DIGIVIEW V.3.0 Table of Contents Forward by Tim Jenison................................................1 Introduction..........................................................2 How to Use this Manual................................................3 Getting Started.......................................................3 Equipment Included............................................3 Recommended Equipment.........................................4 Hardware Installation.........................................4 Camera Set-Up.........................................6 Monitor Set-Up........................................9 Digi-Droid Set-Up.....................................9 Software Installation.........................................9 Menus................................................................10 Project......................................................10 Digitize.....................................................12 Controls.....................................................12 Tutorial.............................................................17 Using Digi-View......................................................20 Tips.........................................................20 Special Effects..............................................21 Applications.................................................21 Troubleshooting Q&A..................................................22 Appendices...........................................................22 A: Optional Equipment........................................22 B: Installing Digi-View on a Hard Drive......................23 C: An Explanation of HAM Mode................................23 D: Disk Copying and Formatting...............................24 E: Digi-View 3.0 Specifications..............................24 FORWARD BY Tim Jenison With the introduction of Digi-View 3.0, NewTek has achieved the goal we set over two years ago: to deliver the ultimate low cost image capture system for the Amiga. There are Digi-View owners in every nation in the world including the U.S.S.R. You can imagine the many calls and letters wh have received asking for new features and improvements. With Digi-View 3.0 we answer those requests by adding the features most asked for including: Overscan, Halfbrite, and a special line art mode to name a few. Digi-View is powerful because of the Amiga. After two years on the market, the Amiga remains the best price/performance graphics computer available. This is no small accomplishment in this day of ever changing technology and with more computers being introduced now than at any other time in history. It's clear that the Amiga is something special. The Amiga remains superior to other computers only because of its original design team's vision and unwillingness to compromise. Their focus gave NewTek the chance to create products like Digi-View and Digi-Paint, that for the first time in history gave end users the tools that have long been available only to the professionals - and without spending $20,000. I would like to thank Kevin rouviere for a great job programming Digi-view 3.0. Robert Blackwell and Steve Peterson for working on the manual and to the staff at NewTek for working 60 hour weeks. And to all of you Digi-View owners who have contributed to the growth of NewTek. We will continue to push the envelope and deliver breakthrough products that can be done only on the Amiga. Tim Jenison President, NewTek, Ind. May 1988 INTRODUCTION What is Digi-View? Digi-View is a combination of hardware and software that enables you to transfer very high quality color or monochrome images from a video camera to your Amiga computer. You can use Digi-View tomanipulate such images in a variety of ways. Once you have the image the way you like it, it can be stored on disk, transferred to other programs, or even sent around the world to another Amiga using a modem. Color images are captured using a color separation process which produces near photographic quality images on your Amiga screen. A color filter wheel (included with Digi-View) is mounted in front of the video camera lens. Three pictures are taken, one through each of the red green, and blue filters, during which time the subject must be stationary. The Digi-View software then combines the separate color images into a lifelike, full color display in any of the Amiga's screen resolution modes. Digi-View is powerful, easy to use system for bringing video images into your Amiga for a variety of applications. Digi-view's image capture and processing capabilities make it an essential part of a complete Amiga grahics system. This manual will tell you how to set up your Digi-View system, take you through some tutorials, and give you thorough information abou the tools included in Digi-View. We hope you'll get a lot of use from your Digi-View. Pleas write to us at NewTek and tell us what you're doing with Digi-View. We'd like to hear from you - feedback from our users helps us in creating better products. HOW TO USE THIS MANUAL If you are totally unfamiliar with the Amiga, we recommend that you read the Amiga User's Manual before using Digi-View. If you're familiar with the Amiga, you should find Digi-View quite easy to use. Generally, this manual assumes some familiarity with computers and the Amiga in particular. If you're like most users, you want to get started right away. Read through the Getting Started section to find out how to install the Digi-View hardware and software. once you've done that, read the Digitizing Tips in the Using Digi-View section to help you get better quality images. Most of the controls in Digi-View have obvious functions, so some experimentation will show you how they work. If you want to approach digi-view mor systematically, the manual is arranged so that you can work through it for a complete course in Digi-View. The tutorial will guide you through the digitizing process, showing you the powerful features available in Digi-View for achieving the best possible results. GETTING STARTED EQUIMENT INCLUDED Your Digi-View system consists of the following items: Digi-View hardware (the small white unit) Color filter wheel (Plastic wheel divided into clear, red, green and blue quarters) Color filter mounting bracket Digi-View 3.0 software on oe (1) 3.5" disk Digi-View 3.0 manual Warranty card OTHER EQUIPMENT THAT YOU'LL NEED: Amiga 500, 1000 or 2000 computer with at least 512K of memory ad 1 disk drive. Video camers (black & white recommended, but a color camera or camcorder may be used) Coaxial video cable (for connecting Digi-view to the video camera; the cable must have and RCA jack for connecting to Digi-View) NewTek's Gender Changer (for Amiga 500 and 2000 only) RECOMMENDED EQUIPMENT The following equipment is not necessary to use Digi-View, but would make digitizing easier, faster, or better. Digi-Droid (motor filter whieel for Digi-View) Copy stand for your video camera (NewTek sells the CS-1L; see appendix A) Closed-circuit monitor or RF modulator and Y-adapter (for adjusting the video camera without detaching it from Digi-View) NewTek offers a high-quality video camera, a copy stand, and the Digi-Droid automated filter wheel for sale; see Appendix A for details. Each of these items are discussed in greater detail in the following sections on hardware installation. HARDWARE INSTALLATION When you have all of the equipment ready, make sure that the power is off to your amiga and to yur video camera. As you face the back of your miga, the parallel port is on the far left, next to the keyboard connector. If you have a printer hooked up to your Amiga, it's probably plugged into this port. Remove the printer cable and plug the Digi-View unit into the parallel port. (NOTE: you must use a Gender Changer between the parallel port and Digi-View if you have an Amiga 500 or 2000.) then plug one end of a coaxial video cable into the "Video In" jack on the Digi-View unit, and plug the other end of the cable into the "output" jack on the video camera (you may need an adapter available at Radio Shack if the camera has a BNC jack instead of an RCA jack). The Digi-View unit uses a standard RCA jack, as do most consumer cameras. Appropriate cable may be found at any electronics supply store, such as Radio Shadk. Make sure you use video cable, not audio cable. Although the RCA jacks are the same on both cables, the video cable is heavier duty and better shielded than the audio cable, and will give you better performance. Attach the color filter wheel to the video camera using the mounting bracket supplied. Most cameras have screw holes in the casing for a tripod mount, which you can use for the mounting bracket. Depending on the camera you're using, youmay have to be more innovative in how you attach the mounting bracket - perhaps using tape or velcro. In any case, make sure that the color filter wheel is mounted so the red, green, and blue filters can be positioned fully in front of the camera lens. Use the hole in the bracket that puts the filter as close as possible to the camera lens without actually touching the lens. Make sure the filter is clean by wiping it with a soft dry cloth. CAMERA SET-UP Setting up the video camera so that it's pointing at the object you want to digitize and the object is well-let. A tripod or a copy stand is very useful for this, though the innovative user can find ways to prop up the camera without one. After you've tried propping up the camera a few times, you'ss see why a tripod or a copy stand is much handier. (NewTek sells a copy stand for use with Digi-View; see Appendix A.) In any case, make sure your video camera is securely placed where it won't be subject to vibration during the digitizing process, and there is plenty of light on the subject, the filter wheel should be positioned securely in front of the camera lens, so that it can be rotated without moveing the camera! Before you digitize, you must focus the video camera on a subject. This subject can be a photograph, a painting, or an object. It's possible, though time consuming, to adjust the position and focus of the camera by repeatedly digitizing and viewing the image using the Digi-View software. A more efficient approach is to watch the live video from the camera while adjusting it. You can use the amiga monitor to view the video signal for framing and focus before digitizing. This can be done by disconnecting the video cable from the Digi-View unit and connecting it directly to the composite video input jack of your Amiga 1080 monitor. Then switch the video selector on the front apnel of the monitor to "composite". You shuld now see the live video from the camera on the Amiga monitor screen. When you've finished adjusting the camera, plug th video cable back into the Digi-View unit and return the monitor switch to the RGB position. On the Commodore 1084 monitor, plug the video cable into the jack marked CVGS/L on the back of the monitor. Make sure the button next to that jack (marked CVBS/LCA) is pushed in. Then open the front panel on the monitor and push in the button marked "CVBS/RGB". You should see the video signal from the camera on your monitor (make sure the camera is turned on.) To switch back to Digi-View, unplug the video cable from the back of the monitor and plug it into the Digi-View unit, then push the switch on the front panel of the monitor (putting the switch into "RGB" mode). This should restore the Digi-View picture to the monitor. If you are digitizing similar subjects, you may not need to readjust the camera between digitizing. NOTE: Do not use a Y-adapter to simultaneously connec the camera to Digi-View and the Amiga monitor. The Y-adapter loads down the video signal and contrast suffers, making it more difficult to get a good image. Use the recommended switcher or RF modulator and closed circuit monitor described in Appendix A/ Some camera (such as the Panasonic WV-1410) have a small screwdriver adjustment on the rear panel marked "mech focus". Turning this screw slides the image tube inside the camera nearer to or farther from the lens. This gives you the capability to focus much closer than using the lens righ alone. For example, let's say you want to digitize a wallet-size photograph. While watching the live monitor, move the camera toward the photo until it is large enough to fill the screen. It should look very fuzzy at this point. Now use a small screwdriver to adjust the mechanical focus until the image is sharp. If you're using a camcorder, ther may be a macro lens feature which will let you focus on a very close subject. You should always user your lens cap when the camera is not in use or you may damage the tube. Permanent images may become engraved on it in this fashion. When digitizing, be careful to turn the camera off when you're through using it; leaving the camera focused on a bright object for a long time could damage the tube. If you have a color camera and a video processor, use the video processor to turn off the color information from the camera for better digitizing results. If you use a black & white camera with a newvicon tube (such as the Panasonic WV1510: see the camera specifications to determine the type of tube), use the camera under flourescent light or with an IR filter from a photography store for best results. MONITOR SET-UP It's important to set up your monitor correctly; this ensures that your digitized images look right on other monitors. Turn up the Brightness control until you see a "black" area on the screen as a bright gray (any video image will do for this adjustment, as long as there's black in the picture). Then turn down the Brightness control until the "grayness" just disappears. You monitor is now set properly. The contrast control should be adjusted according to room lighting for the best picture. DIGI-DROID SET-UP If you have a Digi-Droid motorized filter wheel, follow the directions included with Digi-Droid to set up your system. use the Digi-Droid filter wheel instead of the filter wheel provided with Digi-View. The Digi-Droid plugs into the second mouse port on your Amiga, and Digi-View's software recognizes the presence of Digi-Droid. When your Digi-Droid is plugged in and you start up the Digi-View software, Digi-View will use the Digi-Droid to automatically turn the filter wheel when you digitize, making the digitizing process fast, easy, and automatic. More information on Digi-Droid is in the Reference section under the Digitize and Controls menus. SOFTWARE INSTALLATION Insert the Workbench disk as shown on the screen (if you have an Amiga 1000, first insert the Kickstart disk in the internal drive. When the screen shows a picture of the Workbench disk, then insert the Workbench disk). Put the Digi-view disk in the external disk drive. When the Workbench screen appears, point the Digi-View disk icon and double click the left moust button. Digi-View will then load into your Amiga. If you have only one disk drive, turn on your Amiga and put in the Workbench disk. After the Workbench has loaded, eject the Workbench disk and put in the Digi-View disk. Load Digi-View as described in the previous paragraph. Once this is don, you will see the Digi-View 3.0 title screen which will allow you to select the resolution that you want to digitize in. There are two ways to select a resolution: by clicking on one of the gray (orange when selected) "on" or "off" boxes in the middle of the screen, or by clicking in the "height" and "width" boxes on the right. Continuous clicking with the left mouse button in one of these boxes cycles through all of the resolution modes available in that dimension, simply stop when you see the resolution you want. There are 2 levels of horizontal overscan available in Digi-View 3.0 which are accessed by clicking on either "1" or "2" instead of "on". The "Color" option is set "on" in default and can only be unselected by clicking in the "off" box next to it. When you have the resolution that you want, click inside the "OK" box and get into Digi-View. If you want to quit the program at this point, click in the "Exit" box to get back to the Workbench screen. You should make a back-up copy of Digi-View at once (Digi-View is NOT copy protected), in case your disk is damaged during use. Pull down the Project menu by holding down the right mouse button, then move the pointer to Project. Still holding down the right mouse button, move the pointer down to Quit, then release the button. You will be returned to Workbench, where you should make a copy of your Digi-View disk. (The procedure is outlined in Appendix D.) From now on, always use a copy of Digi-View instead of the original. Store the original in a safe place away from your computer. MENUS This reference section describes each feature of Digi-View, addressing each menu item and its use. We recommend that you get an overall grasp of the program by working through the tutorial; then the Menus section will serve to supplement the information you've learned from the Tutorial. GENERAL NOTES There are three menus in Digi-View: Project, Digitize, and Controls. All menus are activated by holding down the right mouse button, moving the pointer to the top of the screen and pointing at the menu you want, then moving the pointer down until the menu item you want is highlighted. Then release the button, and that menu item will be activated. This process is called "pulling down a menu". Whenever the term "click" or "click on" is used, it means that you should move the mouse pointer until the tip is resting on the object referred to in the text and then press the left mouse button. The term "drag" means to move the mouse pointer until the tip is resting on the object referred to in the text and then press the left mouse button and hold it while moving the mouse pointer, the slider you've "grabbed" will move as you move the mouse pointer. Reloease the button when the slider is in the spot you want. PROJECT MENU NEW: Pulling down this menu item clears the Amiga's memory of any images currently in Digi-View. This prepares you to start digitizing a new image. CAUTION: If you haven't saved the image on the screen before you use New, the image will be lost. LOAD: Pull down this menu item to bring in IFF (Interchange File Format) images that you've stored on a disk. (IFF files are a standard format on Amiga graphics programs like DeluxePaint or Aegis Images. Any IFF image can be brought into Digi-View). When you activate this item, the Load Requester will appear. The requester says "Enter Filename" at the top, and then there is a black space with "Name" in grey text. Move the pointer so it is within the black space (the "window") and clisk the left mouse button. Use the Backspace key or the Delee key to remove the word "Name". The arrow keys will move the cursor inside the window if there are letters in the window. Type in the device number of the disk where the file is and then the filename. If the disk is in the internal dirve, and the file is called "Mary", type in "DF0:Mary", then move the pointer to the OK button and press the left mouse button (or hit the Return key when you've finished typing in the name). The file will be loaded into Digi-View. Files in the external disk drive use the previx "df1:"; if you have a hard disk, the prefix is "dh0:". SAVE: This menu item allows you to save a digitized image as an IFF file that can be read by other IFF-compatible programs like DeluxePaint or Aegis Animator. The same requester that you saw in Load IFF appears. Follow the same procedure to type in the drive where you want the image to be saved, and the name you want to use for the file. The name cannot be longer than the window. If helps to use names that are easily remembered. SAVE RGB: Lores RGB files are 192K in size, where 32 color IFF files are only 40K. If you think that you'll want to re-adjust your image at a later date, save the image as an RGB file. You may want to save the image twice; once as an RGB file and once as an IFF file for use in other programs. LOAD PALETTE: This menu item loads the palette associated with an image. As you'll see later in the controls menu, you can display your digitized image in 32 colors or less. For instance, Electronic Arts' Deluxe Video program uses only 8 color images, so you would want your digitized image to be displayed in 8 colors. Once you've constructed that particular 8 color palette, you can use the identical palette by activating Load Palette. PRINT: If you want to print your Digi-View screen image, use this menu item. You will need to unplug the Digi-View module from the Amiga's parallel port to plug in your printer. CAUTION: make sure that the power is OFF before unplugging Digi-View. In order to print from Digi-View, save you image to disk, quit Digi-View and turn off your Amiga. Unplug the Digi-View module and plug in your printer cable. Turn on the printer and then turn on your Amiga. Load Digi-View and call up the image you want to print. Then activate the Print function. Make sure you've set your Preferences on the Workbench disk to the correct printer. HISTOGRAMS: The vertical axis represents the number of pixels, and the horizontal represents brightness (left to right is darkest to lightest). Typically used by someone with a video processor in conjunction with Digi-View to adjust the signal. Properly used can tell if you have enough light in the picture; graph should cover 70% or more of baseline on the raw data side in a well-lit picture. Adjusted histogram shows what Digi-View is doing to try to correct. QUIT: Pull down this menu item to exit Digi-View and return to the Workbench. if you haven't saved the image on the screen, this image will be lost when you Quit Digi-View. DIGITIZE RED: Pulling down this menu item digitizes the red component of the video image. Make sure the red filter is in front of the camera lens befor eyou activate this item. The keyboard equivalent is to press the right Amiga key (immediately right of the space bar) and the "r" key simultaneously. GREEN: Pullind down this menu item digitizes the green component of the video image. Make sure the green filter is in front of the camera lens before you activate this item. The keyboard equivalent is to paress the right Amiga key and the "g" key simultaneously. BLUE: Pulling down this menu item digitizes the blue component of the video image. Make sure the blue filter is in front of the camera lens before you activate this item. The keyboard equivalent is to press the right Amiga key and the "b" key simultaneously. BLACK AND WHITE: If you want to digitize an image in black and white or line art modes, use the clear filter and the red option. FOR DIGI-DROID OWNERS: Selecting the "Auto" menu option lets you use your Digi-Droid to digitize all three colors one safter another without any further menu selections. The keyboard equivalent is to press the right amiga key and the "a" key simultaneously. CONTROLS COLOR: Activating this menu item brings up the color control panel. This may also be done from the keyboard by pressing the right Amiga key and the "c" key simultaneously. The top portion of the control panel determines how the digitized image will appear. When you first bring up the control panel, "4096" is highlighted. This means that when you digitize an image and hit the display button in this control panel, the image will appear using all 4096 colors of the Amiga's palette. This display mode is know as Hold-And-Modify (HAM). The digitized image can also be displayed in 64 colors (labeled Halfbrite because the extra 32 colors are always half as bright as he first 32; see the Palette menu); black & white (labeled B/W); 32 colors (or less, see the Palette menu); or 4096+ (also called Enhanced Hold-And-Modify), which uses special techniques to display higher resolution and more color detail. Because 4096 mode is faster, use it to get all of your control mode for the best possible results. There is also a special display mode called Line Art which is for use in capturing high-contrast black and white artwork without any annoying, intermediate shades of gray. Brightness, Contrase, and Sharpness are the only controls that work in this mode with typical values being 10 to 20, -5 to 5, and 0 to 5 respectively. Just below the Mode panel is the dither control Setting the Dither to On will instruct Digi-View to mix pixels of different colors to produce intermediate shades. Try viewing an image with Dither on, and then turn Dither off and hit Display again. The difference should be readily apparent. 3 WAYS TO DITHER - Dither 1, 2, and sharpness. Dither can be used along with sharpness and the best result is a combination. Typical values for sharpness might be 3-5. Dither control gives a pebbly texture while sharpness is more grainy. Dither 1 is less extreme and more subtle, Dither 2 is very useful for reducing number of colors in image. Definition of dither - using two colors mixed to produce an apparent intermediate display 4096; dithering helps to fill in intermediate colors. Typical pictures will contain tens of thousands of subjecive shades. The panel directly left of the Dither control has two buttons. Pos and Neg. The Pos button creates a normal digitized image. Activating the Neg button and then choosing display will create a negative version of the image, inverting all of the colors. This option is useful for digitizing photo-negatives which can be turned back into positives. There are seven sliders on the panel that control Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Red, Green, Blue, and Sharpness. These sliders adju8st your digitized image for a better picture or just for special effects. To move the sliders, move the pointer onto one of the sliders and hold down the left mouse button. Drag the slider to the position you want and release the button. You'll notice that the number at the bottom of the slider changes from -48 to 48. You can record these settings for future reference. The best way to learn to use the controls is to experiment with their effects on an image. BRIGHTNESS: Like its namesake on a TV, this control increases the overall illumination of the image. Moving the brightness control even a little has marked effects on the image. CONTRAST: Again, this control is similar to the control on your TV set. Raising the control makes whites white, blacks blacker, and colors more intense. Lowering it makes blacks and whites more gray and colors washed out. SATURATION: This works like the color control on a TV set. At minimun, the image is converted to black and white. At maximum, the colors are abnormally intense and cartoon-like. RED: When set high, this increases the amount of red in the image; when reduced, the amount of red is diminished. At minimum, there is no red in the picture; at maximum, the picture is entirely in shades of red. GREEN: When set high, this increases the amount of green in the image; when reduced, the amount of green is diminished. At minimum, there is no green in the picture; at maximum, the pircture is entirely in shades of blue. SHARPNESS: Raising this control will sharpen the image but increase the amount of "grain" or "snow". Lowering the control will reduce graininess but will increase the amount of "contouring" or "banding". DEFAULT: Clicking on this button returns all the sliders to the neutral setting. OK: This removes the control panel, but does not re-display the picture at any new settings. DISPLAY: When you've adjusted the control panel to your liking, this control will display the picture with the new settings. PALETTE This menu item activates the Palette control. The palette shows the best 32 colors for displaying the image out of the 4096 possible. If you want to have less than a 32 color image, move the slider in the box labeled "Use 32 colors". You'll see the number of colors change as you move the slider. You'll also see a U-shaped outline move on the colored squares immediately above, showing the last color in the range you've selected. hit the Display button and exit the Palette control. if the color control was still set to 4096 or 4096+ colors, call up the color control and hit the 32 color button (which, you'll note, has changed to reflect the new number of colors you're asking for). The image will now be displayed with the new number of colors. Why would you want to have less than 32 colors? Well, this can be quite useful if you want to bring an IFF image into a paint program and have some colors left over to alter th eimage. you may only want to use 28 colors in the image, thereby reserving some colors for you to assign in the paint program. And in Electronic Arts' Deluxe Video program, images can contain only 8 colors, so remapping an image to 8 colors is useful for that program. LOAD PALETTE: Using load palette on any picture loads in that picture's palette only. You can then use Freeze Palette in the Palette menu, then digitize in 32 colors, and Digi-View will construct the picture in the loaded palette. Less storage is used for fewer colors - 8 colors requires only three planes instead of 5. You can also alter the individual colors in the palette to create interesting special effects. Point at the color you want to change and press the left mouse button. The colored square is not highlighted. If you move one of the Red, Green, or Blue sliders to the right, you'll see the color change. When you've adjusted the colors to your liking, click on the Use This Palette button, and then hit Display. The image will be redisplayed using the palette colros you've chosen. If you turn off the Dither control in the Color Controls, you can get some very interesting effects. Halfbrite: if you select halfbrite from the color control menu you will see an additional 32 color palette next to the original 32. These additional colors are exactly half as bright as the first 32 palette colors and can only be altered by changing one of the colors in the original 32 color palette. For example: to change the color in row 1, column 3 of palette 2, you must change the color in row 1, column 3 of palette 1. Halfbrite mode always has exactly 64 colors and can not be made to have any less by re-sizing the palette. NOT TO AMIGA 1000 OWNERS: Not all Amiga 1000's are capable of displaying graphics in the Extra-halfbrite mode. If the colors in the second palette are exactly the same as those in the first, then you have an Amiga that is not capable of Halfbrite display. CAMERA This menu controls the various camera settings. This menu has no effect after you've already digitized a picture; it's used to adjust the camera before digitizing. SCAN TIME: The three boxes at the top right of the Camera Control are the different scan times you can use with Digi-View: fast, normal and slow. Use the fast scan mode for a quick test scan of the subject. This is especially useful when you have a live subject that you think might fidget during a longer scan. And the picture quality is really quite good with a short scan. The normal scan is useful for every-day digitizing, especially with a static subject. For best results, use the slow scan. If you're using a color video camera, you should use this setting every time. Consumer color video cameras have less resolution than black and white cameras, so you should use the long scan time so that Digi-View can do its best job on the image. The slow scan takes an average of four video samples of each image in order to eliminate random noise and give you a cleaner image. PICTURE SIZE: The Full, Half, and 1/4 buttons directly below the scan time buttons give you the option of creating your image in different sizes. The Full button is the normal picture size; the Half button gives you an image with half the dimensions of the normal image; and the 1/4 button gives you an image with one-fourth the dimensions of the normal image. If you already have an image on the screen from a previous digitizing effort, use the New command in the Project menu to clear the screen before creating a smaller than normal size picture. TRACKING: This control, at the upper left of the Camera Control, is used to synchronize the camera signal with Digi-View. If you get a vertical stripe of jaggies approzimately 1 inch wide on your screen, use the Tracking slider to eliminate it. Adjust the slider until the stripe has moved off the screen. WIDTH: This slider adjusts the width of the picture that results when you digitize. This is useful for slight adjustments to get a picture to fit a certain size. Large movements of this control will give you interesting special effects. OK: When you've set the Camera Controls the way you like, click on the OK button to return to Digi-View. FOR DIGI-DROID OWNERS: The MOTOR CAL menu item brings up the screen for calibrating the Digi-Droid's motor as detailed in the Droid's instruction sheet. TUTORIAL Experience is an important factor in getting high quality digitized images. In other words, the best way to learn Digi-View is by doing, so this tutorial will take you through digitizing and adjusting a picture. First, we'll go through the digitizing process, then we'll explore each of the various controls available in Digi-View, starting with the Camera controls, then the Color controls and finally the Palette controls. Finally, we'll review Digi-View's input and output capabilities. For purposes of this Tutorial, we'll assume you have a basic Amiga system, a panasonic WV-1410 camera, and our CS-1 copy stand (other configurations should be similar enough for the purposes of this Tutorial). DIGITIZING First, let's look at the Test Image #1 on your Digi-View disk. This will be the object of your tutorial - to get an image as close as possible to this sample. Make sure your hardware and software are installed as described in the Getting Started section. Start your Amiga and your Digi-View will come up on your screen in a few seconds. If your video camera is not turned on and the cable plugged into your digi-View unit, you'll see a requester that syas "No Video Signal Present". Click "Cancel" and you'll see a blank screen; if you press the right mouse button, the Digi-View menus should appear at the op of the screen. If you do get this requester, make sure your Digi-View is properly plugged in, the camera is plugged into the Digi-View and turned on, and the lens cap is off. Pull down Load from the Project menu. The Load Requester will appear, showing all of the files on the Digi-View disk. The bar to the right of the file names may be moved by clicking on it and dragging it to reveal more names. Click on the file names "Test Image #1". The file name will appear in the file window. Click on Load and the file will appear onscreen in a few moments. This is the "target' for our Tutorial; by the time we're finished, you'll have an image that looks just like that on the screen. Take the Digi-View box and place it sideways in front of your video camera. (We'll use this box as our test subject as we go through the various controls that Digi-View offers.) Plug the video cable from the camera into your monitor (or whatever set-up you're using to view the picture) so that you can see the live video output from the camera. (See the directions under Monitor Set-up for viewing the image on your Amiga monitor.) If you're using out CS-1 copy stand and panasonic WV1410 camera, adjust the copy stnad so that the camera is about 18" from the Digi-View box. Orient the box so that the title on the front of the box is on the left-hand side of your monitor, the box just barely fills the entire picture top and bottom, and you can see the NewTek logo on the right-hand edge of your screen (this mens that the top of the box is missing on the left side of the screen). We've filled the entire screen with the box so that we don't get any of the background in the picture. Now adjust the camera focus so that the letters are clear and sharp. If you are using the Panasonic WV1410 camera, you may need to adjust the Mech Focus screw on the back of the camera to bring the image into focus. Once the focus is correct, it's time to check the lighting. Is the picture very dark or have dim areas? Are there any bright spots? If so, you need to adjust the lighting. Move your lights back and forth and tilt them at different angles, observing the effects on the picture. You'll see the bright and dark spots move as you adjust the lights. Adjust the lights so that there are no bright "washed out" spots in the picture, and the dark area are eliminated (or kept to the very corners of the image). See the section on Using Digi-View for more information about lighting. You should now have the Digi-View box properly framed, focussed, and lit. If you're satisfied that is the case, take the video cable that comes from the camera and unplug it from your monitor and into the Digi-View unit. Switch the monitor back to your computer's output (the Digi-View screen), where you should see your mouse pointer. Now let's digitize the image. Position the red filter in front of the camera lens (make sure that only red is in front of the lens). Now pull down Red from the Digitize menu and watch as the red component of the picture is digitized. Be careful not to move the Digi-View box or the camera during this process. You'll notice that the mouse pointer becomes a "WAIT" sign while digitizing is going on. When the pointer reappears you're ready to digitize the green component of the picture. move the green filter in front of the camera lens and select Green from the Digitize menu. When that's finished, put the blue filter in front of the lens and select Blue from the Digitize menu. Finally, when the blue component is digitized, select Display from the Controls menu, and the full 4096 color picutre will be displayed on the screen. (NOTE: if you have a Digi-Droid installed, instead of the above procedure simply pull down Auto from the digitize menu, and the picture will be automatically digitized and displayed.) Rhe image you have at this point may need some adjustment. If you're using a color camera, the image may lok somewhat jaggy. See the Camera Adjustment section below for better results. CAMERA ADJUSTMENTS Go to the controls menu and pull down Camera. The Camera controls will appear. These settings affect the position and size of the video mage received from the camera, as well as the time it takes to scan an mage. If you're usning a color camera, select the slow scan and redigitize the image. You'll see a marked improvement in the image quality. If you have some wavy lines in the image, use the Tracking control to eliminate them, (set at about +7). Digitize Red (no need to digitize all colors just to adjust the Tracking control, repeating until you have moved the wavy lines off the image. The width control ill stretch out or compress the image; moving the control to the right stretches the image, moving it to the left compresses it. The Position control moves the image aea on the screen. Experiment with these controls to center the image of the Digi-View box on the screen. USING THE COLOR CONTROLS These controls are the heart of Digi-View, giving you the power to manipulate the image in a variety of ways. First of all, we'll use the controls to get a sharp image with colors true to the original, then we'll try some of the special effects possible. Pull down Color from the Control menu and the color controls will appear. You'll notice that along the top are 6 buttons: Line Art, B/W (black & white), 32 (for any number of colors from 2 to 32; see the Palette Contsols), Halfbrite (for 64 color display), 4096 (standard number of colors in HAM mode), and 4096+ (NewTek's Enhanced HAM mode; see Appendix C for further explnation of this mode). The 4096 button is highlighted as the default setting. Click on 4096 +, then click Display. The cursor will say "WAIT", and then you'll notice a line running down the screen. Watch particularly the left hand edge where the letters are; you can see them becoming sharper as the line passes down the screen. Now call up the Color controls again. When adjusting these controls, it's a good idea to do all of your adjustments while in "4096" mode, since Digi-View reprocesses the information faster while in that mode. When you've got the colors where you want them, switch to "4096+" and re-display for the best results. For this tutorial, the most important controls are the seven sliders that take up most of the color controls: Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Red, Green, Blue, and Sharpness. The red, green and blue sliders will adjust the hue of the image. Try each one of these sliders individually to see their effect, by setting the slider to plus or minus 10 and then clicking Display. You'll note that while most of those adjustments make the colors of the mage move further away from the colors of the Digi-View box, there is one that gets you closer. Set that slider and then adjust the other two sliders, one at a time, to see if you get any closer to the Digi-View box colors. This trial-and-error process will get you the most exact color, and you'll also begin to develop your eye for colors and what adjustments give you the desired results. If the colors don't look bright enough, try boosting the saturation control, which will give you more intense shades of the colors onscreen. The sharpness control, when raised slightly, will make the letters on the image appear more crisp. If, on the other hand, you want a smoother appearance to the image, you would lower the sharpness control. USING THE PALETTE CONTROLS The Palette controls allow you to match the colors used in an image to a pre-existing picture. When you're working with other amiga programs that use 32 or fewer colors, you may want to digitize a series of pictures in the same palette. Or perhaps you want to use fewer colors in a picture than 32, to allow for some "extra" colors for titles. Or you may want to take up much less space on disk by saving an image in only 16 colors instead of 4096. The palette controls allows all of these options. For the purpose of this tutorial, wel'll remap the image we've digitized into 16 colors. Leave the settings in the color controls were they were at the end of the last tutorial. Click on "32" in the Mode section of the color controls, then click on "Palette" at the bottom of the color controls. This takes you to the Palette controls (you can also bring up the Palette controls using the Controls menu). You'll see a slider at the lower left of your screen that says "32 colors": as you move it, notice that the number of colors changes to the right, and above a marker moves on the palette. Move the slider to "16". The default setting is "Make a New Palette", so Digi-View will construct the best palette it can to represent the image in only 16 colors. If you choose "Freeze Palette", Digi-View will use the palette shown to create the image. Click on "display", and in a moment you'll see the image displayed in 16 colors. You'll notice that Digi-View uses a technique called "dithering" (mixing pixels of different colors) to producs the impression of more than 16 colors. INPUT AND OUTPUT Now that you hve a final image, it's time to save the image on a disk so that you can use it again. Go to the Project menu and pull down Save. A requester will appear that shows you the files on the internal disk drive of your Amiga (called df0:). At this point, you can save your files on your Digi-View disk, on a separate data disk. Put your date disk in your external disk drive and click on the square labeled df1: Click in the File window and a cursor will appear. Type the name you want to use for the file and then click Save. The picture qill be saved under the name you've given. Later on, you can recall that image in another program such as Digi-Paint. See the Menus section for more information about saving different file types. USING DIGI-VIEW TIPS ON DIGITIZING LIGHTING: The best lighting set-up for digitizing flat objects is usually two standard 75-wat bulbs on the CS-11, copy stand. When digitizing 3-D objects, you will sometimes need more light. If you use too much however, you may get distorted colors or see blue or yellow patches in the image. If you don't use enough light your image may turn out grainy. Always position your lighting to reduce the effects of glare on your image. MOTION: It is very important that both the camera and the object remain motionless during the digitizing process. Wavy lines or an out of focus look are a sure sign that something has moved. Make sure that the camera is fastened securely to its tripod or copy stand and be careful not to bump the camera when turning the filter wheel. The use of the Digi-Droid greatly reduces the chances of motion affecting your image. NOTE: you can check to see if your digitizing set-up is moving during the digitizing process by half-way filling a glass with water and setting it where your subject usually rests. Whatch carefully for any ripples caused by people walking by, etc. GRAIN: Some cameras produce grainer pictures than others. Lowwering the Sharpness control will reduce the grain. This is also useful in the 4096 color mode to reduce the "confetti". When using the 32 color mode, however, it's usually a good idea to RAISE the Sharpness control. Try setting it at about 75%. This increases the dithering and smooths out the bands of color that sometimes appear in images with 32 or fewer colors. Low light conditions can also give your image a grainy look. In this case use the Slow Scan mode for better results. FEWER THAN 32 COLORS: If you are digitizing a picture into 32 colors or less, try to have a background behind the subject that has as few colors as possible. This ensures that Digi-View will use the best colors for the subject of the picture, and not "use up" too many colors in the duplication of a background. For instance, unless you really want a picture frame as part of your digitized picture, take the snapshot out of the frame before digitizing or adjust the camera so the frame is not in the image. RANDOM SYNC: Some inexpensive black & white secutity cameras may produce what is called "random sync" or "random interlace". You can't really tell by looking at a live monitor whether you're getting 2:1 interlace or random sync. Unfortunately, Digi-View and random sync just don't get along. Digi-View will go ahead and digitize random sync video, but the result will exhibit a wavy or jagged quality throughout the entire picture, most apparent in horizontal lines or edges. If you're in doubt about your camera's sync, plug it in and digitize a picture. If you get "the jaggies", it probably random sync. Don't give up hope, though. Some cameras have a switch inside to change from random sync to 2:1 interlace. A problem related to the random sync jaggies can occur when a camera does have 2:1 interlace but does not meet the RS-170 standards. Using such a camera, you may get a narrow vertical stripe of jaggies in an otherwise normal picture. Use the Tracking control to correct thiss (as described in the Menus section). SPECIAL EFFECTS You can get some very interesting effects with Digi-View by disregarding the advice about how to get the best picture. Play with the Color Control settings. Moving some of the sliders to maximum creates strange special effects. For instance, moving the Contrast slider to the top in black & white mode gives you either pure black or pure white, with no gray. In 32 color mode, you'll get only 8 colors. Experiment with other variations. Try using the wrong color filters, or filters of other colors than provided. Change the subject instead of the filter between shots. Move the camera or the subject during the scan. Instant modern art! One interesting special effect was discovered by an enterprising user. 3-D pictures can be made by using the Red and Blue digitizing functions at slightly different camera angles. The resulting image is then viewed through standard 3-D blasses or by looking through the red and blue sections of the color filter. If you want to try 3-D pictures, here's the procedure: Aim the camera at some three dimensional object. Remove the filter wheel or select the clear filter. Use Blue Digitize, move the camera three or four inches to the right (keeping it squarely aimed at the object), and select Red Digitize. Use the Color Control to raise the Red and Blue sliders to maximum. You may also have to lower the Brightness slightly. Select 4096 display. View the resulting image with the blue filter over your left eye and the red filter over your right eye. APPLICATIONS Digi-View is the perfect way to create "rough sketches" of artwork. If you're having trouble getting a starting point for a work of art, digitize an object and import it into your paint program. If you're making a piece of commercial art for a client, you may find it useful to digitize a package or a group of objects or an ad layout. Then with an appropriate paint program such as Digi-Paint (the 4096 color paint program from NewTek), you can add titles or other embellishments. Animations for Deluxe Video can be created by using Digi-View to digitize several different views of an object and remapping the image into 8 colors. The color palette algorithms in Digi-View are excellent - for example, try taking the King Tut image from DeluxePaint and remapping it into 8 colors for DeluxeVideo. You'll be amazed at the results. Wonderful slide shows like NewTek's Demo Reel #1 can be created with Digi-View images and appropriate graphics software like Digi-Paint, and the soon to be released Digi-F/X. Thank you for purchasing Digi-View! The Amiga offers the potential for a new world of applications for digitized pictures. We know you'll find many uses for Digi-View, and we hope you'll take the time to write to us and let us know how you're using our products. Enjoy! TROUBLESHOOTING QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS I am using the Panasonic WV-1410 camera, but I still seem to get the random sync jaggies. The WB-1410 has random sunc / 2:1 interlace switch which the factory presets to random sync. To make your WV-1410 2:1 interlace, simply remove the bottom cover (fastened with one screw at the front of the camera and one at the back) and flip the dip switch located on the left circuit board close to the video output jack from LL to INT. NOTE: ALWAYS UNPLUG YOUR CAMERA BEFORE OPENING IT! I see a herringbone-type interference pattern in my digitized images. What causes this? This case is usually a ground-loop. A ground-loop can occur when more than one of the components in your computer system are plugged into your house current with a grounded (three prong) plug. The computer is the only component that should be grounded, all other components should be un-grounded by using a 3 to 2 prong adapter on their power cords. My Digi-View images become stretched as they are digitized from left to right across the screen. For example, a circular object ends up looking like an egg on its side. What's wrong? This is usually a sign of problems in your parallel-port. Specifically, the problem is the 8520 CIA chip that controls the port. This chip is socketed for easy removal and can be replaced by any authorized Amiga dealer for about $20.00. NOTE: Your printer can function normally with a defective 8520, but a complex peripheral like Digi-View will alert you to any problems right away. APPENDIX A: OPTIONAL EQUIPMENT NewTek sells several products that make digitizing with Digi-View easier and more parofessional. For more informationabout these products and NewTek Demo Reels, NewTek Times and "The Cool Friends of NewTek Club" write us at: 115 W. Crane Street; Topeka, KS; 66603 or for orders only call (800) 843-8943, 9-6 central time Monday thru Friday. PANASONIC WV-1410 CAMERA: This camera features very high resolution, (better than 550 lines) a durable vidicon tube which resists burn-in, and a mechanical focus adjustment for a full range of macro focusing. Convenient mounting holes for the filter wheel bracket and our CS-11, copy stand make this camera the most complete solution for digitizing needs. Lens and all necessary cables included. Our Price: $279.95 CL-1L COPY STAND: The best way to mount your camera for digitizing flat subjects (like photographs). Our CS-1L copy stand gives you 2 fully adjustable lights and vertical mount with adjustable brackets for your camera. set-up is easy and adjustments are a snap. Our Price $74.95 DIGI-DROID: Automate your Digi-View system with Digi-Dro8id. This special computer controlled motor and filter wheel combination automatically drives your filter wheel while you capture the red, green and blue images. Our Price $79.95 DIGI-PAINT: The best-selling Amiga paint program - winner of the "Knock-Your-Socks-Off" award from AmigaWorld. It is the 4096 color all-at-once paint program! Break the 32 color barrier and use the entire Amiga palette on screen at one time. Special features include shading, tinting, and blending, complete drawing tools, and more. Our Price $59.95 GENDER CHANGER: This device contains special power conversion circuitry in a compact package (it requires no bulky wall transformer) that upgrades your Amiga 500 to 200 parallet port to work with Digi-View. Our Price $21.95 One way to monitor the live video is with a TV set. You'll need the 15-273 RF modulator and 274-303 Y-adapter from Radio Shack. Connect them as shown in illustration #3. Be sure the "ohms connect" switch on the RF modulator is set to 1K. The modulator converts the video signal to RF (radio frequence) so it can be viewed on channel 3 or 4 of your TV. Again, you can view the signal throughout the digitizing process. APPENDIX B: INSTALLING DIGI-VIEW ON A HARD DRIVE Installing Digi-View on your hard disk drive can be done in one of two ways: 1) From the Workbench screen open the Digi-View disk icon and drag the icons from the Digi-View window into any empty drawer in your hard disk. 2) From the CLI copy the files from the Digi-View disk to any empty drawer in the hard drive. APPENDIX C: AN EXPLANATION OF HAM MODE The Hold-And-Modify (HAM) display mode on the Amiga uses six bit planes to display images. This means that each pixel (PIcture ELement - one dot on the screen) uses 6 bits to determine its color. If the first 2 bits are "00", thje remaining 4 bits (giving a value of 0 to 15 in binary) are used to look up the pixel's color in the color table. This gives you 16 values from the possible 4096 colors available, which Digi-View uses to choose the best 16 colors in the Color Palette to reduce the amount of "fringing". Each color as 4 bits worth of red, green, and blue information: thus, each color has a Red value from 0 to 15, a Green value from 0 to 15, and a Blue value from 0 to 15. If the first two bits of a given pixel are 01, the pixeel has the same color as the pixel to its immediate left, except that the last four bits can be used to replace the red value of that pixel. If the first two bits are "10", the last four bits replace the green value, and if the first two bits are "11", the last four bits replace the blue value. The effect of all this is that you can display all 4096 colors on the screen at once, though you can't go from black (red 0, green 0, blue 0) to white (red 15, green 15, blue 15) in one pixel; it takes three pixels to make that transition, since you can only modify one of the RGB values for each pixel. The transition would take four pixels on the screen. The first pixel is RGB 0-0-0; the secons pixel is RGB 15-0-0; the third pixel is RGB 15-15-0; the fourth pixel is RGB 15-15-15 (white). HOWEVER, the ability of Digi-View to use the 16 color Palette means that for 16 of the colors, that color can be immediately substituted anywhere on the screen without the transition just described. This technique is what gives Digi-View its exceptionally sharp HAM images. APPENDIX D: DISK COPYING AND FORMATTING Remove the Workbench disk from your internal drive and put in a blank disk. The icon will appear on the Workbench labeled " DFO:BAD". Move the pointer to the disk labeled Digi-View, press the left mouse button, and drag the resulting disk down to the disk labeled DF0:BAD, and release the button. A requester will come up asking you to replace the Workbench disk in any drive. Push the button next to the internal drive to remove the disk, and insert your Workbench disk again. A requester will appear asking you to put Digi-View in drive DF1: (the external drive, where the disk already is) and the destination disk (your blank disk) in DF0. Remove the Workbench disk after the red disk drive ligght has stopped and put in the blank disk. Point to the Continue button on the requester and press the leeft mouse button. Your Digi-View disk is now being copied. When the disk copy is finished, remove the copy and label it appropriately. You should always use the copy instead of your original disk to avoid any problems with damaged disks. APPENDIX E: SPECIFICATIONS DIGI-VIEW 3.0 SPECIFICATIONS NTSC: Resolution Colors Overscan 320 x 200 32 352 & 384 x 240 320 x 200 64 352 & 384 x 240 320 x 200 4096 352 & 384 x 240 320 x 400 32 352 & 384 x 480 320 x 400 64 352 & 384 x 480 320 x 400 4096 352 & 384 x 480 640 x 200 16 704 & 768 x 200 640 x 400 16 704 & 768 x 480 NOTE ON MEMORY REQUIREMENTS: hires, overscan modes require up to 2 megabytes of memory DIGITIZING 21 bits per pixel (2.1 million colors) resolution) FILE FORMAT: Read and write IFF files IMAGE PROCESSING: Enhanced HAM Mode(high quality 4096 color) Control red, green, blue, contrast, brightness, saturation, and sharpness Edge-detection Convert images between resolutins Digitize to specific palettes Dither control Positive or negative images Control number of colors in image ============================================================================= Digi-View 3.0 docs brought to you by The Southern Star.