home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Carousel Volume 2 #1
/
carousel.iso
/
mactosh
/
da
/
airbrush.sit
/
airbrush docs
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1987-01-04
|
4KB
|
82 lines
============================================
How to use the Air Brush* 0.1 desk accessory
============================================
The Air Brush DA was adapted from the tool of the same name which is
included in MacroMind's ComicWorks and GraphicWorks programs. If you haven't
used the MacroMind Airbrush* before, you'll find that it's an order of
magnitude more versatile than anything you've seen in MacPaint, FullPaint or
even the all-around graphics champ, SuperPaint.
GETTING STARTED
To use the Air Brush DA, first open your Paint application and select
the bitmap you want to modify and copy it to the Clipboard. Then open the
Air Brush DA and paste, using the Edit menu. (The Command-key shortcuts for
Cut/Copy/Paste won't work while Air Brush is active, for some reason.) Your
image should appear in the Air Brush window.
THE AIR BRUSH WINDOW
Air Brush opens a window with horizontal and vertical scroll bars; the
actual size of the document is roughly two screens wide by three screens high,
or about a thousand by a thousand pixels. Your pasted-in image will appear in
the upper left corner of this space, but you can use the scroll bars to view -
and work on - other parts of the Air Brush window.
AIR PRESSURE
You'll notice that a new menu, "Air," has appeared on your menu bar. When
you pull it down, you'll see four lines of various thicknesses, the standard
patterns from your System file, and a box with a number in it (initially 15)
in the upper left corner of the pattern area. The lines are used to control
the "air pressure" of your airbrush tool: selecting the dotted line gives the
lowest pressure and hence the lightest spray; the thickest line gives high
pressure and hence lays down pigment fastest. To set air pressure, just move
the cursor over one of the lines until it's framed by a box, then release.
There's also a keyboard shortcut: the P, [, ] and \ keys correspond to the
dotted, light, medium and dark line menu choices, respectively.
PATTERN SIZE
The number shown just below the dotted line on the menu is the diameter
(in pixels) of your spray pattern. This can be changed in two ways: pressing
a number key between 1 and 0 (while the menu is not pulled down) will set the
pattern to one of ten fixed sizes (2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32, 48, 64, 96), while
pressing the - or = key will decrease or increase the pattern diameter in
one-pixel steps.
PATTERN
To select a pattern, just move the cursor over it until it's framed,
then release. As with the MacPaint airbrush, you can now spray in that
pattern by holding down the mouse button and moving around the Air Brush
window; unlike the standard tool, Air Brush sprays in a truly random pattern
which builds up gradually if you hold the tool stationary. The pattern-size
box (the one with the number in it) can also be selected; if you do this,
you get a special effect: a completely random pattern which never builds up
to more than 50% average density, no matter how long you hold the tool in
one place. There's also a keyboard shortcut: pressing the Backspace key
toggles between black and white paint. Finally, holding down the Command key
while you spray will make your paint transparent.
If you make a mistake, you can undo your last action by pressing the tilde
(~) key, the one in the upper left corner of the keyboard. Oddly enough, Air
Brush does not recognize the standard undo shortcut, Command-Z.
SAVING YOUR WORK
When you're finished using Air Brush, pull down the Edit menu and use the
copy command to get the document from the Air Brush window into the Clipboard;
then put away the Air Brush window and paste into your Paint application's
open document. Only the image (black) portion of the Air Brush document will
be copied; if that's larger than the document you want to paste into, you
may have a problem. SuperPaint will offer to scale the selection to fit its
maximum 8 x 10" drawing area; other applications may not behave so gracefully.
NOTE: I've written these instructions based on the ComicWorks manual and my
own experimentation; I am not associated with MacroMind in any way, so all
responsibility for any mistakes in this documentation is mine, not theirs.
*Air Brush, Airbrush, ComicWorks, GraphicWorks are trademarks of MacroMind;
MacPaint is a trademark of Apple Computer;
FullPaint is a trademark of Ann Arbor Softworks;
SuperPaint is a trademark of Silicon Beach Software.
(By the way, I haven't seen any bugs yet!)