation menu will pop up (Press the [Control] button to return).
First a quick overview of the buttons on this screen:
[Reset from Ram/Reset from File/No Reset] - This button indicates how, if
at all, your image will be reset after each frame have been processed. The
[Reset from Ram] option will copy the current image into RAM when the
animation process is started. After each frame has been processed the
image in RAM is copied to the current image. The
[Reset from File] option is almost the same, but not so memory hungry.
After each frame is processed the image is reset from the current open
image file. This works fine, but it is a lot slower than the Reset from RAM
option.
[No Reset] means that the image is not reset after each frame is
processed. This can give quite interesting results. Try it out!
[Motion Blur: Off/Motion Blur: On] - This button indicates if the animation
is to be motion blurred. This can be a very nice effect.
[Base pic:] - This will let y