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DE LUXE PAINT IV FULL DOCS !!! COMPOSED FOR YOU BY AlienX/Agnøstic Frønt PART I : THE PULLDOWN MENU LOAD PICTURE (Picture Menu) KEYBOARD = Right Amiga L This displays the LOAD PICTURE requester which allows you to load a picture or sequence of pictures. The first time you select Load from the Picture menu, the file requester will display all of the available devices <DEV> and volumes <VOL> on your system. Devices are the physical drives that you have attached (floppy, harddrive or ramdrive). Volumes refer to the names that have been assigned to devices. For instance you may have named a harddrive partition as "Work" or "Graphics". Additionally, since the contents of a floppy drive changes whenever you insert a different disk, a volume name is used to refer to a particular floppy disk. The file requester is used to enter a path to a specific file. Simply click on the appropriate names in the requester to build a path to the desired file. Your current path selection will appear within the Drawer field. When you click on a file name rather than a disk or drawer name, the name is displayed within the File field. The DRIVES button displays all physical drive units attached to your system. These are the hardware names, such as DF0:, DH0:, RAM:, etc. The ASSIGNS button will list all of the current logical assignments in your system. These are names that have been added using the AmigaDOS ASSIGN command and include any of the standard system assignments such as, C:, LIBS:, DEVS:, FONTS:, ... etc. The Pattern field lets you enter a "wildcard" pattern. This allows you to filter out the list so that it only displays file names that match a particular pattern. For most purposes the standard pattern is: #? Entering this into the Pattern field will list all files in a directory. It has the same effect as entering no pattern into the Pattern field. #?.pic This pattern will display only those files that have .pic at the end of their name. Pic#? This lists only files whose names start with Pic. Pic#?.pic List only files that start with Pic and end with .pic. (#? is the basic AmigaDOS wildcard pattern, please refer to your AmigaDOS manual - or "The Buddy System for AmigaDOS", for more info on Pattern Matching). NOTE: The above functions of this file requester are also found in the requesters used when loading brushes, animbrushes, palettes, stencils, moves and animations (through other menu selections). The "# of Frames" edit field of the requester allows you to load multiple picture files to build an animation. All pictures being loaded this way have to be in the same format (same screen resolution and # of colors). If animation frames already exist they will be replaced by the newly loaded picture files. DPaint proceeds by loading pictures alphabetically starting from the selected picture name and going down the list for the requested number of frames. ********************************************************************** SAVE PICTURE (Picture Menu) ********************************************************************** KEYBOARD = Right Amiga S This allows you to save a picture or sequence of pictures. Saving a picture stores all of its attributes as well -- The palette, stencil and perspective information is reloaded along with a picture. If you have created multiple frames of animation, the requester will allow you to specify which frame or group of frames to save. These frames are then saved as separate pictures with a corresponding number automatically added to the end of the file name. For example if you specify as a File name, AnimPic Then, DPaint will save the animation frames that you specify into the specified directory as, AnimPic001, AnimPic002, AnimPic003, ..., etc. It's a good idea to use extensions for all Saving processes to help distinguish between the different types of files that DPaint works with: .anib for animbrushes, .anim for animations, .pic for pictures .br for brushes .move for move requester settings .pal for palettes .cs for color sets .sten for stencils Of course, these are just suggested extensions. You should use extensions that will best help you keep your files organized. ********************************************************************** DELETE PICTURE (Picture Menu) ********************************************************************** KEYBOARD = Right Amiga D The "Delete Picture" requester is displayed. This allows you to delete any file from a floppy disk, harddrive, or RAM directory (Drawer) without leaving the program. This function is not limited to DeluxePaint pictures. Anything that can be selected from the Delete requester can be deleted. This is useful for deleting files on a disk if space is needed. * USE THIS FUNCTION WITH CAUTION! * ************************************************************************ PRINT PICTURE (Picture Menu) ************************************************************************ KEYBOARD = Right Amiga P The "Print Picture" requester is displayed. This allows you to print the currently displayed picture screen. Make sure that the correct printer driver and other options from the Workbench Preferences are selected. Also, verify that the printer is connected and ready to print before selecting this function. The print requester allows you to select from the following options: Aspect: lets you print a picture normally (the arrow pointing up), using the width of the paper, or sideways, along the length of the paper. Image: specifies a positive (+) or negative (-) image. Shade: specifies a black & white, grey-shaded or color printout. Placement: specifies printing along the left margin or centered on the paper page. % or Dots: specifies the size of the printout. The % option allows you to enter the %Wide and %High while the Dots option lets you enter the size as the number of printer pixels. In effect, this adjusts the density or resolution of the printout. SEE -> `Page Size` for additional info NOTE: if you leave the %High value at 0 - the correct value will automatically be used to match the value used for %Wide. Line Feeds: specifies the number of line feeds inserted after a picture is printed to allow you to print two pictures on the same page with a specified amount of space between them. Copies: specifies the number of copies you want printed. Form Feed: specifies whether or not you want the printer to advance to the next sheet of paper after printing a picture. Cancel: allows you to abandon the print function as well as any of the current print settings you may have made. Exit: allows you to abandon the print function but save all the current print settings for a later time. ************************************************************************ FLIP PICTURE (Picture Menu) ************************************************************************ This allows you to flip an entire picture about its x (Horizontally) or y (Vertically) axis. If multiple frames exist, you can select one, a range of frames, or all frames of your animation to flip. SEE ALSO -> `FLIP BRUSH` ************************************************************************ PAGE SIZE (Picture Menu) ************************************************************************ This displays the "Page Size" requester which allows you to specify the height and width of the page in pixels. A Standard page size is always equal to the current screen resolution. You can create pages that are larger than the actual screen display. These types of images are known as "SuperBitmaps". The standard page sizes are: Lo-Res 320 x 200 Med-Res 640 x 200 Interlace 320 x 400 Hi-Res 640 x 400 Even though standard Amiga monitors can only display up to limited resolutions, you can specify any page size up to that which your available memory will allow. This is primarily used for printing applications. For example, many of today's printers have a high resolution specified as the number of dots per inch (dpi). Laser Printers usually have a 300 by 300 dpi resolution. So, if each pixel is printed as a dot on the printer, and you printed a Lo-Res 320x200 pixel screen, the image would take up less than a square inch on the paper. In order to edit an image that would take up a full 8 inches on a paper then, you would need to have a page size of 2400 in Width (since there's 300 dots, or pixels, per inch, 8 inches works out as, 8 x 300 = 2400 dots!). The corresponding Height value controls how high the image will be - remember 300 dots for every inch. Of course, the limitation to Page Size is the amount of memory you have in your system. NOTE: In order to print your image at the printer's resolution, make sure you select "Dots" from the Print requester and enter the height and width values of the image as values for the requester. Also adjust the density setting for graphics printing from Workbench Preferences. (See your AmigaDOS manual.) SEE -> `PRINT PICTURE` for additional details on printing. FULL PAGE allows you to create an image with the same aspect ratio as a a standard printed page (8.5" x 11"). OVERSCAN allows you to create an image which will fill the entire screen so that there are no visible borders when the image is output as a video signal. The three options: Standard, Full- Page, and Overscan, have preset values according to the current screen resolution. Other values can be specified by typing directly into the Width or Height edit fields. NOTE: You must also select an overscan setting, either Standard or Max Overscan, from the `Screen Format` requester in order to display an image in overscan. Otherwise you will just have an overscan sized page displayed within a standard screen. For minimal memory systems, editing an overscan screen within a standard screen does not require as much memory as editing with an actual overscan display. Page Scrolling You can move around to different areas of an oversized page by using the cursor keys or the 'n' (centering) key. SEE ALSO -> `SHOW PAGE` *********************************************************************** SHOW PAGE (Picture Menu) *********************************************************************** When working with a page that is larger than the current screen size, This option allows you to view an image of the entire page. The page is reduced so that it will fit within the size of the current screen. This allows you to get a visual layout of the page. A flashing box outline is displayed to indicate which area of the page you are currently working on. You can move this box around the page (using the mouse or cursor keys) to work on another area. Pressing any other key or releasing the mouse button will return you to the editing screen at the new position. SEE -> `PAGE SIZE` *********************************************************************** SCREEN FORMAT (Picture Menu) *********************************************************************** This displays the "Screen Format" requester which allows you to select the number of screen colors and resolution. LO-RES: The DEFAULT screen size, gives you a screen that is 320 pixel wide by 200 pixels high, with a maximum of 4096 colors (in HAM mode). If your Amiga supports Extra-Halfbrite (All A500s & A2000s and SOME A1000s - Check with your dealer or service-center), you can display a maximum of 64 colors without going into the overhead of HAM mode. Although Extra-Halfbrite provides you with 64 colors, only the first 32 are user-adjustable - the last 32 are just half-intensities of the first 32. SEE -> `HBRITE MODE` MED-RES: 640 x 200 with a maximum of 16 colors. INTERLACE: 320 x 400 with all colors modes up to HAM available. HI-RES: 640 x 400 with 16 colors maximum. OVERSCAN: Activates overscan mode and allows you to paint directly into the borders of the screen so that the image fills the entire screen. Especially useful when outputting to video, but very memory intensive. There are two type of overscan: STD: should fill the majority of the video screen and conserves a significant amount of memory. MAX: fills the maximum area of the screen. Use this setting if the STD setting does not quite cover the entire screen. IF YOU NEED TO ADJUST THE POSITION OF THE SCREEN, PRESSING THE CTRL KEY WHILE USING THE CURSOR KEYS WILL ALLOW YOU TO DO SO WITHOUT HAVING TO USE WORKBENCH PREFERENCES. SEE ALSO -> `PAGE SIZE` *********************************************************************** LOAD BRUSH (Brush Menu) *********************************************************************** This Displays the "Load Brush" requester which allows you to load a brush file into the current screen. Brushes are parts of a picture that have been cut out with the Brush tool. They can be saved so that you can later use them in other projects. If the brush was cut from a picture with a different color palette, select the option `Use Brush Palette` from the COLOR menu. SEE -> `LOAD PICTURE` for details on how to use the file requester. ALSO -> `PALETTE` *********************************************************************** SAVE BRUSH (Brush Menu) *********************************************************************** This Displays the "Save Brush" requester which allows you to save the current custom brush. The current picture's palette is saved with the brush. SEE -> `LOAD PICTURE` for details on how to use the file requester. *********************************************************************** RESTORE BRUSH (Brush Menu) *********************************************************************** KEYBOARD = SHIFT B This functions restores the last custom brush that was used and attaches it to the mouse pointer. The custom brush could be an animbrush, built-in brush, or any brush created using the brush tool. Clicking on the BRUSH tool with the right mouse button also activates this function. SEE ALSO -> `SPARE BRUSH` *********************************************************************** SPARE BRUSH (Brush Menu) *********************************************************************** In addition to the `Spare Page` feature, DeluxePaint IV adds the ability to have a spare custom brush. This means that you can now switch between a built-in brush, animbrush, and either of two custom brushes that you cut out with the `Brush Tool`. More importantly, this spare brush feature allows you to access the "Metamorphosis" feature. Metamorph allows you to have one custom brush transform into the shape and colors of another custom brush - resulting in a metamorphing animbrush. DeluxePaint automatically takes care of Tweening (drawing the in-between frames). Brush->Spare After cutting out a brush with the `Brush Tool`, you must (ALT n) use this function to copy the brush to the spare brush. This brush will be the starting shape for the Metamorph. You can then cut out another brush shape. The size of the brush is limited to available memory. A requester will be displayed if a brush is too big. Brush<->Spare This function lets you switch between the current brush and (ALT b) the spare brush for painting. Metamorph Once you have a spare brush AND another custom brush you (ALT m) can perform a metamorph. Selecting this function displays a requester where you enter the number of frames or transformation steps that you want in the metamorph. When you click OK, the Metamorph animbrush will be created using a screen separate from your picture or animation frames. After the process has completed, the newly created animbrush will be attached to your pointer, ready for animpainting. See -> `ANIMBRUSH` `ANIMPAINTING` *********************************************************************** SIZE BRUSH (Brush Menu) *********************************************************************** STRETCH (SHIFT Z) allows you to size the brush horizontally, vertically or both, by moving the mouse. Holding down the shift key constrains motion of the mouse so that changes in the brush height are the same as those for brush width. This maintains the aspect ratio of the brush while you resize. HALVE (h) reduces the horizontal and vertical brush dimensions by 50%. DOUBLE (SHIFT H) doubles the brush's horizontal and vertical dimensions. DOUBLE HORIZ (SHIFT X) doubles only the horizontal dimension of the brush. DOUBLE VERT (SHIFT Y) doubles only the vertical dimension of the brush. The - key decreases the current brush size The = key increases the current brush size. NOTE: These transformations can't be used on animbrushes. To resize an animbrush, enter Perspective mode, then hold down CTRL and move the mouse to size the brush along the Z axis. SEE -> `PERSPECTIVE` *********************************************************************** FLIP BRUSH (Brush Menu) *********************************************************************** HORIZ (x) Flips the brush on its horizontal or x axis. VERT (y) Flips the brush on its vertical or y axis. *********************************************************************** EDGE (Brush Menu) *********************************************************************** OUTLINE (o) Adds a one pixel border around the current brush using the current foreground color. TRIM (SHIFT O) Removes a one pixel border around the current brush. Additionally, some of the drawing tools can be made to automatically add an outline to themselves by using the 'i' function. For instance, holding down the 'i' key on the keyboard while selecting the Rectangle tool activates auto-outline mode. After you draw with the tool, an outline will be drawn around its edge, automatically! Whatever custom brush you have attached to the pointer will be used to draw the outline. This function works on the `Filled Freehand`, `Circle`, `Ellipse` and `Polygon` tools also. *********************************************************************** ROTATE BRUSH (Brush Menu) *********************************************************************** 90 DEGREES (z) Rotates the current brush clockwise 90 degrees. ANY ANGLE Variably rotates the current brush as you move the mouse. Each time this option is selected, the brush reverts to its original orientation. SHEAR Fixes the top part of the brush in place and allows you to drag the bottom part in either the left or right direction. *********************************************************************** BEND BRUSH (Brush Menu) *********************************************************************** HORIZ Bends the current brush horizontally (left or right) as you move the mouse left or right. The vertical position of the mouse determines the bending point. VERT Bends the current brush vertically (up or down) as you move the mouse up or down. The horizontal position of the mouse determines the bending point. *********************************************************************** BRUSH HANDLE (Brush Menu) *********************************************************************** CENTER (ALT s) places the brush handle at the brush's center. CORNER (ALT x or ALT y) places the cursor at one of the brush's four corners. PLACE (ALT z) lets you place the brush handle by dragging the mouse. NOTE: The location of the brush handle is very important when working with the functions of the Move requester or Perspective, since the brush handle becomes the "hinge" point for all rotations. SEE -> `Move` `Perspective` *********************************************************************** MATTE (Mode Menu) (F1) *********************************************************************** This mode reverts to the default mode as when you first create a custom brush using the Brush tool. In this mode, the areas of the brush which matched the background color when the brush was first created become transparent and all separate colors in the brush are displayed. *********************************************************************** COLOR (Mode Menu) (F2) *********************************************************************** This mode uses the shape of a custom brush and the current foreground color. Color Mode turns a multicolored brush into a single color brush of the same shape. The areas of the brush which matched the background color when the brush was created remain transparent. *********************************************************************** REPLC (Mode Menu) (F3) *********************************************************************** This mode operates similar to the Matte mode by using the original form of the custom brush and maintaining all separate colors. However no colors are transparent. *********************************************************************** SMEAR (Mode Menu) (F4) *********************************************************************** In this mode, colors on the Dpaint page become smeared as you drag a brush over them. The intensity of the smearing effect is dependant on the size of the current brush. Only the colors under the brush are smeared together. No new colors are added and it does not matter what the current color of the brush is. *********************************************************************** SHADE (Mode Menu) (F5) *********************************************************************** This mode is similar to the Smear mode but uses the current brush's shape instead of its color. Only those colors which are within the currently active color range are affected. In this mode, the left mouse button paints with the next higher color in the range while the right button paints with the next lower color. Shade mode is very useful for creating realistic shadows, since Shade can be made to darken areas and still allow details to be visible. SEE -> `RANGES` for details on creating ranges and selecting the current range. *********************************************************************** BLEND (Mode Menu) (F6) *********************************************************************** This mode is similar to the Smear mode but uses additional shades by averaging colors (Smear only uses the colors currently under the brush) When you drag a brush over two colors, a third intermediate shade, which is the closest average of the two colors, is added. This shade must be available within the current palette. Therefore the available colors in the palette determines how much blending will take place. Blending works best when you have more colors and color gradients in your palette. SEE -> `RANGES` for details on creating ranges and selecting the current range. -> `Palette` for details on creating color gradients. *********************************************************************** CYCLE (Mode Menu) (F7) *********************************************************************** This mode uses the brushes shape for painting. If a color range is currently active, the brush will cycle through all the colors within the range as you draw. SEE -> `RANGES` for details on creating ranges, selecting the current range and adjusting color cycle speed. -> `MULTICYCLES` for multicolored brush effects. -> `CYCLE` for turning on color cycling mode. *********************************************************************** SMOOTH (Mode Menu) (F8) *********************************************************************** This mode removes the hard, jagged edges that can exist between highly contrasting colors. When painting over two adjacent colors with the current brush, Dpaint locates intermediate colors that can fit between the two colors to create a smoother gradient of intermediate shades. Therefore, a wider range of colors in the palette results in greater smoothing effects. SEE ALSO -> `ANTIALIAS` for another way to get rid of the "jaggies" *********************************************************************** MIX (Mode Menu) *********************************************************************** This mode uses the brushes shape and current foreground color for painting. A multicolor brush becomes a single color brush in the current foreground color. The colors directly under the brush determine the color that will be painted on the screen. The closest available color in the palette, that lies between the brush and screen color will appear. If you are in HAM mode, and the mix color does not currently exist in your palette, it will be added automatically. Essentially, you get the same effect as what takes place in the palette mixer area, except that the mixing takes place directly on the painting screen. *********************************************************************** HBRITE (Mode Menu) *********************************************************************** This mode is only available if you are using 64 colors (Extra halfbrite mode - Available on ALL A500's, A2x00's A3x00's and SOME A1000's). In this mode, painting with the left mouse button darkens colors in a painting to their halfbrite equivalent, while painting with the right button lightens halfbrite colors to their normal equivalent. NOTE: Although Extra-Halfbrite provides you with 64 colors, only the first 32 are user-adjustable - the last 32 are just half-intensities of the first 32. The palette controls can not be used to adjust the halfbrite colors directly. You must edit the corresponding color in one of the first 32 positions, then the halfbrite counterpart will automatically be readjusted. Additionally, you cannot copy to or delete any of the halfbrite color positions, but you can copy a halfbrite color to any other position in the palette. *********************************************************************** ANIMBRUSH (Anim Menu) *********************************************************************** An animbrush is a special kind of custom brush. It is actually a mini animation that you can position within a larger screen animation. This gives you the ability to create complex movements and effects by simply drawing with an animated brush. As you draw with an animbrush, it cycles through its individual frames. There are two ways to create an animbrush, using the `Metamorph` feature or by using the animbrush submenu functions: LOAD The "Load Animbrush" requester is displayed. When an animbrush created from a palette different than that of the current picture is loaded, the picture palette remains in place. The palette of the animbrush can be used by choosing the Palette -> `Use Brush Palette` option from the Color Menu. SAVE The "Save Animbrush" requester is displayed. This requester works like the "Save Picture" requester. SEE -> `LOAD PICTURE` for details on how to use the file requester. PICK UP This works like the Brush Selector tool. However, you will be cutting out an area from multiple frames. It is the movement within this area, over successive frames, that will define the action of the animbrush. You specify the area you want to cut out by dragging out a rectangle. The same conventions used for defining regular custom brushes apply; using the left button copies the defined area & the right button cuts out (& removes) the defined area. A requester will appear. This lets you specify the number of frames to cut the animbrush from, starting with the current frame. When painting with an animbrush, all of its frames are cycled through as you paint. Normally, this cycling occurs only on the current frame. Holding down any Alt key will cause the individual frames of the animbrush to be painted on successive animation frames. This is known as AnimPainting. SETTINGS Displays the Animbrush Settings requester: NUMBER OF CELS shows you the number of animbrush cels. DURATION the rate at which the animbrush cycles through its cels. CURRENT sets the starting brush cel used when painting. DIRECTION specifies forward, backward, or ping-pong flipping through the cels of the animbrush as you paint. 7 & 8 KEYS (along the top of the keyboard; not the Numeric Keypad) allow you to step forward and backward through the cels of the animbrush. Shift-7 steps to the first animbrush cel and Shift-8 steps to the last cel. USE Makes the last Animbrush "picked up" the current brush. This lets you use the last animbrush after having picked up a regular brush. FREE Gets rid of the animbrush and releases all memory associated with it. *********************************************************************** LOAD ANIM (Anim Menu) *********************************************************************** The "Load Anim" requester is displayed. This requester works like the `Load Picture` requester. Loading an animation replaces any that currently exists. If you select Append from the requester, instead of Load, then the animation is added to the end of your current animation. NOTE: Animations must be in the same format and resolution in order to use the Append function. SEE -> `LOAD PICTURE` for details on how to use the file requester. Individual pictures can be loaded into frames of your animation by using the "Load Picture" requester. *********************************************************************** SAVE ANIM (Anim Menu) *********************************************************************** The "Save Anim" requester is displayed. This requester works like the `Save Picture` requester. SEE -> `LOAD PICTURE` for details on how to use the file requester. You can specify the range of frames in the animation to save by entering values for the "Frames __ TO __" area. Just entering the starting and ending frame numbers. *********************************************************************** MOVE ANIM (Anim Menu) *********************************************************************** The "Move" requester sets up motion for brush animation. By using the Cartesian coordinate system, you specify values for movement along the X (left & right direction), Y (up & down) or Z (in & out) axes. This lets you define a 3 dimensional movement for the current brush (the current brush can be a built-in, custom or animbrush). Additionally, you can control whether the movement is drawn entirely on a single frame or through a sequence of animation frames. The first thing you must do is specify a starting position for the brush. This is done by stamping the brush at the desired starting location on the screen. Animation is then achieved by entering appropriate values into the Move requester and clicking on the DRAW button. TIP: Here's a method to help you understand the X, Y, Z (Cartesian Coordinate system) a little more intuitively: - Extend your left hand and the following 3 fingers, your index finger should point straight ahead, your thumb should point straight up and, your middle finger should point to your right. - Now, think of your middle finger as the X axis. It is the horizontal axis, so movement along it goes either left or right. Positive movement along the X axis goes towards the right - the direction that your middle finger should be pointing! - negative X movement goes towards the left. Now, imagine a ring on your middle finger, the way that you can rotate this ring represents the rotational movement possible on the X axis. This is would be like a flipping motion. Your thumb represents the Y, or vertical axis. Movement goes up or down along the Y axis. The direction your thumb is pointing, up, indicates positive Y axis movement. Negative Y movement is down. Rotation on the Y axis is like the movement of a spinning top. Finally, your index finger represents movement along the Z axis. Positive Z axis movement goes into the screen, or away from you, while negative Z movement comes towards you. Rotation on the Z axis can be compared to how you would view a rotating fan or propeller. DIST Specifies the total distance that the brush will move along the X, Y, and Z axes. The Brush button to the right of these entries is used to specify whether the movement is relative to the Brush axes or the Screen axes. All values relate to pixel units. So, an X value of 120 would cause the brush to move 120 pixels right, from the starting point (-120 would move the brush left; Incidentally, positive Y values move up, negative Y moves down, positive Z moves forward - away from you, and negative Z moves backwards - towards you). ANGLE Specifies the total angle, in degrees, that the brush rotate around any combination of axes. The Brush button to the right of these entries is used to specify rotation relative to the Brush axes or Screen axes. REMEMBER: All rotations occur around the brush handle! SEE -> `HANDLE BRUSH` EASE-OUT Sets the number of frames beginning from the first frame, over which you want the animation to gradually accelerate (this helps create more natural motion). Think of this as the number of frames you would like the brush to "ease out to start the movement". EASE-IN Sets the number of frames ending with the last frame, over which you want the animation to gradually decelerate. Think of this as the number of frames you would like the brush to "ease in to end the movement". COUNT Sets the number of frames that you want the movement to take place over - starting from the current frame. CLEAR Zeros all of the Move and Angle values. GO BACK Restores the starting position of the brush for the next movement to the last place it was manually clicked down. The default is to start the next movement where the last one ended. CYCLIC Specifies cyclic animation; one that starts and ends at the same position. DIRECTION BUTTONS This set of buttons controls the direction of the move and the order in which the frames are painted: O-> GO FROM starts the movement of the brush from the point you stamped it and paints on following frames. ->O COME TO starts the animation at an earlier frame, depending on the COUNT value, and paints forward to the current frame. RECORD BUTTONS specify the order in which the frames of the brush move are painted when dealing with an animation with more than one frame. >> FORWARD paints forward from where you stamped the brush. || IN PLACE paints all of the moves on the current frame. << BACKWARD: paints the move in reverse order, starting at the last frame and painting backwards. PREVIEW Allows you to view the entire movement in "wire-frame" mode. Spacebar stops the preview. TRAILS Creates an animation using the specified Move settings by copying the newly painted contents of each frame in the movement, to every following frame. FILL For each movement a filled perspective plane based on the rotation of brush is drawn. SEE ALSO -> `PERSPECTIVE` DRAW Creates an animation using the specified Move settings. CANCEL Restores any altered settings and exits the Move requester. EXIT Exits the Move requester but retains any of the entered settings. LOAD Lets you load previously saved Move requester settings by displaying the "Load Move" file requester. SAVE Allows you to save all of the values and button settings in the Move requester. This way you can use the same move effect for other projects. SEE -> `LOAD PICTURE` for details on how to use the file requester. *********************************************************************** ANIM FRAMES (Anim Menu) *********************************************************************** SET # Displays the Set Frame Count requester. This allows you to Add or Delete frames; if the number you specify is greater than the current amount of frames, frames will be added to make the total number of frames equal to the number you specified. If the current frame is the last frame, frames will be added after the current frame. If the current frame is in the middle of a group of frames, frames will be inserted after the current frame. THE CONTENTS OF THE CURRENT FRAME ARE COPIED TO THE ADDED FRAMES. If you specify a number less than the current amount of frames, then frames will be deleted forward, starting with the current frame, until the total number of frames is equal to the number you specified. ADD FRAMES Displays a requester that lets you specify the number of frames you want added. These new frames are added after the current frame. Additionally, the contents of the current frame are copied to all the new frames. The last frame to be added becomes the current one. COPY FRAMES Displays the "Copy Frames" requester. This gives you several options to choose from: By using the upper half of the requester, you can copy the current frame to either All Frames that currently exist or only to a Range of frames. To copy the current frame to a Range, enter a range of frames in the __to__ area and click on the Range button. The bottom half of the Copy Frames requester lets you copy a Range of frames and insert them before a specified frame. This allows you to copy "blocks" of your animation and place them at other points in the animation. This feature gives a kind of "Copy & Paste" function commonly found in word processing programs, of course, you are working with animation frames instead of words! DELETE FRAMES Displays the "Delete Frames" requester with the following options: Click on the Current Frame button to delete only the current frame. The Range button lets you delete the frames specified by the values in the __to__ area. Clicking All frames will remove all animation frames from memory, leaving only the current frame available. *********************************************************************** ANIM CONTROL (Anim Menu) *********************************************************************** The following functions are only available if animation frames exist. These control the playback or location during animation editing. PANEL ON/OFF Toggles the animation control panel on or off. This gives (alt-a) you access to certain animation playback and editing functions without having to select the pull-down menus. _<_ <___> Plays the animation in a reverse loop. The keyboard equivalent is SHIFT-4. < Plays the animation ONCE in reverse. The keyboard equivalent is SHIFT-5. <| Steps back one frame. The keyboard equivalent is 1 |> Steps forward one frame. The keyboard equivalent is 2 > Plays the animation ONCE forward. The keyboard equivalent is 5 _>_ <___> Plays the animation in a forward loop. The keyboard equivalent is 4. <> Plays the animation in PING-PONG mode - alternating forward and backward playback. The keyboard equivalent is 6. + Adds a frame after the current frame, the contents of the current frame are copied to the new frame. Pressing the Ctrl key while clicking on this button, displays the "Add" requester so that you can specify the number of frames to add. - Deletes the current frame. Pressing the Ctrl key while clicking on this button, displays the "Delete" requester so that you can specify the number of frames to Delete. SEE 'DELETE FRAMES` ->O Positions the animation at the "Go to" frame (default = 5). The keyboard equivalent is SHIFT-3. Pressing the Ctrl key while clicking on this button, displays the "Go to Frame" requester so that you can specify the frame number you want to go to. The keyboard equivalent is 3. _ ( ) (Lightbulb icon) Turns on the LightTable effect. U The keyboard equivalent is l (lowercase L). SEE -> `LIGHTTABLE` 2 Activates `Two Back` mode when the LightTable is on. P Makes the previous frame visible from the LightTable. This is the default when the LightTable is first activated. N Makes the Next frame visible from the LightTable. S Makes the `Spare Page` visible Additionally, the frame slider gadget above the animation control panel lets you quickly get to a particular area of an animation. The buttons on the left and right of the slider will get you to the start or end frames respectively. SET RATE Displays the "Set frames per second" requester. Increasing this value speeds up the animation while decreasing this value slows the animation down. Also, the left and right cursor keys will slow down or speed up animation playback. SET RANGE Displays the "Set Play Range" requester. This lets you play back all frames of the animation or just a selected range of frames. To play back a range, specify values for __to__ then click the Range button. PREVIOUS (1) Steps back one frame. NEXT FRAME (2) Steps forward one frame. GO TO (3) Displays the "Go to Frame" requester. PLAY (4) Plays the animation until the spacebar is pressed. PLAY ONCE (5) Plays the animation once. PING-PONG (6) Continuously plays the animation but alternates between forward & reverse playback. ADDITIONAL KEYBOARD EQUIVALENTS SHIFT 1 = GO TO FIRST FRAME SHIFT 2 = GO TO LAST FRAME SHIFT 3 = GO TO LAST FRAME # ENTERED IN GO TO REQUESTER SHIFT 4 = CONTINUOUS REVERSE SHIFT 5 = PLAY ONCE REVERSE *********************************************************************** ANIM METHOD (Anim Menu) *********************************************************************** There are two methods that DPaint uses in creating animations: COMPRESSED Allows many more frames in memory at once. This method saves only the differences between frames. ADVANTAGES: allows for more frames DISADVANTAGES: slower while animpainting, loading and saving and more likely to run out of memory due to memory fragmentation COMPRESSED METHOD IS THE DEFAULT EXPANDED Allocates memory to hold complete information for each and every frame. ADVANTAGES: animpainting is very smooth. memory will less likely run out as elements are added to the animation within the allocated frames. DISADVANTAGES: requires more memory than compressed method. *********************************************************************** RANGES (Color Menu) *********************************************************************** Color ranges are used to create smooth gradients for fill patterns, for color cycling effects, or for affecting the various paint Modes (i.e. Shade, Blend or Cycle). Range creation and editing is done through the Range requester (CTRL r): Range Selection DPaint IV, allows for up to 8 independently defined ranges. The slider gadget at the upper left corner of the Range requester lets you choose which range to work with. Simply drag the slider using the left mouse button to change the current range. The current number is displayed to the right of the slider. Range Creation The colors defined in the current palette (SEE -> `Palette`) are displayed in a row towards the bottom of the requester. Up to 32 colors are visible at a time. You can select other banks of colors using the arrow buttons at the right end of the color row. At the top right corner of the requester is the foreground/background color indicator. Since the paint screen is still active and usable while the range requester is displayed, the color row and color indicator take the place of using the toolbox area. Towards the top center area of the requester is a segmented line. This is the range bar where you place colors to define a range. The line has 32 segments which represent positions for defining up to 32 colors in a range. To define a range, simple click on a color in the color row with the left button. A "color bead" will become attached to your pointer. At this point you can move to the range bar and place it in any of the available positions by clicking on the line with the left button. The color bead will then become detached from your pointer. Now you can continue to add more colors, in any order or spacing, by repeating the procedure. As color beads are placed on the range bar, those color beads that are actually found in your available screen palette are marked with a black dot at the bottom of the color bead. In HAM mode (See `HAM Mode`), The SHOW button is used to display the gradient created by your arrangement of colors. The box below the range bar displays what the gradient looks like in HAM (4096 Color) mode. The gradient is always displayed using HAM in this box even if you are only working on screen with say only 16 colors. If your colors on the range are separated by empty slots, DPaint automatically displays additional colors in the gradient box when you click on SHOW. This lets you see any intermediate colors that help make the gradient smoother. If you are already working in HAM mode, the gradient that is shown will be used during any gradient fill operations (SEE -> `Fill`). However, if you are working in a non-HAM mode, say with only 16 colors, then a window will appear above the Range requester to display the gradient that is possible with the colors in your palette. Therefore you may not be able to get as smooth a gradient as you want because you may not have enough actual colors to create it! Clicking on SHOW a second time clears the gradient box. As we touched on previously, the spacing between colors on the range bar affects the gradient. Simply increasing the spaces between two colors on the range bar, causes DPaint to calculate more gradient colors. Again the amount of available colors in your palette will affect how smooth the gradient can be; In HAM mode DPaint can always create the smoothest possible gradient. To smooth the color transitions within gradients, DPaint uses a process called "Dithering". Dithering approximates the blending of colors by using closely spaced pixels to represent saturated color and increasingly spaced pixels for lower saturation. This way a color can appear to blend more smoothly by dissolving into another color. There are two types of dithering that DPaint uses. The default is "Ordered Dithering" where the dithered dots take on a regular, even pattern. By clicking & activating the Random button, "Random Dithering" is enabled. Random Dithering, as the name implies causes the dithered dot pattern to be more irregular - more grainy. This graininess can be adjusted with the Dithering slider. The Dithering slider can adjust from a low setting where definite color bands are visible, to a high, very grainy setting. By default Pattern Dithering is used to create a regular patterned blend of colors. NOTE: the Dithering slider is only functional in the Random mode. Also, the SHOW gradient area in the Range requester always displays the smoothest possible HAM gradient. The effect of the Dithering slider is not displayed in the SHOW gradient area. For non-HAM modes, an alternate display window is used. Otherwise, you can see the effect of the Dithering slider from within the Fill Type requester. The REVERSE button reverses the order of the colors placed on the range line. This is useful for changing the direction of the gradient or the direction for color cycling. The keyboard equivalent, Alt-R lets you reverse a current range while you are painting. CLEAR removes any colors from the range bar, clearing the gradient and range definition. UNDO takes back the last action performed in the Range requester. REVERT resets the range requester to the settings that were present the last time it was called up. COLOR CYCLING is a very useful function primarily used for animation effects. Color cycling shifts the positions of colors in a range, in sequential order. During color cycling, each color moves into the position of the next neighboring color in the range (actually, the RGB values of a range color are applied to the next neighboring in the range, but to keep things simple we'll assume that colors are actually changing position). This occurs according to the speed set by the Cycle Rate slider. When a color gets to the end of a range, it starts over at the beginning again. Hence, a continuous cycling process. Color cycling is activated by the Cycle menu item in the Color menu or by pressing the TAB key. There are a few important things to remember about color cycling: 1. Only the colors that actually exist on the range bar will be involved during color cycling. Even though the colors you place on the range bar may generate a gradient that appears to have several colors, only those areas of the gradient which match a color on the range bar will be part of a color cycle - only those colors will cycle. 2. The spacing of colors placed on the range bar will affect the way colors cycle. When range colors are placed immediately next to each other, the colors will simply cycle through each position. However, when space is increased between colors on the range bar, an interesting thing occurs: a color separated by spaces will cycle through any intermediate colors in order to get to the next color on the range. In other words, if you place a red color on the range bar, immediately neighbored by a blue, the colors will simply cycle between red and blue. However, if you leave a few spaces between the red and blue, then the red will cycle through any intermediate shades (such as purples, if available) before becoming blue. 3. A color does not have to exist in your immediate palette. Even in non-HAM modes, the palette provides access to the HAM color spectrum, you can access colors that are not in your immediate screen palette. This is useful for creating flashing or glowing effects without having to use up all your actual screen colors. 4. In HAM mode, only the first 16 colors are available for color cycling. At least one of the first 16 colors must exist on the range bar to make cycling possible. Additionally only those areas of the screen painted using a color out of the 16 can cycle. *********************************************************************** CYCLE (Color Menu) (TAB) *********************************************************************** Selecting this option toggles color cycling on or off. Color cycling causes any colors in a range (SEE -> `Ranges`) to cycle through their range of colors. In effect, cycling causes a color to continuously shift its position in the range. This can cause a single color on the screen to either flash, pulsate, or glow, depending on the colors in the range. With gradients, the effect can simulate motion - like flowing water. In any case, a color range must first exist and must have a defined cycle rate greater than 0. The direction of cycling is controlled by the ordering of a range. This can be changed by reversing the range in the Range requester. SEE -> `RANGES` `MULTICYCLE' *********************************************************************** PALETTE (Color Menu) *********************************************************************** MIXER (p, or right button click on the color indicator in the toolbox) Displays the MIXER requester. This lets you define the color values in your palette. using a variety of controls: Clicking on the button at the far left of the screen switches between the RGB & HSV slider controls. The R, G, & B sliders adjust a colors RED, GREEN and BLUE values. The H, S, & V sliders control HUE (the color's position in the color spectrum ranging from red to purple), SATURATION (the amount of white in the color; with high SATURATION being pure color and low SATURATION containing more white), and VALUE (the amount of black in a color). SPREAD creates uniform gradations between two colors. First click on a starting color, click Spread, then click on the color that you want to gradation to proceed towards. EX (EXCHANGE) swaps the positions of two colors. PICK lets you choose a color that exists on the screen. The pointer will change to an eyedropper image so that you can click on a color to edit. The color you click on, will become the current color in the requester. Changing the values of a color will affect the palette and areas where that color exists on the screen. NOTE: In HAM mode, only the areas on the screen that use the first 16 colors of the palette are affected by the sliders. Other color areas will not change when you move the sliders, even if you use the PICK function to choose the color directly from the screen. COPY allows you to duplicate a color to another position. DELETE lets you remove a color definition or a range of colors from the palette. While the mixer requester is displayed, the painting screen is still active and the palette bar in the requester takes the place of selecting colors from the toolbox. 32 colors are available at a time, with more available by clicking the arrows to the right of the palette bar to move up or down to different color rows. Up to 8 rows or 256 colors can be defined at a time. The mixing area lets you create new colors from other colors by electronically simulating the mixing of real paint. You can then PICK colors you create in the mixing area and position them in the palette. NOTE: If you click OK in the Mixer requester or call up another requester such as the ARRANGE or RANGE requester, anything you have done in the mixing area will be lost. Use the keyboard equivalent, p, to toggle the mixer display and to keep the mixing area intact. ARRANGE (SHIFT P) Displays the ARRANGE requester. This provides access to more palette colors at once. USE BRUSH PALETTE: When a brush is loaded, Dpaint continues to use the current picture palette. If you wish to apply the brush's original palette to the current one, select this option. RESTORE PALETTE: selecting this option will return you to the palette that existed before the last palette change or the palette of the last picture or animation that was loaded. DEFAULT PALETTE: Selecting this option will revert to the palette that DPaint uses when it is first loaded. *********************************************************************** Color Set (Color Menu) *********************************************************************** A Color Set consists of specific colors selected from the current palette. A Color Set gives you the advantage of being able to load and save colors other than those in your base palette (SEE->`Save Palette`or`Load Palette`). In other words, you can save all the colors currently defined in the palette; Save Palette only saves the base colors -- the first 32 colors in 32 color mode, the first 16 colors in 16 color mode, etc. Save Color Set Selecting this option will display a requester similar to the palette's ARRANGE requester. Like the Arrange requester, this will display all currently defined colors in the palette. Status information at the bottom left corner of the requester lets you know how many colors are selected and how many color positions are empty, or undefined. You can select or unselect specific colors simply by clicking on them (selected colors appear sunken into requester, while unselected colors appear raised) or you can use one of the three select buttons: ALL - selects all currently defined colors NONE - unselects all colors BASE - selects only the base colors for the current `Screen Format`. I.E. the first 32 colors in 32 color mode, the first 16 colors in 16 color mode, etc. In HAM mode, the first 16 colors are the base colors. SEE -> `HAM Mode` for an explanation of HAM In Extra-Halfbrite or 64 color mode, the first 32 colors are the base colors. Remember, the other 32 are actually half-intensities of the first 32 colors. SEE -> `HBrite Mode` If you decide that you don't want to proceed with saving the color set, you can click on the Cancel button. The Save button will display the Save Color Set file requester to let you specify where and under what name to save the Color Set. SEE -> `Load Picture` for details on how to use the file requester. NOTE: It's a good idea to append an extension to a Color Set's file name when you save it. This will help you distinguish between other types of files. For instance you can use .cs as in: RainbowColors.cs In fact, it's a good idea to use extensions for all the other save processes: .anib for animbrushes, .anim for animations, .pic for pictures .br for brushes .move for move requester settings .sten for stencils .pal for palettes Load Color Set Selecting this option displays the Load Color Set requester. SEE -> `Load Picture` for details on how to use the file requester. After seleting a valid Color Set file and clicking the Load button, a requester similar to the palette's ARRANGE requester is displayed. This requester displays the colors in the Color Set and lets you specifically select which colors to use. As in the Save Color Set process above, you can use the ALL, NONE and BASE buttons for selecting colors. Once you have selected all the colors you want, click the ADD button to append the selected colors to any empty color positions in your palette; your current palette will remain unchanged. This way you can install colors that were used in other projects for use in the current project, while maintaining the current palette. The OVERWRITE button will cause the selected colors to replace colors in your palette. starting from the first palette position. ************************************************************************ BG->FG (Color Menu) *********************************************************************** BG->FG: Globally changes all pixels colored with the current background color to the current foreground color. Only colors on the screen are affected. The Palette itself is unmodified. * UNDO DOES NOT REVERSE THE EFFECT OF THIS FUNCTION! * BG<->FG (Color Menu) See `BGtoFG_Color` for related demonstration. BG<->FG: Globally swaps the color of all pixels in the current background color with the current foreground color. Only colors on the paint screen are affected. * UNDO DOES NOT REVERSE THE EFFECT OF THIS FUNCTION! * *********************************************************************** COLOR REMAP (Color Menu) *********************************************************************** Even though pictures can contain the same colors, sometimes the arrangement of colors within the palette varies. You can force a picture to use the current palette colors by using the Remap function. After Loading a picture, first select `Restore Palette`, then select Remap. The Remap function will attempt to rearrange the picture's coloring so that it will look correct within the current palette colors. Obviously then, Remap will work best when the same or similar range of colors is available in the current palette. Otherwise, the Remap function will find the closest possible matches to the original colors of the picture. *********************************************************************** BRUSH COLOR (Color Menu) *********************************************************************** BG->FG Changes all the background colored pixels in the brush or animbrush to the currently selected foreground color. This affects only the colors in the brush, not the picture. The order of colors in the color palette also remains unchanged. This lets you replace any color in a brush with another color. BG<->FG Swaps all the background colored pixels in the brush or animbrush with those in the currently selected foreground color. Similar to the BG->FG option but the change happens in both directions. REMAP When a brush from a picture with a different palette than the current picture is loaded, this option rearranges the colors of the brush so that it looks correct under the current palette arrangement. DPaint will try to match colors as closely as possible to the currently available colors. When remapping an animbrush, all frames of the anim brush are remapped. CHANGE TRANSPARENCY Changes the transparency of the current brush or animbrush to the currently selected background color. *********************************************************************** STENCIL (Effect Menu) *********************************************************************** A Stencil allows you to protect certain areas of an image from being erased or painted on. Stencils are created by defining a particular area to be protected. This can be done in either of two methods (or even a combination of the two): 1. By specific color 2. By area DEFINING A STENCIL AREA BY SPECIFIC COLOR MAKE The Stencil Requester allows you to select the colors you would (~) like to lock. Locked colors can not be painted on, erased or picked up as part of a brush. In all non-HAM modes, the Stencil Requester displays all of the colors in your current palette for you to choose from. Just click on the color that you want protected and a black marker will appear to the right of the selected color box. Clicking on INVERT will reverse the settings of the Stencil; the colors you have NOT selected will become protected. The CLEAR button will deselect all colors from the Stencil requester. Once you have decided what colors you want to protect, selecting MAKE creates a working Stencil. The letter "S" will appear in the menubar to indicate that the Stencil Mode is active. The stencil can then be toggled on and off using the ACCENT key below the ESC key. The SHOW button lets you see the stencil areas on the screen. This is done by dimming the entire painting area. The areas that are currently defined within the stencil will be highlighted. This lets you see what areas are affected by your color selections so that you can make changes if necessary. If a it appears that your stencil does not cover enough area, simply use the left button to click or drag over additional colors. Click the right button over a color to remove it from the stencil. NOTE: You may have to reselect the SHOW button in order to display the changes you have made. In HAM modes, the palette is not displayed within the Stencil Requester. You must select colors directly from the screen. This is done using the left buttons. Click directly on a screen color to lock it. A color box will display the color that your pointer clicked. You can continue doing this for as many other colors as necessary. Tolerance lets you set the closeness of colors. In other words colors that are similar to the picked color will also be included in the stencil. This is very useful for gradient areas. A low tolerance value requires that colors be very similar in order to be included as part of the stencil. High tolerance values let you include a wider variety of colors. Tolerance can range from 0 to 48 Fine Tune, is used to add or subtract single colors from a HAM stencil without having to change tolerance level. Only the color you click on will be added or subtracted from the stencil -- the tolerance level will be ignored. Click with the right button to subtract colors & use the left button to add stencil colors. REMAKE When a Stencil is active, any colors you add onto the picture are independent from those that are locked in the Stencil. This means that if a new color is added to the picture it may not be protected even if it was selected in the Stencil requester. Selecting Remake from the Stencil requester will lock any newly applied colors that match the current stencil colors. PAINT ON/OFF This option activates or deactivates "Stencil Painting" (CTRL s) mode. In Stencil Painting mode, you can define a stencil by area rather than color. This is done by painting a stencil using any of the standard drawing tools and built-in brushes (i.e. Filled or Unfilled Line, Circle, Rectangle or Polygon, Airbrush, Brush and even the Fill tool). Creating a stencil in this mode is really simple. When Stencil Paint is active, a lowercase "s" will appear in the menubar and the entire painting screen will become dimmed. As you paint with a tool, such as the Freehand Line, a stencil is defined. This is indicated by the painted area becoming highlighted. Painting with the left button draws a stencil, while painting with the right button erases the stencil. To use the stencil, select the Paint ON/OFF option again or use its keyboard equivalent, Ctrl-S. NOTE: If you defined a previous stencil using the Stencil Requester, it will be displayed when you enter Stencil Paint mode. By using Stencil Paint, you can further define the coverage of the stencil. REVERSE Performs the same function as selecting the Invert option in the Stencil requester (color settings for the Stencil are reversed; instead of the color you picked being protected, the colors that you did NOT pick become protected). ON/OFF Retains the information for a current Stencil, but allows you to toggle from active to inactive so that you can paint over protected colors. The keyboard equivalent is the ACCENT key below the ESC key. FREE ON/OFF will make a Stencil active or inactive but keeps the Stencil information in memory. FREE completely deletes a Stencil and releases the memory that it takes up. LOAD Brings up a standard Load requester to allow you to load a saved Stencil. Stencils are loaded as full screen overlays and protect the areas that were defined when they were originally created. In other words, the shape of the stencil is used rather than the colors that were originally defined for it. SAVE Allows you to save a Stencil just like you would a Brush or Picture. You can change the colors that make up a Stencil at any time since the shape rather than the color information of the Stencil is saved. SEE -> `Load Picture` for details on how to use the file requester. `Lock FG` for another Stencil method. *********************************************************************** LIGHTTABLE (Effect Menu) *********************************************************************** DeluxePaint IV's LightTable feature is an animation tool that simulates the device used by traditional cel animators. Cel animation is a procedure that involves drawing animation frames on transparent film. This allows the animator to overlay consecutive frames so that they can be used as reference for drawing additional frames. DPaint accomplishes this effect by allowing you to see up to two previous frames of animation from the current animation frame. You can continue painting on the current frame, without affecting the contents of the previous frames. This way you can use previous frames as reference frames to paint more frames. You can dim the Lightable and cause previous frames to become less distinct so that the display is not so confusing. Additionally, DPaint allows you to see the next frame in a sequence as well, so that you can draw in-between frames. The options available for the LightTable are: ON/OFF Toggles the LightTable effect on or off. (l) MERGE Combines the contents of all frames being currently displayed by the LightTable, into the current frame. DIM Lowers the intensity for all frames other than the current frame. (ALT l) This helps you distinguish between the images displayed by the LightTable. TWO BACK Displays the image on the frame that is two back; the frame previous to the previous frame, along with the current frame. PREVIOUS Displays the frame previous to the current frame, along with the current frame. NEXT Displays the image on the next frame, along with the current frame. SPARE Displays the image on the `Spare Page`, along with the current frame. NOTE: You can use any combination of TWO BACK, PREVIOUS, NEXT or SPARE to display the desired frames you need. You must turn LightTable off if you want to Delete or Clear multiple frames. *********************************************************************** BACKGROUND (Effect Menu) *********************************************************************** FIX Locks the current picture information into memory. When you Fix the Background, anything can be painted over it without changing it. Any work you do after fixing the Background can be erased by selecting Clr without affecting the Fixed picture. When the Background is Fixed, however, no colors that match the current Background color can be picked up. Locking the Background is memory intensive. FREE Unlocks the current Background, so that it can be altered and can be erased. All memory allocated to storing the Background information will be freed. LOCK FG This provides an additional way to define a `Stencil`. Normally a stencil is defined by color information. When you lock a color, you prevent it from being painted on no matter where it is on the page. Selecting Lock FG while using the Fix Background option will allow you to define a Stencil by area. When Lock FG is selected, all areas on the page that have been added since the Background was last fixed are defined as the Stencil. These areas can't be painted on regardless of the colors in them. *********************************************************************** ANTIALIAS (Effect Menu) *********************************************************************** Aliasing is the jaggedness that results when the computer displays diagonal or curved lines. The "stair-stepping", as it is also called, is more visible in lower resolutions. The AntiAlias effect tries to make the jaggedness less apparent. This is achieved by decreasing the contrast between an objects jagged edge and the background with intermediate shades of color. The AntiAliasing effect automatically places a gradient that blends an edge into the background. This effectively gives the illusion of a much smoother edge. There are two levels of AntiAliasing, Low and High. Increasing the level of AntiAliasing will provide smoother looking edges but can take more time when large areas are involved. Use the keyboard equivalent, ALT / to toggle between None, Low and High AntiAliasing; A lowercase a in the menu bar indicates that low AntiAliasing is activated, while an uppercase A indicates High AntiAliasing. Basically, you can use the AntiAliasing effect with most of the drawing tools and Built-In brushes including: Dotted, Continuous, Straight Line, Circle, Ellipse, Polygon, In addition, stamping down a custom brush with AntiAliasing on, will cause the edges of the brush to be smoothed. AntiAliasing also applies during use of the Move requester. ** However, in order for AntiAliasing to work during a move, you must call the Move requester and stamp down the brush's initial position while you are in `Perspective` mode. SEE ALSO -> `SMOOTH MODE` The major difference between using AntiAlias and Smooth Mode is that Smooth Mode tends to blur edges since the gradient effect is used between the edge and the background. AntiAlias creates a smoother and cleaner edge by concentrating the gradient between the jagged points of an edge. *********************************************************************** PROCESS (Effect Menu) *********************************************************************** The Process effect lets you perform image processing effects based on Tint, Hue or Value. Processing is turned on or off by selecting the ON/OFF menu item or by using the Keyboard equivalent toggle, ALT p One of the 3 processing methods currently selected will take affect during painting: Tint The screen colors are tinted with the brush color. This is useful for colorizing black and white images. Additionally, tinting colors using a gray shaded brush will convert the colors into shades of gray. Hue Like Tint, screen colors are tinted towards the brush color. However. Only colors are affected -- adjusting Hue on gray shades has no effect. Value Processes the screen colors' value towards the brush color to create shading effects. Painting with a light color will lighted screen colors whose value settings are lower than the brush's value setting. Conversely, painting with a dark color will darken screen colors whose value settings are higher than the brush's value setting. *********************************************************************** TRANSLUCENCY (Effect Menu) *********************************************************************** The Translucency effects lets you simulate light filtering. You can adjust translucency from 0%, no translucency, to 100%, completely transparent. This is done by adjusting a slider in the Translucency requester. *********************************************************************** PERSPECTIVE (Effect Menu) *********************************************************************** DO (Enter, on keypad) Activates Perspective mode. The current custom brush temporarily changes into a 4 square matrix that represents the boundaries of the brush. The matrix can be rotated in one of 3 ways: Horizontally on the brush's X axis, Vertically on the Y axis, or on its Z axis (Spin). The amount of rotation on each of the Perspective axes is displayed in degrees on the right side of the Menubar. Once the matrix has achieved a desired position, Clicking the Left Mouse button will draw the current custom brush into the current perspective. PERSPECTIVE ROTATIONS The Numeric Keypad is used to control the rotation of the brush:. 7, 8 & 9 control rotation on the X-axis: 8 rotates the brush so that the top part moves away from you. 7 rotates the brush so that the top part moves towards you. 9 returns you to zero X-axis rotation. 4, 5 & 6 control rotation on the Y-axis: 5 rotates the brush so that the right side moves away from you. 4 rotates the brush so that the right side moves towards you. 6 returns you to zero Y-axis rotation. 1, 2 & 3 control rotation on the Z-axis: 1 rotates the brush in a clockwise direction. 2 rotates the brush counterclockwise. 3 returns the brush to zero Z-axis rotation. Rotation occurs at preset increments of degrees. To rotate around an axis in larger increments, Hold down the Shift key as you press an appropriate key on the Numeric Keypad. The rotation increment defaults to 90 degrees when you do this. To set the increment yourself, just call up the Gridding Requester while you are in Perspective Mode by clicking the Right Mouse Button on the Grid icon or by selecting SETTINGS from the Perspective sub-menu. Pressing 0 on the keypad resets all 3 axes to zero and fixes the Z-axis (discussed below) but retain the apparent distance settings. Pressing Shift along with Keypad 0 reverts all the Perspective settings to the default state as they were when the program was initially loaded. CLICKING ANY OF THE DRAWING TOOLS EXITS THE PERSPECTIVE MODE. FILLSCREEN (Keypad - ) Fills the entire screen with the current brush in its current Perspective orientation. RESET (Keypad 0 ) Resets the brush to its original state before rotation. CENTER (Keypad . ) Allows you to select the Center of Perspective. SETTINGS Displays the Perspective requester. Also displayable by selecting the Grid tool with the Right Mouse button while in Perspective mode. The following options are available: GRID Sets the dimensions for a grid in three dimensional space. When the Perspective requester is first opened, the numbers in these fields correspond to the dimensions of your brush (Z value = Y value). FROM BRUSH - Sets the X and Y grid values to correspond to the width and height of the brush, restoring the perspective grid settings to the same dimensions as your brush without affecting any other settings. ANGLE STEP - Sets the rotation increment used in conjunction with the Shift key when using the Numeric Keypad for perspective rotations. The default is 90 degrees. TYPE (OF ROTATION) SCREEN - Default mode that uses screen coordinates when rotating around the different axes. All measurements are angles of rotation from absolute zero. BRUSH - Rotates the brush relative to the current brush coordinate system. DISPLAY Using the Angle and Pos buttons you can choose whether the menu bar displays the angles of rotation or the position of the brush in 3- dimensional space. WITH COORDS IN THE PREFS MENU ON, ONLY 2-DIMENSIONAL COORDINATES ARE SHOWN. TURN COORDS OFF TO SEE 3D COORDINATES. FIXING AXES When Perspective is first started, the Z-axis is fixed and the brush cannot move through that axis. To change the currently fixed axis: Press SHIFT 9(on keypad) to fix the X-axis Press SHIFT 6(on keypad) to fix the Y-axis Press SHIFT 3(on keypad) to fix the Z-axis The ; and the ' keys move the brush plane forward or back along a fixed axis without affecting its current Perspective. Using the Shift key moves in larger increments. The CTRL key temporarily fixes the Y axis so that you can move the brush forward or backward in 3D space by moving the mouse forward or backward. SEE ALSO -> `ANTIALIAS` *********************************************************************** COORDS (Prefs Menu) *********************************************************************** Movement of the mouse is displayed as positions from the origin (the lower left corner of the screen - (0,0)). Pressing and holding down either mouse button will temporarily reset the origin as the current position of the cursor. As the mouse is then dragged, the coordinates will show the cursor position relative to its starting position. Using this information, you can create accurately sized and positioned objects. * The OriginUL option in the Prefs menu changes the origin location to the UPPER LEFT. TIP: If you are trying to accurately position an brush using the coordinates, and find that you cannot move the mouse precisely enough, use the keyboard to position the brush in increments. If you hold down either Amiga key to the left or right of the spacebar, you can use the cursor (arrow) keys to move the brush up and down or left and right. NOTE: You can have DPaint automatically load with this option selected by entering Coords exactly as it appears in the Prefs menu, into the Tool Types area of DPaint's program icon. Please consult your AmigaDOS manual or "The Buddy System for AmigaDOS" for details on changing Tool Types. *********************************************************************** FAST FB (Prefs Menu) *********************************************************************** When working with large or complex brushes and using the shape tools, the response time as shapes are constantly drawn and redrawn can be inconvenient. The Fast FB option increases response time by using a one-pixel size brush when adjusting a shape on the screen, but reverts to the original brush when the final image is drawn. NOTE: You can have DPaint automatically load with this option selected by entering Fast FB exactly as it appears in the Prefs menu, into the Tool Types area of DPaint's program icon. Please consult your AmigaDOS manual or "The Buddy System for AmigaDOS" for details on changing Tool Types. *********************************************************************** MULTICYCLE (Prefs Menu) *********************************************************************** The Cycle mode must be active in order for this option to take effect. With this option enabled, painting with a multicolored brush cycles any colors within the brush that are in a cycle range. In other words, the brush maintains all of its colors instead of becoming a single color. SEE ALSO -> `CYCLE MODE` `Palette` NOTE: You can have DPaint automatically load with this option selected by entering MultiCyclEe exactly as it appears in the Prefs menu, into the Tool Types area of DPaint's program icon. Please consult your AmigaDOS manual or "The Buddy System for AmigaDOS" for details on changing Tool Types. *********************************************************************** BE SQUARE (Prefs Menu) *********************************************************************** By nature, the Amiga's screen pixels are not perfectly square. Therefore squares and circles drawn with the shape tools may not look correct even though they may have the same number of pixels wide as there are high. This option compensates for the imperfect pixel ratio and creates shapes that are more visually square. NOTE: You can have DPaint automatically load with this option selected by entering Be Square exactly as it appears in the Prefs menu, into the Tool Types area of DPaint's program icon. Please consult your AmigaDOS manual or "The Buddy System for AmigaDOS" for details on changing Tool Types. *********************************************************************** WORKBENCH (Prefs Menu) *********************************************************************** This toggles the Workbench screen on or off to save additional memory. When DeluxePaint is initially loaded it tries to close the Workbench screen to obtain the most amount of memory. NOTE: You can have DPaint automatically load with this option selected by entering Workbench exactly as it appears in the Prefs menu, into the Tool Types area of DPaint's program icon. Please consult your AmigaDOS manual or "The Buddy System for AmigaDOS" for details on changing Tool Types. *********************************************************************** EXCLBRUSH (Prefs Menu) *********************************************************************** The Grid must be activated in order for this option to take effect. Creating a brush with this option and the Grid activated, a one- pixel border will be excluded on the right and bottom edges of your brush. This is useful when the brush you are using has a colored border and you want to create a pattern or perspective fill. Without Exclbrush active, the pattern border will not be uniform. SEE ALSO -> `GRID TOOL` NOTE: You can have DPaint automatically load with this option selected by entering ExclBrush exactly as it appears in the Prefs menu, into the Tool Types area of DPaint's program icon. Please consult your AmigaDOS manual or "The Buddy System for AmigaDOS" for details on changing Tool Types. *********************************************************************** AUTOTRANSP (Prefs Menu) *********************************************************************** Determines the transparent colors of a custom brush by checking if the four corners of the brush contain the same color. If so, that color becomes the transparent color. Otherwise the current background color remains the transparent color. NOTE: You can have DPaint automatically load with this option selected by entering AutoTransp exactly as it appears in the Prefs menu, into the Tool Types area of DPaint's program icon. Please consult your AmigaDOS manual or "The Buddy System for AmigaDOS" for details on changing Tool Types. *********************************************************************** NO ICONS (Prefs Menu) *********************************************************************** Disables the creation of icons when files are saved. NOTE: You can have DPaint automatically load with this option selected by entering No Icons exactly as it appears in the Prefs menu, into the Tool Types area of DPaint's program icon. Please consult your AmigaDOS manual or "The Buddy System for AmigaDOS" for details on changing Tool Types. *********************************************************************** AUTOGRID (Prefs Menu) *********************************************************************** Automatically resizes the perspective grid to match the custom brush when a custom brush is first loaded or created. This option functions the same as if you had clicked the From Brush option in the Perspective requester. Normally, the perspective grid is not automatically resized. This option only affects the perspective grid, not the standard grid. NOTE: You can have DPaint automatically load with this option selected by entering AutoGrid exactly as it appears in the Prefs menu, into the Tool Types area of DPaint's program icon. Please consult your AmigaDOS manual or "The Buddy System for AmigaDOS" for details on changing Tool Types. *********************************************************************** ORIGINUL (Prefs Menu) *********************************************************************** The OriginUL option in the Prefs menu changes the origin location displayed by the `Coords` option, to the UPPER LEFT corner. All coordinate values will then be relative to that origin location. SEE -> `COORDS` NOTE: You can have DPaint automatically load with this option selected by entering OriginUL exactly as it appears in the Prefs menu, into the Tool Types area of DPaint's program icon. Please consult your AmigaDOS manual or "The Buddy System for AmigaDOS" for details on changing Tool Types. *********************************************************************** *********************************************************************** PART II : THE TOOLS *********************************************************************** *********************************************************************** *********************************************************************** AIRBRUSH TOOL (Toolbox) *********************************************************************** Using the Left Mouse Button paints with the current foreground color. The Right Mouse Button paints with the current background color. Selecting the Airbrush with the Right Mouse Button allows you to change the size of the area covered by the Airbrush's "spray". If you hold down the SHIFT key while painting with this tool, movement will be constrained (locked) horizontally or vertically, depending on the direction the mouse is moved after initially pressing SHIFT. *********************************************************************** BRUSH TOOL (Toolbox) *********************************************************************** KEYBOARD = b Pick Up a New brush (pressing b twice lets you pick up a polygonal brush SHIFT B Previous brush REMEMBER: b for "brush" Creates a custom brush from any image currently on the page or recalls the last custom brush. Custom brushes can either be created by "cutting out" rectangular or polygonal areas of the page. Selecting the Brush Selector icon once activates the rectangular brush selector. Selecting the icon twice or pressing b twice, activates the polygonal brush selector. When the Left Mouse button is used with this tool, the selected area is copied and becomes a custom brush. Using the Right Mouse button cuts the area from the page and replaces the area with the current background color. During either of these actions, any colors within the custom brush that match the current background become transparent. Additionally, with AutoTransp from the Prefs menu activated, if all corners of the brush are the same color, that color becomes transparent even it isn't the current background color (see AutoTransp lesson). Pressing the Shift key while creating a brush will constrain (limit) the brush to a square shape ( height = width ). *********************************************************************** CIRCLE TOOL (Toolbox) *********************************************************************** KEYBOARD = c Unfilled circle SHIFT C Filled circle SHIFT I C Outlined Filled circle REMEMBER: c for "circle" Paints an Unfilled or Filled circular shape using the current brush. Using the Left Mouse Button paints with the current foreground color. The Right Mouse Button paints with the current background color. The upper left half of the Circle's icon selects the Unfilled option which only draws a circular outline using the current brush and the current settings of the Spacing requester (which is displayed by clicking in this area with the Right Mouse button; see Line lesson). The bottom right half selects the Filled option which uses the current settings of the Fill Type requester ( which is displayed by clicking in this area with the Right Mouse button; see Fill lesson). If you hold down the SHIFT key while painting with this tool, movement will be constrained (locked) horizontally or vertically, depending on the direction the mouse is moved after initially pressing SHIFT. Pressing the CTRL key while painting with this tool will leave "traces". Pressing "i" while selecting the Filled Circle tool -- or pressing SHIFT, followed by i, followed by c -- allows you to create filled circle shapes that become outlined using the settings of the Spacing requester. SEE -> `Line` tool for details on the Spacing requester *********************************************************************** CLEAR TOOL (Toolbox) *********************************************************************** KEYBOARD = SHIFT K for "Klear" Clears the screen or series of screens to the current background color. *********************************************************************** COLOR TOOL (Toolbox) *********************************************************************** KEYBOARD = p displays Color MIXER requester SHIFT P displays Color ARRANGE requester The Foreground/Background Color indicator displays: The current foreground color as the color of the inner box. The current background color as the color surrounding the box. Clicking on the icon of the Foreground/Background indicator will display the Color Mixer requester. SEE -> `Palette` Continuous Tool (Toolbox) KEYBOARD = d Continuous freehand line SHIFT D Filled freehand shape SHIFT I D Outlined Filled freehand shape REMEMBER: d for "draw" Paints a continuous line using the current brush or creates a filled shape. Using the Left Mouse Button paints with the current foreground color. The Right Mouse Button paints with the current background color. The Continuous Freehand tool uses the current brush shape to draw a continuous, non-spaced line. The Filled Freehand tool creates filled shapes based on the current settings of the Fill Type requester. The Fill requester displayed by using the Right Mouse button to click on the Filled Freehand tool. If you hold down the SHIFT key while painting with this tool, movement will be constrained (locked) horizontally or vertically, depending on the direction the mouse is moved after initially pressing SHIFT. Pressing "i" while selecting the Filled freehand tool (or pressing SHIFT, followed by i, followed by d) allows you to create filled freehand shapes that become outlined with the current custom brush. *********************************************************************** CURVE TOOL (Toolbox) *********************************************************************** KEYBOARD = q for "qurve" Paints an arc between two points. Using the Left Mouse Button paints with the current foreground color. The Right Mouse Button paints with the current background color. Selecting the Curve tool with the Right Mouse Button displays the Spacing requester which allows you to specify how the current brush is painted along the described line. The Spacing requester is described in the Line tool lesson. If you hold down the SHIFT key while painting with this tool, movement will be constrained (locked) horizontally or vertically, depending on the direction the mouse is moved after initially pressing SHIFT. If you hold down the CTRL key, "traces" will be left as you paint. *********************************************************************** DOTTED TOOL (Toolbox) *********************************************************************** KEYBOARD = s for "sketch" Paints with the current brush shape in a series spaced positions depending on mouse speed. Using the Left Mouse Button paints with the current foreground color. The Right Mouse Button paints with the current background color. This tool paints the current brush shape at spaced positions. The space between these positions increases as you drag the mouse faster. If you hold down the SHIFT key while painting with this tool, movement will be constrained (locked) horizontally or vertically, depending on the direction the mouse is moved after initially pressing SHIFT. *********************************************************************** ELLIPSE TOOL (Toolbox) *********************************************************************** KEYBOARD = e Unfilled ellipse, SHIFT E Filled ellipse, SHIFT I E Outlined Filled ellipse REMEMBER: e for "ellipse" Paints an Unfilled or Filled oval shape using the current brush. Using the Left Mouse Button paints with the current foreground color. The Right Mouse Button paints with the current background color. The upper left half of the Ellipse's icon selects the Unfilled option which only draws an oval outline using the current brush and the current settings of the Spacing requester (which is displayed by clicking in this area with the Right Mouse button; see Line lesson). The bottom right half selects the Filled option which uses the current settings of the Fill Type requester ( which is displayed by clicking in this area with the Right Mouse button; see Fill lesson). If you hold down the SHIFT key while painting with this tool, movement will be constrained (locked) horizontally or vertically, depending on the direction the mouse is moved after initially pressing SHIFT. Pressing the CTRL key while painting with this tool will leave "traces". Pressing "i" while selecting the Filled Ellipse tool -- or pressing SHIFT, followed by i, followed by e -- allows you to create filled ellipse shapes that become outlined using the settings of the Spacing requester. SEE -> `Line` tool for details on the Spacing requester *********************************************************************** FILL TOOL (Toolbox) *********************************************************************** KEYBOARD = f Fill tool SHIFT F Displays Fill Type requester REMEMBER: f for "fill" The Fill tool is selected by clicking the Left Mouse button over its icon. When selected, the cursor becomes the shape of a paint can with a spout. Selecting the Fill tool with the Right Mouse button displays the Fill Type requester: SOLID: fills with a single color Using the Left button fills with the current foreground color, while the Right button fills with the current background color. TINT: tints an area with the current fill color by replacing the Saturation and Hue levels of the screen pixels with those of the current fill color but does not change the Value of the pixels (see Palette lesson). During this operation, the RGB values for the new tint color are calculated and the color in the current palette which most closely matches this color is used. Therefore, the Tint effect is very dependant on the available palette colors. BRUSH: Sizes the current custom brush to fill in the selected area. WRAP: Distorts the current custom brush to fill the shape of the selected area to give the illusion of wrapping around a 3D solid. PERSPECTIVE: fills with a pattern of the current brush using the current Perspective settings (see Perspective lesson). HBRITE: If available on your system, this option will fill using the HBrite painting mode (see HBrite mode lesson). PATTERN: fills with a pattern created from the current brush using the From Brush function. GRADIENT FILLS: fills with a color spread from the cycle range of the current foreground color according to the following methods: HORIZONTAL - gradient is evenly distributed from left to right. VERTICAL - gradient is evenly distributed from top to bottom. HORIZONTAL SHAPE - gradient is evenly distributed from left to right but adjusted on each line to follow the contours of the current shape being filled. Directional Gradients: LINEAR FILLS LINE (Linear) - can be set to any angle or direction; a line setting tool lets you adjust the direction and angle. SHAP (Shaped) - another linear type gradient that can be set to any angle or direction. Additionally the contours of the current shape are taken into account. RADIAL FILLS CIR (Circular) - gradient is created using concentric bands of color. a line tool lets you adjust the center point of the gradient. CON (Contour) - a circular type gradient that follows the contours of the current shape. HI (Highlight) - creates a gradient that simulates highlighting. You define where the "hotspot" is positioned. THE DIRECTION OF THE GRADIENT IS SPECIFIED BY THE DIRECTION OF THE COLOR RANGE IN THE RANGE REQUESTER. Also, ALT r reverses the direction of the current color range. DITHER: adjusts the degree of color mixing used in gradient fills. The default dithering type, with the Random box unchecked, is Ordered Dithering. This uses an orderly arrangement of dots to blend gradient bands. RANDOM - when you click on the random box, a check mark appears to indicate that it is activated. The dithering slider will then become active - allowing you to adjust the mixing or coarseness of the gradient. REMEMBER: the dithering slider is only active in RANDOM dithering mode. H-B: If HalfBrite mode is available on your system, this option enables or disables the use of Extra Halfbrite colors within the gradient. Holding down "i" while using the Fill tool fills outward using areas with the current background color as boundaries. In Animations, Animfill can be activated by holding down the Alt key while filling. The same area over all the existing frames will be filled. *********************************************************************** GRID TOOL (Toolbox) *********************************************************************** KEYBOARD = g Toggles Grid on/off SHIFT G Activates grid and uses the brush handle as a grid point REMEMBER: g for "grid" Constrains the actions of the following tools to points on an adjustable grid: Dotted Freehand Straight Line Rectangle Circle Ellipse Brush Selector Text Pressing shift-G while using a brush will activate the grid and use the current brush handle position as a grid point. Selecting the Grid icon with the Right Mouse button displays the Gridding requester which allows you to adjust the dimensions of the grid by either numeric value or manual positioning. If Perspective mode is active, selecting the Grid icon with the Right Mouse button will display the Perspective settings requester (See Perspective lesson). *********************************************************************** LINE TOOL (Toolbox) *********************************************************************** KEYBOARD = v for "vector" SHIFT V displays the Spacing requester Paints a straight line between two points. Using the Left Mouse Button paints with the current foreground color. The Right Mouse Button paints with the current background color. The current brush shape used to draw a straight line. Selecting the Straight Line tool with the Right Mouse Button displays the Spacing requester which allows you to specify how the current brush is painted along the described line: N TOTAL: defines the total number of times the current brush will be painted along the line. EVERY NTH DOT: defines the number of pixels placed between each occurrence of the brush along the line. AIRBRUSH: uses the airbrush tool to draw the current brush along the described line. You can specify the "density" of of the airbrush's spray by changing this setting. CONTINUOUS: paints with no spacing and is the default setting. If you hold down the SHIFT key while painting with this tool, movement will be constrained (locked) horizontally or vertically, depending on the direction the mouse is moved after initially pressing SHIFT. If you hold down the CTRL key, "traces" will be left as you paint. *********************************************************************** MAGNIFY TOOL (Toolbox) *********************************************************************** KEYBOARD = m for "magnify" Displays a magnified view of a selected screen area. When activated, the screen display is split into two parts. The left portion displays the normal view of the selected area and the right portion displays the magnified view. The magnification area can be moved by using the the arrow keys on the keyboard. Additionally, the 'n' key centers the area under the cursor. SEE ALSO -> `ZOOM` *********************************************************************** PALETTE TOOL (Toolbox) *********************************************************************** Clicking on a color in the color selector with the left button selects the current foreground color used when painting with the left button. clicking with the right button selects the background color used when painting with the right button. The [ and ] keys cycles through the foreground colors. Holding either SHIFT key will cycles through the background colors. Holding either ALT key while pressing the [ or ] keys, cycles through the available Ranges. Pressing the comma key ',' allows you to select colors directly from the screen. The pointer changes to an eyedropper. Just click the tip of the eyedropper image on the color you want selected. You may need to use the `Magnify Tool` to get to a small color area. *********************************************************************** POLIGON TOOL (Toolbox) *********************************************************************** KEYBOARD = w Unfilled polygon SHIFT W Filled polygon SHIFT I W Outlined Filled polygon Paints an Unfilled or Filled polygon shape using the current brush. Using the Left Mouse Button paints with the current foreground color. The Right Mouse Button paints with the current background color. The upper left half of the Polygon's icon selects the Unfilled option which only draws an outlined polygon using the current brush and the current settings of the Spacing requester (which is displayed by clicking in this area with the Right Mouse button; see Line lesson). The bottom right half selects the Filled option which uses the current settings of the Fill Type requester (which is displayed by clicking in this area with the Right Mouse button; see Fill lesson). If you hold down the SHIFT key while painting with this tool, movement will be constrained (locked) horizontally or vertically, depending on the direction the mouse is moved after initially pressing SHIFT. Pressing the CTRL key while painting with this tool will leave "traces". Pressing "i" while selecting the Filled Polygon tool -- or pressing SHIFT, followed by i, followed by w -- allows you to create filled polygon shapes that become outlined using the settings of the Spacing requester. SEE -> `Line` tool for details on the Spacing requester *********************************************************************** RECTANGLE TOOL (Toolbox) *********************************************************************** KEYBOARD = r Unfilled rectangle SHIFT R Filled rectangle SHIFT I R Outlined Filled rectangle REMEMBER: r for "rectangle" Paints an Unfilled or Filled rectangular shape using the current brush. Using the Left Mouse Button paints with the current foreground color. The Right Mouse Button paints with the current background color. The upper left half of the Rectangle's icon selects the Unfilled option which only draws a rectangular outline using the current brush and the current settings of the Spacing requester (which is displayed by clicking in this area with the Right Mouse button; see Line lesson). The bottom right half selects the Filled option which uses the current settings of the Fill Type requester ( which is displayed by clicking in this area with the Right Mouse button; see Fill lesson). If you hold down the SHIFT key while painting with this tool, movement will be constrained (locked) horizontally or vertically, depending on the direction the mouse is moved after initially pressing SHIFT. Pressing the CTRL key while painting with this tool will leave "traces". Pressing "i" while selecting the Rectangle tool -- or pressing SHIFT, followed by i, followed by r -- allows you to create filled rectangle shapes that become outlined using the settings of the Spacing requester. SEE -> `Line` tool for details on the Spacing requester *********************************************************************** SYMMETRY TOOL (Toolbox) *********************************************************************** KEYBOARD = / Creates symmetrical patterns around a central point or based on a tiling scheme. The Symmetry tool works with all painting tools except the Text and Brush selector. To set Symmetry parameters, you must click on the Symmetry tool's icon with the Right Mouse button. This will display the Symmetry requester. Two types of Symmetry can be achieved: POINT: creates symmetrical patterns around a central point. The number of symmetry points and placement of the central point are specified using the Order and Place options. Two types of Point symmetry exist: MIRROR: mirror image duplication of each point. CYCLIC: direct duplication at each point. TILE: creates symmetrical tile patterns with adjustable height and widths. *********************************************************************** TEXT TOOL (Toolbox) *********************************************************************** KEYBOARD = t Activates text mode SHIFT T Displays Choose Font requester REMEMBER: t for "text" Allows you to place text onto the screen and to select font types and styles. Selecting the text tool using the Left Mouse button allows you to place text onto the screen using the current foreground color in the current type, size, and style, as currently selected in the Choose Font requester. Using the Right Mouse button displays the Choose Font requester which allows you to select the current type, size and style for text. *********************************************************************** UNDO TOOL (Toolbox) *********************************************************************** KEYBOARD = u for "undo" Reverses the last painting action provided there has been no intervening mouse click. *********************************************************************** ZOOM TOOL (Toolbox) *********************************************************************** KEYBOARD = < zoom out > zoom in See `Magnify Tool` for a related demonstration. Adjusts the degree of magnification when using the Magnify tool. The Magnify tool must be activated in order for Zoom to take effect. Clicking the Zoom tool with the Left Mouse button zooms into the magnification area (enlarges) while the Right Mouse button zooms out from the magnification area (shrinks). *********************************************************************** BUILT-IN BRUSHES (Toolbox) *********************************************************************** DeluxePaint has 10 Built-in brushes. 4 - Round brushes 4 - Square brushes 2 - Made of separate pixels The left mouse button is used to select the built-in brush that you want to use. When you click on a built-in brush using the right button, you can size the brush with the mouse. *********************************************************************** *********************************************************************** PART III : THE KEYBOARD *********************************************************************** *********************************************************************** *********************************************************************** KEYBOARD-EQUIVALENTS *********************************************************************** -LEARN AND USE THE KEYBOARD EQUIVALENTS! The most effective method of working in DeluxePaint IV is using a combination of the mouse and keyboard. This alone will increase efficiency by reducing even the most complex manipulations to just a few mouse clicks and keystrokes. * Most of the keyboard equivalents can be used while a mouse button is held down. TOOLBOX EQUIVALENTS b Brush selector SHIFT B Restore custom brush / Cycles between available brushes c Unfilled circle SHIFT C Filled circle SHIFT I C Outline Filled circle d Continuous freehand SHIFT D Filled freehand SHIFT I D Outlined Filled freehand e Unfilled ellipse SHIFT E Filled ellipse SHIFT I E Outlined Filled ellipse f Fill SHIFT F Fill requester g Toggle grid on/off SHIFT G Use handle as grid point SHIFT K Clear screen (CLR) m Toggle magnify on/off p Color Mixer requester (Palette Controls) SHIFT P Color Arrange requester q Curve r Unfilled rectangle SHIFT R Filled rectangle SHIFT I R Outlined Filled rectangle s Dotted freehand t Text SHIFT T Choose Font requester u Undo v Straight line SHIFT V Line Spacing Requester w Unfilled polygon SHIFT W Filled polygon SHIFT I W Outlined Filled polygon > Increase magnification < Decrease magnification , Pick color from screen . 1 pixel brush/dotted line [ Lower foreground color ] Higher foreground color { (SHIFT [) Lower background color } (SHIFT ]) Higher background color / Toggle symmetry on/off BRUSH FUNCTIONS F1 Matte F2 Color F3 Replc F4 Smear F5 Shade F6 Blend F7 Cycle F8 Smooth - Decrease brush size = (+) Increase brush size SHIFT Z Stretch h Halve SHIFT H Double x Flip horizontally y Flip vertically z Rotate 90 degrees SHIFT X Double horizontal size SHIFT Y Double vertical size ALT b Swap between current and alternate brush ALT m Metamorph alternate brush to current brush ALT n Copy current brush to alternate brush ALT s Center brush handle ALT x Horizontal brush handle ALT y Vertical brush handle ALT z Place brush handle PERSPECTIVE -NUMERIC KEYPAD- ENTER Enter perspective mode 7 -1 degree X rotation 8 +1 degree X rotation 9 Reset X rotation to 0 4 -1 degree Y rotation 5 +1 degree Y rotation 6 Reset Y rotation to 0 1 -1 degree Z rotation 2 +1 degree Z rotation 3 Reset Z rotation to 0 0 Reset ALL rotation to 0 - Perspective fill . Set Perspective center -NUMERIC KEYPAD & SHIFT- 7 & 8 X rotation by value in Angle Step (Perspective Settings) 4 & 5 Y rotation by value in Angle Step (Perspective Settings) 1 & 2 Z rotation by value in Angle Step (Perspective Settings) 9 Fix X axis 6 Fix Y axis 3 Fix Z axis -REGULAR KEYS- ; & ' Move along fixed axis (use SHIFT for greater increment) < & > Move observer view CTRL Temporarily fix Y axis \ Angle/position display ANIMATION 1 Go to previous frame SHIFT 1 Go to first frame 2 Go to next frame SHIFT 2 Go to last frame 3 Go to frame requester SHIFT 3 Go to frame number last specified in Go to requester 4 Play continuously forward SHIFT 4 Play continuously reverse 5 Play once forward SHIFT 5 Play once in reverse 6 Play in ping-pong mode 7 Previous animbrush cel SHIFT 7 First animbrush cel 8 Next animbrush cel SHIFT 8 Last animbrush cel SPACE Stop playing animation r Reverse animation ALT a Animation Control Panel l (lowercase L) Toggle LightTable effect on/off ALT l Toggle LightTable dimming on/off CTRL 1 Toggle LightTable CTRL 2 Toggle LightTable Previous CTRL 3 Toggle LightTable Next CTRL 4 Toggle LightTable Spare ALT = Adds 1 frame -Holding CTRL while clicking on the + in the Animation Control Panel, displays ADD requester; you can specify a number of frames to add -Holding CTRL while clicking on the - in the Animation Control Panel, displays the DELETE requester; you can specify any number or range of frames to delete -Holding CTRL while clicking on the ->O in the Animation Control Panel, displays the Go to frame requester -Holding Left Alt while painting activates animpainting mode -Left Cursor SLOWS down animation -Right Cursor SPEEDS up animation OTHER FUNCTIONS ? Display About/memory DEL Toggle cursor on/off F9 Toggle menu bar on/off F10 Toggle toolbox & menubar SHIFT F10 Remove all requesters, toolbox & menubar HELP Selects Freehand tool & single pixel brush. n Center display over cursor CTRL a Display memory TAB Toggle cycling SHIFT-S Show oversized page ALT t Toggle Translucency on/off ALT p Toggle Process mode on/off ALT / Cycle through AntiAliasing levels (None, Low, High) ~ Make stencil requester ACCENT (below ESC) Toggle stencil on/off CTRL r Range requester CTRL s Toggle for Stencil Paint mode - when entered the first time, menubar displays "s", Stencil Paint activated - entering again, menubar displays "S", indicating Stencil is now in use. ALT [ Previous Available Color Range ALT ] Next Available Color Range ALT r Reverses direction of current Color Range a Repeat last MENU selection *********************************************************************** FINIHED IN DEZEMBER 1992 BY AlienX/Agnøstic Frønt ***********************************************************************!!!