VideoTitler 9 March 1987 Version 1.07 1 - Overview VideoTitler is a program which has been developed to run on the U.S. NTSC version of the Commodore Amiga-1000 computer and all subsequent models of the Amiga computer subject to compatibility of these models with the NTSC A-1000. VideoTitler offers features for the production of title frames for video production and special effects for presenting multiple frames in sequence. VideoTitler utilizes full video overscan, which is necessary for quality video work, as well as supporting all Amiga screen resolutions. Recent changes to VideoTitler permit on-the-fly alteration of overscan and initialization-time specification of number of bit planes and level of background and undo support. This permits users with limited (512k) memory machines to select the areas of compromise necessary to run on their machine. It is recommended that a 1Mb Amiga be used for most applications, and it will require at least 1.5Mb for full use of hi-res mode due to the number of bitmaps required and the size of those bitmaps in full overscan mode. There are actually two programs with VideoTitler - VideoTitler itself and a special effects generator referred to here as VideoSEG. VideoTitler provides the following general capabilities: 1.1 - Character generation VideoTitler allows the user to easily lay down various styles of text and manipulate that text. Text can be displayed with various enhancements such as shadows, smears, etc. Two types of text are supported in VideoTitler - standard Amiga text and a new font format called Poly text. In Amiga text mode, all standard amiga fonts can be used including the many 3-rd party fonts such as Zuma Fonts. This text can be laid down, moved around, and colors and special enhancements can be altered at will. Also any line may be lifted back up at any time and altered as desired (including changing the font). In Poly text mode, the user can lay down text and manipulate it in the same way as with Amiga text. In addition, Poly text can be skewed and have its size changed as desired. Poly text can even be run diagonally across the screen or even upside down and/or backwards. All text is retained in a structured format so it can be lifted, altered, and redisplayed at any time. VideoTitler employs a fairly comprehensive set of text style controls. Text is treated as 5 layers - the cap, the raised portion, the letter itself, a dropped portion, and the shadow. The top 4 layers can be defined in a preferences file which is read in at the time VideoTitler is executed so one can customize VideoTitler to have the styles he desires on-line upon execution. Styles may also be edited in a special window during execution. Up to 20 styles can be available at one time. Sample styles are provided on the program disk which one can examine and use. Indeed, many users will simply use these styles directly. Most styles will only use the letter level and, perhaps, the drop level. Each level of the style contains a color, a shape, and a face. Color may be selected from any of five colors: A-pen, B-pen, C-pen, D-pen, and O-pen. Details on the intended usage of each of these pen colors is contained below. The text is first drawn to a template plane and this template is used to create the various levels of the text on the screen bitmap. The shape on the template is referred to as the "face". A face may be simply the raw text as obtained from the character font, or it may be altered by smearing it around in some pattern. For instance, a one pixel smear in all directions, followed by a copy of the letter in the center in color zero would give a hollow outlined letter. Then when this hollow letter is blitted to the screen, any background would show through the center of the letter. The manner in which the face (template) is copied to the screen is under control of the shape. The shape is similar in construction to the face except the shape can be multicolored. For instance, a shape may be a circular smear with color changing as the distance from the center increases. Then with suitable choice of the colors in the palette, this can give a neon effect. Coupled with the outline-style face, the effect would be of the outline of a letter in neon. The raise and cap are normally done in an outlined fashion so as to provide a raised border around a solid block letter. The style is applied simultaneously to the entire line of text so overlapping shapes and faces will blend together - a very useful effect. The shadow level is separate and in addition to the canned styles. It will always be relative to the bottom of the letter style and can be a detached shadow, a smeared shadow, or a color smeared shadow (see below for more details). All-in-all the text style capability in VideoTitler gives a high level of control and sophistication to amiga text rendering. 1.2 - Backgrounds Backgrounds can be imported from other Amiga graphics tools (such as Images) through the standard IFF file format. Also, any screen generated in VideoTitler may be saved in IFF format for subsequent use in VideoTitler or in many other Amiga graphics tools. VideoTitler also has limited capability to generate backgrounds within itself. Also any text generated may be permanently "stamped" onto the background. There are features in VideoTitler which permit the user to alter the background in various ways. One powerful feature is the raster map feature which permits the mapping of any four-sided region to any other four-sided region. Neither the source nor destination regions need have even parallel sides. There are also quartering, inversion, mirroring, etc., features for background manipulation. VideoSEG provides the following additional capabilities: 1.3 - Transitions VideoSEG allows the user to transition between two screens with a variety of effects including fade, dissolve, wipes (in 9 directions) and block transfers (checkerboard effects). 1.4 - Slideshow Multiple screens can be coupled together, along with the transition to be used, for slideshow presentations. 2 - VideoTitler Detailed Description This section presents each of the features of VideoTitler as it relates to the menu items and/or mouse handling. 2.1 - Menus 2.1.1 - Proj (Project) 2.1.1.1 - New This permits the user to select the screen resolution desired for his imagery. LoRes This will select 384x240 resolution in overscan mode or 320x200 in non-overscan mode. VideoRes This will select 384x480 resolution in overscan mode or 320x400 in non-overscan mode. This is a very useful resolution in video work as horiz. resolution is poor after going to composite video and, especially, after videotaping. However, vertical resolution is quite good as each line is independently scanned. Also, not going to hires horizontally allows one to utilize a full 32 colors (64 in extra halfbrite mode). MedRes This will select 768x240 resolution in overscan mode or 640x200 in non-overscan mode. HiRes This will select 768x480 resolution in overscan mode or 640x400 in non-overscan mode. Interlace This will put lores or medres screens in interlace which is very important in videotaping applications. Overscan This permits the user to switch from the large overscan bitmaps used by VideoTitler to the normal non-overscan bitmaps used by virtually all other Amiga software. This is provided for two reasons - first one may require compatibility with other programs graphically and may not require the overscan which is mainly of interest for video applications - and second, one may be tight on memory and may not be able to afford to use the overscan as it requires bitmaps to be 44% larger! EHB This will put lores or videores screens into extra halfbrite mode for a full 64 colors. Note that this requires a full 6 bitplanes so it is more demanding of RAM. Also, the extra 32 colors are identical to the first 32 except all three components (red/green/blue) are halved. VideoTitler provides some special capabilities for manipulation of EHB mode which can be very useful. WARNING!! unless you have the latest graphics chips, extra halfbrite may not work on your machine. The best test is try it. If the second set of 32 colors in the palette are identical to the first set, they you do not have the capability on your machine. Contact Commodore for an upgrade. 2.1.1.2 - Open The user can import graphic images in four ways: Picture This will input a full picture from a selected file into the viewing screen of VideoTitler. This picture will become the current background. Window This will input what is normally a partial picture (such as a car or animal for instance) into the clipboard screen of VideoTitler for subsequent pasting into the background. Scrapbook This is similar to Picture above but operates on a different disk path. Normally one would treat this as a working picture storage area and could allocate it to ramdisk if desired. Drawing This permits loading a structured data file of the pieces (graphic segments) used to build a given screen. This loads both the background and text so one can modify the text if desired. Palette This will read in a saved color palette. In actuality, the palette can be extracted from any valid iff graphics file. 2.1.1.3 - Save The user can save a picture in three ways: Picture This will save the current screen image as an IFF file which can be used in various other Amiga graphics tools. Scrapbook This is similar to Picture except it goes to a separate disk path and is normally viewed as a working picture storage area. Drawing This saves the background and text segments as one file where all text segments are retained as separate structures which can be read back in at any time and modified. Palette This permits saving the current color palette to disk so it can be used at a later time. 2.1.1.4 - Settings This permits the user to save or load a set of parameter settings which are appropriate for a given project. These settings include such things as default resolution, colors, text style, disk paths for pictures, etc. This file is identical to the preferences file loaded upon execution of VideoTitler with the following exception - the Save feature will not save load commands for the text shapes and faces. Text styles will be saved but it is assumed that one will load all desired shapes and faces upon initial execution of VideoTitler. The Load feature will, however, load any additional shapes or faces you may care to manually add to a settings file. Load Load parameters from specified file name Save Save parameters to specified file name 2.1.1.5 - Print This will print the current screen according to the workbench preferences. 2.1.1.6 - Quit VideoTitler termination. 2.1.2 - Edit 2.1.2.1 - Undo This will undo changes to the background only. Any current foreground text can be altered/edited via the powerful text manipulation capabilities of VideoTitler. 2.1.2.2 - Clpbd The clipboard is the bitmap used for paste operations and this menu item permits setting the clipboard to a variety of images and the modification of the clip outline. Set To Screen This will set the clipboard to the screen as presently viewed, including both the background and the foreground text. Set To Background This will set the clipboard to the current background. Set To Foreground This will set the clipboard to the current foreground (active text). Edit This will not alter the clipboard but will just display the current clipboard for you to alter the clip region. Note that various operations in VideoTitler will destroy the contents of the clipboard at which time you will have to re-set it to some image. Another way to set the clipboard is to select "Open Window" on the Project menu. 2.1.2.3 - Fast Paste This is one of two paste modes provided. This one uses an integer raster-map algorithm which is faster than the other one but still will take considerable time in certain instances. There are nine paste levels provided: Full This will set every pixel in the destination region to the corresponding pixel in the source region, regardess of color. Transparent This will set every pixel in the destination region to the corresponding pixel in the source region so long as the source pixel is NOT the designated transparent color. If the source pixel is the transparent color, then the destination pixel is unaltered. Under This will set every pixel in the destination region, which IS the transparent color, to the corresponding pixel in the source region, regardless of the color of the source pixel. Full Screen ... There are three options which start with these words. They work the same as Full/Transp/Under above except the destination region in the screen is automatically set to the boundaries of the screen. This is very handy when expanding a background image in non-overscan format to the full overscan image used in VideoTitler. Tile ... There are three options which start with the word "Tile". They work the same as Full/Transp/ Under, above, except they will replicate the specified destination region over the entire screen around the specified region in a tile fashion. Note that tiling works well for rectangular destination regions (remember that the source region back in the clipboard need not be rectangular) but some non-rectangular destination regions will give strange effects. Try various combinations and use what appeals to you. Also, the tiling effects for non-rectangular dest. regions is different for slow and fast paste modes due to the different algorithms used. 2.1.2.4 - Slow Paste This is the other, slower, paste mode. This one uses a floating point quadratic algorithm which yields accurate raster mapping when wierd source and/or destination regions are selected, but is much slower to calculate than the Fast Paste. The same nine paste levels are provided as in Fast Paste. 2.1.2.5 - Clear This item provides a variety of ways to clear the bitmap: To Color Zero Clears the bitmap to zero pixels. To Spec. Color Provides a color requester from which the user can select the color to which the bitmap is set. Grid Provides two color requesters for the background and line colors for a 12x12 grid. Note that this grid matches the block transition grid. An interesting effect is to set up a color grid and then do a block transition with a black screen. In non-overscan mode a 10x10 grid will be used. Test Pattern This draws a basic test pattern on the screen which makes it obvious what the extent of the overscan is. Actually, if the basic workbench screen is centered then the overscan screen will be also. Toggle EHB This is a strange place to find this - so it may move. This item will toggle the bits in the sixth bit plane of a extra-halfbrite screen. This will toggle all colors between the full and halfbright representations. This can be used to produce some clever variations when using EHB mode. 2.1.2.6 - Colors This permits the user to alter the color palette and/or to pick the color for the various pens (draw pen, shadow pen, outline pen, transparent color). Note the philosophy of the different pens: A-Pen - This is the main color used for the drawing of text. B-Pen - This is used for the rendering of shadows. If color smear is requested then this is the starting color index for the sequence of colors used. C-Pen - This is used for the raised and dropped portions of the letters - also for rendering multi- color shapes such as Neon effects. When rendering multi-color shapes, the C-Pen is the starting color is a sequence of colors. Normally one wants the colors starting at C-Pen to be a sequence of 6 shades going down to a dark level (close to the background color - but not the same as it). D-Pen - This is used as an accent color for the cap on comples styles. O-Pen - This will be used for rendering boundaries on filled polygon test with boundary on. Note that in the text styles you can use any of these pens for any level - and there will certainly be times for deviation from the above. However, it is wise to be somewhat consistent in the colors chosen so one can bounce around the different styles and have them all rendered in reasonable colors. 2.1.3 - Bkgnd (Background) This consists of various effects which can be carried out on the background. 2.1.3.1 - Quarter This will reduce the current raster image to 1/2 height and 1/2 width and place it in the upper corner of the bitmap. The 4/4 option will also replicate it in the other three corners, leaving four copies of the original screen. 2.1.3.2 - Invert This will invert the screen either horizontally or vertically. 2.1.3.3 - Mirror This will mirror the left half onto the right half or the top half onto the bottom half of the screen. 2.1.3.4 - Compress This will compress the screen to the top half or the left half of the screen. 2.1.3.5 - Dup This will duplicate the left half onto the right half or the top half onto the bottom half of the screen. 2.1.4 - Text This permits the user to select/install character fonts and specify default style settings. However, the normal use of text entry is via mouse commands as detailed in section 2.2 below. 2.1.4.1 - Style (F10) This can be invoked at any time with the F10 key. This selection will provide windows for the selection and/or editing of any of the 20 possible text styles. Note that the text styles may also be selected, while in text entry mode, with the ten funtion keys preceeded by either CTRL or ALT. 2.1.4.2 - Amiga Text (F6) This may be invoked at any time with the F6 key. This will open a window which will permit installation of up to 10 (ten) Amiga fonts, each of which is associated with one of the 10 function keys. The font selected when the window is closed will be used for subsequent amiga text entry. However, as outlined in section 2.2 below, the user may switch fonts while in amiga text entry mode by using the amiga key and a function key simultaneously. 2.1.4.3 - Defaults (of Amiga text) This permits default selection of the centering characteristics for amiga text. Other style items may only be selected with keyboard entries during amiga text entry mode (see section 2.2 below). The selections made here will be in force whenever amiga text entry mode is initiated. Keyboard changes to centering will only be in effect during a given entry sequence - centering will return to these values when one leaves amiga text entry mode and re-enters it. 2.1.4.4 - Poly Text (F7) This can be invoked at any time with the F7 key. This will open a window which permits selection of the Poly text font to use for subsequent Poly text entry. Note that, at present, only one Poly text font can be open at a time. 2.1.4.5 - Defaults (of Poly text) Like Amiga text style above, this specifies some of the style settings to use when entering Poly text entry mode. While the user can alter these style settings within Poly text entry mode via keyboard entry, these defaults will be used upon initiation of Poly text entry mode. 2.1.4.6 - Entry (of Poly text) Actually, the user will normally enter Poly text entry mode via a mouse action rather than selecting this menu item (see section 2.2 below), however, since the mouse action is not intuitive, there is a menu item provided which will do the same thing. 2.1.4.7 - Refresh This will restore the screen to the current background and will redraw all text segments, both Amiga text and Poly Text. 2.1.4.8 - Freeze This will freeze the current display of text, as-is, to the background. This will NOT delete the text segments (see section 2.2 for segment deletion). UnDo may be used to reverse the effect of this action. 2.1.4.9 - Clear This selection will delete all foreground text data structures - effectively "clearing" the foregrnd. Note that this is non-reversable. There is no UNDO for this action. 2.2 - Function Keys (in non-text entry situations) Most of the time, the unshifted funtion keys can be used to initiate the following actions (note that ALL of these have direct counterparts in the drop-down menus): F1 - A-Pen selection Brings up a color requester for palette alteration and for selection of the color to use for the A-Pen. F2 - B-Pen selection Same but for B-Pen F3 - C-Pen selection Same but for C-Pen F4 - D-Pen selection Same but for D-Pen F5 - O-Pen selection Same but for O-Pen F6 - Amiga Font Load/Selection Brings up a requester for the selection and/or loading of standard amiga fonts into any of 10 available slots. F7 - Polygon Font Load Brings up a file requester for the loading of a polygon font. F8 - UnUsed F9 - UnUsed F10- Text Style Brings up a window permitting the selection and/or editing of any of up to 20 text styles. 2.3 - Mouse Initiated Text Entry For ease of use, and to permit rapid operation of VideoTitler in time-critical video production, text entry can be initiated simply by pointing with the mouse to the desired location for the text and pressing the left button. Normally this will initiate Amiga text entry which is indicated by a full-screen crosshair. If the shift key is depressed during this move, a Polygon text cursor will appear instead. If the cursor is over the enclosing rectangle (or parallelogram for Poly text) when the mouse button is pressed, VideoTitler will "lift" the text to permit the user to modify it, move it, etc. Once the text is "lifted", it can be manipulated just as if it had just been typed in. If the cursor is not over any existing text line then a new line segment is initiated (for Amiga or Poly text according to the status of the shift key) at which time the user may simply begin typing in text with backspace deleting the last character typed if desired. Both modes are terminated with the right mouse button. During text entry, the text can be moved anywhere on the screen with the mouse. In addition, with Polygon text, the enclosing rectangle can be grabbed with the mouse in any of nine points to perform the following operations: center this allows you to move the text to any spot on the screen. bottom center this allows moving the bottom, parallel to the original location. top center this allows moving the top, parallel to the original top. left center this allows moving the left end parallel to the original left side. right center this allows moving the right end parallel to the original right side. bottom corners these permit moving either end of the parallelogram without moving the other end. This permits skewing the text diagonally across the screen. top corners these permit moving the top anywhere on the screen which allows skewing the characters w.r.t. the baseline of the parallelogram. If various control-type keys are held down while the mouse is clicked over existing text, various actions can be taken. Note that some of these (notably "delete") are not reversable so be careful. If several text items overlap they it may be wise to lift the desired line and move it away from other text before performing some of these. CTRL-LeftAmiga If the CTRL and left Amiga keys are depressed while clicking on a text line, the text line will be eliminated. There is no way to reverse this action short of re-typing the text so be cautious in its use. The choice of CTRL-leftamiga was due to its similarity to the re-boot (CTRL-A-A) key presses so one would hopefully have a natural caution in its usage. ALT Holding ALT down while clicking on a text line will "push" the selected text line to the back of all other text. This is mainly for use with overlapping text so one can control which will appear over the top of the other. Note that in the case of overlapping text, the TOP text under the cursor will always be chosen. CTRL Holding CTRL down (without the left amiga key of course) will cause seleted text to be stamped to the background. Then, one can lift the text and move it and it will leave an image of itself behind. This is like the "freeze" menu item except the menu item stamps all text to the background whereas this action will only stamp the selected line. While entering text, various parameters pertaining to the style of the text can be altered via the keyboard as follows: Unshifted Function Keys These are described in section 2.2 above as they are nearly always available (not just during text entry). Shift-Fn The shifted function keys control some of the rendering options not available otherwise: Shift-F1 - Amiga text normal This will remove any requested italics/bold/underline mode for standard amiga text so it will be rendered in the normal font style. Shift-F2 - Amiga text Italics mode This will TOGGLE the italics mode for standard amiga text (only if this mode can be used with the current selected font). Shift-F3 - Amiga text Boldface mode This will TOGGLE the boldface mode for standard amiga text (only if this mode can be used with the current selected font). Shift-F4 - Amiga text Underlined mode This will TOGGLE the underline mode for standard amiga text (only if this mode can be used with the current selected font). Shift-F5 Not used Shift-F6 - Poly text Partial outline The polygons in rendering poly text will be rendered with line draws instead. Also, the "Partial" designation indicates that the last line draw which would be needed to close a polygon will be left off during the rendering. This produces an interesting effect in some cases (e.g. Toucan font in Neon style). Shift-F7 - Poly text Outline The polygons in rendering poly text will be rendered with line draws instead. All polygons will be closed with a final line draw so letters will appear "complete". See above mode for comparison. Shift-F8 - Poly text Filled All polygons in rendering poly text will be filled in the desired color. Shift-F9 - Poly text Filled with Boundaries Same as Shift-F8 except each filled polygon has its boundary rendered in the outline color (O-Pen). This is the default mode as the boundary tends to make most characters look better. There are places, however, where it is not desired. In the rendering of text styles, boundaries are inhibited. Shift-F10 Not Used. Amiga-Fn For Amiga text entry only - Holding either Amiga key down while pressing any function key will indicate that the Amiga font installed in that position will be used for Amiga text. Use the F7 key to get a list of the fonts installed if you do not remember which is installed where. CTRL-Fn and ALT-Fn Up to 20 text styles may be loaded into VideoTitler and/or edited/created on-line. These are "bound" to the function keys preceeded by a CTRL or ALT key. The F10 key may be used to view the 20 styles by name and even to select them if desired. Keypad numbers 1-9 The numbers 1 through 9 on the keypad form a 9x9 grid. The center key (5) TOGGLES the shadow. The other 8 keys indicate shadowing to be done in the direction of the key from the 5 key. i.e. the "3" indicates shadowing to the right and below the main text line. In addition, one can press the shift or ctrl key at the same time. The shift key indicates a smear which is to say that the shadow is repeated several times in one-pixel increments to give the letters a solid 3D appearance. If the ctrl key is pressed then the same smear is effected however the first offset is in shadow color, and each subsequent level of the smear is in the next higher color index. Then, if one creates a gradual spread of colors in the palette, the smear can gradually transition through a range of colors. One particularly effective use is to have the spread go to the background color. Shadows are rendered in the current B-Pen color and the color smear is the sequence of colors beginning with the B-Pen. Keypad 0 (zero) and . (period) The depth of the shadow or smear is controlled with these keys. The default is four levels. The zero key will increase the depth by one level per hit. The period key will decrease the depth by one level. The 0 and . keys have effect of the depth of three levels: Unshifted 0 and . This will alter the depth of the shadow. CTRL 0 and . This will alter the depth of the raised portion of the current style. ALT 0 and . This will alter the depth of the dropped portion of the current style. Arrow Keys The arrow keys have two basic uses, and in Amiga text mode only. The plain or shifted keys control offsets between subsequent lines of text, and Alt-arrow keys contol centering modes as follows: plain arrow keys In Amiga text entry, a "Return" will start a new line. Normally this line is directly below the start of the current line and spaced downwards by the height of the characters. After pressing "Return", the arrow keys can be used to move the cursor and VideoTitler will remember this as a new line-to-line offset (in both x and y) and will repeat it with subsequent "Returns" in the same sequence of lines. The plain arrow keys will move the cursor by one pixel increments. shifted arrow keys Holding the shift key down with the arrow keys will cause the cursor offset to change by 5-pixel increments. Alt-arrow keys Alt-left arrow will put Amiga text into right justified text mode (i.e. text is formed to the left of the crosshair cursor). Alt-right arrow will put Amiga text into left just. mode (i.e. to right of cursor). Alt-up arrow or Alt-down arrow will put Amiga text into centered mode. 2.4 - Polygon Text Fonts At this point there are 6 (six) polygon text fonts available. Aegis.pfont This consists of only 5 letters - A, E, G, I, and S, in the Aegis logo style. The 'tilde' character (shifted key to the left of the '1' key) does a 1/10 character backspace which can be used to shrink the intercharacter spacing for touching or overlapped text. Roadrunner.pfont This is an upper-case only font commonly referred to as Broadway-Engraved or Art-Deco in many circles. The 'tilde' character is a 1/10 character backspace. Robin.pfont This is also upper-case only and is a very rounded font with nice serifs. The 'tilde' character is a 1/10 character backspace. Sparrow.pfont This font is full upper/lower case with special characters. The font is a basic Sans-Serif font. The 'tilde' character is a 1/10 character backspace. Shapes.pfont This is a font of basic shapes such as a rectangle and various horizontal and vertical lines and bars. There are also a few special shapes like a heart included. The shapes occupy the upper-case alphabet starting with A. The best way to see what is there is to simply try it. A wide variety of designs are possible using one or more of these shapes and then stretching the text various ways and using various effects such as text style (see ctrl-Fn above). Also most of the shapes can be displayed in outline, filled, or filled-with-boundary mode for more variation. There is a sample lo-res screen which shows all the shapes in this font called ShapesFont.pic which should be in the pics directory. In addition to the visible characters in this font, the 'tilde' symbol (shifted key to the left of the '1' key) is a character backspace which will backspace a FULL character width. This is useful for overlaying multiple shapes on top of each other. Just make sure you space the cursor-box out before you try any resizing, etc. Toucan.pfont This is a very nice font for use with the various text styles provided with this disk. It is basically all uppercase only except many of the letters have variations which are in the lowercase side. Those variations usually consist of one leg on the letter extending below the base line. Try this font in outline mode with the Neon style. The 'tilde' symbol (shifted key to the left of the '1' key) does a 1/10 character backspace which works nicely for moving the characters closer together or even touching or overlapping. 2.5 - Preferences file VideoTitler will attempt to load a preferences file upon execution which can define different defaults for program parameters. One very good use for this is to reduce bitmap sizes and numbers so as to run in a 512kb Amiga. You can specify the file to read upon execution by entering the file name following the titler execution name: titler hires.titler The above would execute titler and have it read the hires.titler preferences file in the current directory. If the stated file cannot be found, or if one is not specified, then VideoTitler will attempt to read a file named ".titler" in the s: directory. At present, this file can only be read at startup of VideoTitler. However, in the future you will be able to read/save the file at any time from the project menu. There are several examples of preferences files on this disk. They may be listed and/or edited as desired as they are simple ascii files. The acceptable commands are as follows: # ... This denotes a comment which is not to be listed to the screen when the file is read in. ## ... This denotes a comment which will be echoed out to the screen when the file is read. Remember that you can flip to the CLI screen at any time with the left-amiga key and the N or M keys (this is a standard Amiga Intuition feature). VCOLOR n r g b This will set a color value in the Video color palette. n is the color index no. (0 to 31), and r, g, and b are the red, green, and blue components (each 0-15); ACOLOR n This will specify the color index to initially use for the A-Pen. BCOLOR n Same - for the B-Pen. CCOLOR n Same - for the C-Pen. DCOLOR n Same - for the D-Pen. OColor n Same - for the O-Pen. TColor n Same - for the transparent pen. LRES Sets the default screen size to lo-res (384x240 in overscan or 320x200 in non-overscan). VRES Sets the default screen size to video-res (384x480 in overscan or 320x400 in non-overscan). MRES Sets the default screen size to medium-res (768x240 in overscan or 640x200 in non-overscan). HRES Sets the default screen size to hi-res (768x480 in overscan or 640x400 in non-overscan). LRDEPTH n Sets the number of bitplanes to use when in lores or video res (384 or 320 wide). n can be from 0 to 5. HRDEPTH n Sets the number of bitplanes to use when in hires or medium res (768 or 640 wide). n can be from 0 to 4. INTERLACE Sets the interlace flag so a lores or medium res screen will be interlaced. Interlace is very important if you are to videotape directly from VideoTitler. EHB Sets the extra halfbrite flag so a lores or video res screen will be in extra halfbrite mode. Note, that in this mode VideoTitler will automatically use 6 bitplanes regardless of what was specified on the LRDEPTH command. COLORTEXT This will cause VideoTitler to do the proper initialization to be able to display color fonts from Inter/Active Softworks. NOOVERSCAN VideoTitler will normally run in full video overscan mode. This command instructs VideoTitler to use normal screen sizes. The main use of this feature is to save memory in machines with restricted memory (e.g. 512Kb Amigas) as overscan bitmaps take 44% more memory than non-overscan. NOBKGND This tells VideoTitler not to allocate two of the bitmaps - the UnDo buffer and the background buffer. This will save a fair amount of memory but will disable the undo function and the maintainance of backgrounds. You will still be able to do some limited operations to load a background, but the background will not be 'remembered' when the foreground text has to be re-displayed. Also, the paste operation will be disabled. N.B. that this is a fairly recent change to the program and so may have some problems still lingering around. NOUNDO This is similar to NOBKGND except it just drops the undo buffer. The same caveat goes with this - it has not been fully tested and so may have some serious problems still around. LIST This will turn on echo of basic commands to the screen. (normally they are NOT echoed). NOLIST This will turn off echo mode of commands if it was on. IFFSAVEPATH path This permits specification of the disk path for saving pictures. Default is 'df0:'. IFFOPENPATH path This permits specification of the disk path for loading pictures. Default is 'df0:'. IFFSCPBKPATH path This permits specification of the disk path for loading and saving pictures to the scrapbook. Default is 'df0:'. IFFWINPATH path This permits specification of the disk path for loading windows. Default is 'df0:'. PFONTPATH path This permits specification of the disk path for accessing polygon fonts. Default is 'df0:'. FACE n filename This instructs VideoTitler to load a face file from disk into the n-th face. n can be from 0 to 19 (max of 20 faces). SHAPE n filename This instructs VideoTitler to load a shape file from disk into the n-th shape. n can be from 0 to 19 (max of 20 shapes). STYLE n name This instructs VideoTitler to set the current input style to n. The ascii name of the style, which will appear in the style window invoked with the F10 key, is set to the name field on this command. name can be 10 or less characters. The style will be initialized to the cap, raise, letter, and drop all being inactive. You must enter at least one CAP, RAISE, LETTER, or DROP command to create a style which shows anything. CAP shape color face This will set the cap level of the current text style (one indicated by the most recent STYLE command) to be on. The shape will be set to the INTEGER value specified (which corresponds to the shape number on a SHAPE command, 0-19). The color will be set to the INTEGER value specified (-1 for Apen, -2 for Bpen, -3 for Cpen, -4 for Dpen, and -5 for O-pen). The face will be set to the INTEGER value specified (which, like shape, corresponds to the face number on a FACE command). The face specified will also be used for the raise level. RAISE shape color depth dx dy This will set the raise level of the current text style to be on. shape and color are as described under the CAP command. depth, dx, and dy are the depth of the raise portion and the offset for each level (normally dx=1 and dy=1 for a solid raise portion). The top and bottom of the raise portion will be coincident with the cap and letter levels as this makes for the best integration of the letter as a whole. Therefore, a depth of 0 (zero) will provide one level of raise but at the save level as the letter level. LETTER shape color face This will set the main, letter, level to be on. The arguments are identical to the CAP command. The face specified will also be used for the drop level. DROP shape color depth dx dy This will set the drop level of the current text style to be on. Arguments are identical to the RAISE command except it drops down below the letter level. The top (zero-th) level of the drop will be overdrawn by the letter level. END This signifies the end of the preferences file and MUST be at the end. One can have any comment information following this command. 3 - VideoSEG Detailed Description Since VideoSEG is in a preparatory state, this section is not yet written. Perhaps in the next beta release. The sections which do follow at this point were simply save here from previous versions of this document - they are in need of re-write for the structure of VideoSEG and are not to be taken as fact yet. 2.1.5 - Trans (Transitions) This menu item provides a means of changing between two views, using various special effects (transitions). The method is to load the clipboard with the next view (or blank) and eliminate the cursor from the screen. The program then waits for the user to press the left mouse button, at which time the transition occurs, replacing the current view with the next one. The old view is placed back in the clipboard so one can repeatedly go between the front and back screens if desired. Since transitions must work only with backgrounds, VideoTitler will ask you if you wish to freeze any current text or clear it before proceeding. 2.1.5.1 - Clpbd This premits selection of a screen to be placed into the clipboard. There are two options only: to clear it to color zero or to load an IFF file from the scrapbook. 2.1.5.2 - Type This permits the user to select a single transition or a repeat transition. In a single transition, after the transition is complete, the cursor returns and the user can go on to other things as desired. In a repeat transition, the program transitions back and forth between the two screens (once for each mouse left button push) until terminated with a right mouse button push. 2.1.5.3 - Speed There are two speeds to transitions - fast and slow. Fast is default and is the speed one would normally desire to use. Slow puts in a delay to slow down the transition. Try them out to see which you prefer. 2.1.5.4 - Flip This is an instantaneous transfer between the views (using double buffering exchange of the bitmaps for the screen and clipboard). 2.1.5.5 - Fade This will fade the colors of the current screen to the TRANSPARENT color, and then flip the screens, and then fade the colors of the new screen from the TRANSPARENT color to the proper ones. Note, that if the two screens have different palettes, it is best to select a color which is identical between the two. The default transparent color is color zero which is normally black. 2.1.5.6 - Dissolve This will copy the new screen to the current screen a pixel at a time. Any color palette differences will be effected at a gradual rate over the time of the transition. 2.1.5.7 - Wipe This will perform a wipe between the two screens. The wipe can be selected (via the submenu) as originating from 9 different points: upper left, top, upper right, right, lower right, bottom, lower left, left, and center. In all cases the wipe proceeds to the opposite border(s) of the screen (outward from center in the case where center wipe is selected). 2.1.5.8 - Block This is a series of transitions which is based on the screen being divided up into a grid of 144 rectangles (on a 12/12 grid). The blocks are changed to the new view one-at-a-time according to a pattern: wipe down, wipe up, zigzag down, spiral out, spiral in, burst, random, dribble (from top down - somewhat random), and checker (checker from top to bottom the fill in checker pattern from bottom to top). As with other such effects, any palette differences will be gradually changed to match the new palette when the transition is complete. 2.1.6 - SlideShow This menu permits the building of sequences of pictures separated by transitions. One can then play them back either automatically (with specified delta times for each frame) or manually (using the mouse like a remote control to page forward or backwards). The slideshow can be as long as you wish, limited only by the memory required to hold the list and the disk space required to hold the slides. Edit This will open a window which will permit the user to specify the sequence of slides and the transitions to use between them. Play The slides can be played in either of two modes - automatic or manual.