Belgian Amiga Club - ADF Collection/BS1 part 60.zip/BS1 part 60/Imagemaster d4.adf/apa.lzh/mf_hlp

Text File | 1993-08-30 | 15KB | 389 lines

\ApAssist
\: - This is the Quick Help for the file I/O panel -
\: ----------------------------------------------------------
\:   Written by David E. Patterson
\: ----------------------------------------------------------

\font topaz.font 8
\tc 1
\wr
\lj
\dd "imh_descriptor"

\index "hlp_index/index"
\toc "hlp_toc/toc"
\help "aa_help/help

\node "mf_loadimg"
\title "Load Image File"
\next "mf_save24bit"
\prev ""
This selection will load an image which you specify.  There is no need to
specify what type of image you are trying to load.  \{ \ts b Imagemaster R/t
\} will examine the file, and determine if it is one of the supported file
types.  Provided that it is a supported file type, \{ \ts b Imagemaster R/t
\} will load the file automatically, and convert it (if necessary) to 24 bit
color information.

\endnode

\node "mf_cat"
\title "Catalog"
\next "mf_save24bit"
\prev "mf_loadimg"
This will bring up the catalog screen for loading or removing an entry from
the catalog.  The catalog is a visual entry of file selections.  The images
will appear as \{ \ts i postage stamp \} images in the catalog.

\endnode

\node "mf_save24bit"
\title "Save 24-Bit IFF/ILBM File"
\next "mf_saveIFFTRIM"
\prev "mf_loadimg"
This tool allows you to save the current image as a 24 bit IFF/ILBM file.
You can then specify the path and the name of the file.  This file format is
a standard that is supported and officially defined by \{ \ts i Commodore \} .

\{ \ts b Imagemaster R/t \} saves 24 bit IFF files \{ \ts i without \} \{ \ts
b CLUT \} (Color Look Up Tables) chunks in the files.  The \{ \ts b CLUT \}
will cause the bitmap data in the file to not reflect the actual image data.
\{ \ts b Imagemaster R/t \} will load files with \{ \ts b CLUTs \} correctly,
but when they are saved the \{ \ts b CLUT \} will be deleted.

\endnode

\node "mf_saveIFFTRIM"
\title "Save IFF/TRIM"
\next "mf_render"
\prev "mf_save24bit"
\{ \ts b TRIM \} is a lossless 24-bit compression method and file saver.  \{
\ts b TRIM\} , on average, will give you twice the compression of an \{
\ts b IFF24\} .

\endnode

\node "mf_render"
\title "Render to File"
\next "mf_setamigarender"
\prev "mf_saveIFFTRIM"
This panel allows you to choose the area of the current image which will be
rendered to a file.  The choices are a \{ \tc 10 \ts i Rectangular Area\} ,
\{ \tc 10 \ts i the Entire Image\} , or \{ \tc 10 \ts i Hold Aspect from
Current\} .

\endnode

\node "mf_setamigarender"
\title "Set Amiga Render Mode"
\next "mf_otherrender"
\prev "mf_render"
This selection area allows you to customize your rendered output.  There is a
selector for the \{ \tc 10 \ts b mode \tc 1 - \ts i \tc 15 Register \tc 1
, \tc 15 Extra Half Brite \tc 1 , \ts n and \ts i \tc 15 HAM \} modes.  There
are also selections for resolution, bit plane depth, palette depth, and
whether the screen is in Interlaced or Non-Interlaced mode.

\endnode

\node "mf_otherrender"
\title "Choose Other Render Modes"
\next "mf_rendersize"
\prev "mf_setamigarender"
This selector allows you to choose other rendering modes including several
HAM-E modes, and two DCTV modes.

\endnode

\node "mf_rendersize"
\title "Set Render Size"
\next "mf_dithertype"
\prev "mf_otherrender"
This area has selections for choosing the rendering size, and to change the
maximum dimensions.

\endnode

\node "mf_dithertype"
\title "Set Dither Type"
\next "mf_renderpalette"
\prev "mf_rendersize"
This selector has several types of dithering modes.

\endnode

\node "mf_renderpalette"
\title "Set Render Palette"
\next "mf_colorsep"
\prev "mf_dithertype"
This will allow you to select the palette that will be saved as part of the
rendering.  There is also the option to create a new palette, or adjust the
current one.

\endnode

\node "mf_colorsep"
\title "Color Seperations"
\next "mf_multiframe"
\prev "mf_renderpalette"
\{ \ts b Imagemaster R/t \} has full color seperations for \{ \ts i RGB, CMY,
\ts n and \ts i CMYK \} .  This is available for both 12 and 24 bit images.
This tool is very flexable and you may save multiple control settings for all
your color seperation needs.

Color seperations are a positive value, therefore where the most color
appears on the screen will be the area on the paper where there is the \{ \tc
10 \ts i most \} ink.  If a color map is used the image will appear in the
selected color seperation where the paper is white, and black where it is
a maximum of the color selected.

\endnode

\node "mf_multiframe"
\title "Multiframe Sequence"
\next "mf_ldmask"
\prev "mf_colorsep"

This allows you to load a list of files, process them, and then resave the
files in either 24-bit IFF format or render them to another display mode.
It is strongly suggested that you use the filmstrip with the sequencer.  This
allows you to view each file after it is processed.  It is also useful for
viewing output which is not being saved.  By using the filmstrip you have a
visual log of the processes, and be sure that you are getting the desired
results.

The processing is done using a very simplified form of an \{ \ts i ARexx \}
script.  The scripts can be as simple (three lines of text), or as complex as
you like.  The script will be executed once for each frame in the sequence.

It is very important that you look at the example scripts here, even if you
are not an ARexx user.  This tool has been designed to be very easy to use,
but you need to take the time to study the examples in this section.

The multiframe sequencer is broken into two portions.  First, you will need
to prepare a simplified \{ \ts i ARexx \} script that will process the images
in the desired fashion.  Second, you will need to select a group of files to
apply these effects to.  Also included in this portion of the sequencer are
controls for directing what you would like done with the output.

\{ \ra \image "Clips/Bullet2.pic" l 10 \cap
\{ \ts u \ts b \{ \ts i ARexx \} Script Particulars: \} \}

There is one new command which must be used with the multiframe processor.
The command is \{ \ts b 'finish;' \} , and it \{ ts b must \} be at the end of
any script that is to be used with the multiframe processor.  This command
tells the image processor that all of the operations in the script are
complete.  If you do not use the finish command, only the first frame in the
sequence will be processed.

In addition to the \{ \ts b 'finish;' \} command, we have also provided the
\{ \ts b 'tween;' \} command.  This is used in scripts where you want various
parameters to cange from frame to frame.

There are two arguments that are always passed to the \{ \ts i ARexx \}
script.  The first argument is the current image number.  For example, the
third image in a series of 20 would have a current image number of \{ \ts i 3
\} .  The second argument is the total number of images in the sequence.  In
the above example, the second argument would be 20.  These two arguments can
be usedto control anything you can imagine, but this requires you to be
fairly sophisticated in your script-writing.  The \{ \ts b 'tween;' \}
command will handle everything most users would like to do.

\{ \ra \image "Clips/Bullet2.pic" l 10 \cap
\{ \ts u \ts b \{ \ts i ARexx \} Script Example for Constant Effect: \} \}

\flushimage
The following is a very simple example of how to apply a particular constant
effect across a sequence of images.

\lm 35 \nw /* SimpleSeq.rex - minimal demonstration script */
'entire';      /* specify do entire image */
'contrast 50';    /* 50% contrast increase */
'finish';      /* mandatory final command */

\lm 0 \wr Simpleseq.rexx is a good example of how simple a script can be.  It
selects the entire image is to be affected, the contrast is increased by 50%,
and then tells the image processor to continue on to the next image or stop
if it is the last image in the sequence.

\{ \ra \image "Clips/Bullet2.pic" l 10 \cap
\{ \ts u \ts b \{ \ts i ARexx \} Script Example for Variable Effects: \} \}

\flushimage
We will now look at how you might increase the contrast over time by using
the \{ \ts b 'tween'; \} command.  This will only require three more lines
than the previous example.  This shows how easy it is to create perfectly
sequenced effects.

\lm 35 \nw /* Contrast.rexx - shows how to get varying effects across frames */
option results;     /* this tells \{ \ts b IM R/t \} to return "result" */
'entire';       /* select entire image as operation  target */
'tween 0 100';      /* get \{ \ts i tween \} value into autovariable "result" */
'contrast'||result;     /* apply the tweened amount, changing smoothly */
'finish';       /* mandatory final command - end of script */

\lm 0 \wr The following is a line by line description of the script.

\{ \ra \image "Clips/Bullet2.pic" l 10 \cap
\{ \ts u /* Contrast.rexx - shows how to get varying effects across frames */
\}

\flushimage
This is an \{ \ts i ARexx \} comment line.  It is required by the \{ \ts i
ARexx \} language that the first line be a comment line.  If the comment
delimiters ( \{ \ts b/*  */ \} ) are not present, the script will not be
executted.  Also it is a nice way for you to know what a script is about.
Comment lines may appear any where in the script.\}

\{ \ra \image "Clips/Bullet2.pic" l 10 \cap
\{ \ts u options results;
\}

\flushimage
This is a command line to the \{ \ts i ARexx \} language itself which informs
any program recieving a command that it may return a value if a macro command
is executed that should return one.  If this line is not present, you will
not get a value back from \{ \ts b Imagemaster R/t \} . It is needed here
because the \{ \ts i tween \} command does need to return a result to the
script.\}


\{ \ra \image "Clips/Bullet2.pic" l 10 \cap
\{ \ts u 'entire';
\}

\flushimage
This tells \{ ts b Imagemaster R/t \} that you would like to effect the
entire image.  You might have selected \{ \ts i oval \} or \{ \ts i rect \}
here instead, if you had wanted only a portion of the image.\}

\{ \ra \image "Clips/Bullet2.pic" l 10 \cap
\{ \ts u 'tween 0 100';
\}

\flushimage
This command to the image processor is the key to easy variable processes
over multiple frames. What it is saying is that over the course of this
sequence, the starting value (for the first frame processed) is to be "0";
and the ending value (for the last frame processed) is to be "100". The tween
command uses this information with internal information the image processor
maintains about how many frames there are and which one is being processed
now, to determine the appropriate value to return for this particular frame
in the sequence - no matter what frame it is. The 'tween' command can start
with a low value and go to a high one, or vice-versa. It can also handle
negative numbers. For operations where there are multiple parameters, just
use multiple 'tween' commands and put the "result" from each into it's own
variable. The 'tween' command is simple, and very powerful.  Here are some
examples...

        'tween -100 100'; var1 = result;
        'tween 100 0'; var2 = result;
        'tween -75 50'; var3 = result;

...now var1, var2 and var3 could be used later as different parameters for a
script that needed several different values.\}

\{ \ra \image "Clips/Bullet2.pic" l 10 \cap
\{ \ts u 'contrast '||result;
\}

\flushimage
This is the actual command to the image processor which instructs it to apply
a certain amount of contrast to the image of the sequence that is currently
being processed. The image processor's contrast command can take values from
-100 to 100, and the variable "result" contains a value within these limits,
which we got from the 'tween' command.

Note that the variable "result" is set whenever you call ANY command to the
image processor after executing "options results", so it is constantly being
reset to a new value. Often, the best course is to copy the value in "result"
to a new variable, like we showed you in the explanation for the 'tween'
command. Here's another example...

        'tween -25 25'; tweenvalue = result;

...where the semicolons serve to separate ARexx commands. The next command
changing the contents of "result" won't unintentionally lose you your
returned value here. In the script example, because we use "result"
immediately after we get it from the 'tween' command, we don't need to copy
it, it's still got the value we wanted in it. The dual vertical bars are a
concatination operator; they "glue" text together. Let's say that the
variable "result" contains the number "25". The result of this line will be
sent to the image processor and it will look like this...

            contrast 25

...which is exactly what you want.\}

\{ \ra \image "Clips/Bullet2.pic" l 10 \cap
\{ \ts u 'finish'; \}


\flushimage
This line tells the image processor that the script is complete.  The
sequence processor then knows to load the next frame, or to terminate if the
last frame has been completed.

It is important to note that the scripts described here belong in the \{ \ts
i \tc 10 Pre-Render \} script entry.  The other three script entries control
more complex batch operations.\}


\endnode

\node "mf_ldmask"
\title "Load Mask"
\next "mf_svmask"
\prev "mf_multiframe"
This allows you to load a previously saved mask.  \{ \ts b Imagemaster R/t \}
gives you several logical operations to choose from, including the logical
AND and OR. This gives you great flexability when it comes to combining
masks.

\endnode

\node "mf_svmask"
\title "Save Mask"
\next "mf_ldimgmask"
\prev "mf_ldmask"
This allows you to save a mask.

\endnode

\node "mf_ldimgmask"
\title "Load Image Mask"
\next "mf_svimgmask"
\prev "mf_svmask"
An image mask is defined as a local mask which is exclusive to that image.
This mask is permanently associated with the image, and it defines the usable
region of the image.  An example would be the creation of a text object
image.  There is an image mask in the shape of the text, actually a
rectangular area, which \{ \tc 10 \ts i masks \} off the rest of the image
area.  The loading of one of these masks follows the same general steps for
loading an image or mask.  You can also specify logical operations to occur
with the loading of the mask.

\endnode

\node "mf_svimgmask"
\title "Save Image Mask"
\next "mf_Done"
\prev "mf_ldimgmask"
This will save the current image's image mask.

See Also: \{ \ts b \tc 15 \link "Image Mask" "mf_ldimgmask"
\}

\endnode

\node "mf_Done"
\title "Done"
\next ""
\prev "mf_svimgmask"
This allows you to exit the \{ \ts i \tc 10 File I/O \} panel.  Any changes
you made will automatically be implemented by \{ \ts b Imagemaster R/t \}
when the \{ \tc 10 \ts i Done \} button is pressed.

\endnode