page 97--------------------------------------ZOETROPE REFERENCE SECTION mouse button to halt the playback. If To Segment frame mode is active, only the selected range of frame will be played. If you wish to remove the layback Bar during dislay, first click the right mouse button, then activate Fast Forward using the keyboard alternative. Keyboard alternative: [F9]. - Last Frame. Go to the last frame of your animation sequence. Left-click on this icon to move immediately to the last frame of the animation. Keyboard alternative: [F10]. - Total Frames. Displays the total number of frames of your animation sequence. You may click within the Total Frames box to append 10 frames at the end of your animation, which will all be identical to the last frame. Keyboard alternative: [Return]. - Frame Modes: To Frame, To Segment, To All toggle. Left- click on this box to cycle through the frame modes: To Frame (f), To Segment (s) and To All (a) modes. The frame modes determine which frames will be affected by various ZOETROPE operations, and are set within the Time submenu (see Time for details). To Frame operations affect only the frame currently displayed, To Segment operations affect only the range of frames set in the Time submenu. To All operations affect all frames in the animation. To Segment and To All operations are permanent and may not be undone by pressing [Help], so a requester will appear allowing you to proceed or cancel the operation. Keyboard alternative: [.] (period). NOTE: Although you may not undo multiple frame operations, such as To Segment and To All, you CAN abort them at any time by pressing any key on the keyboard or by holding down the right mouse button. A requester will apear displaying the number of frames already affected, and asking if you want to continue. Click on Yes to proceed, or No to halt the operation at the frame it is on. If you choose to continue the operation, ZOETROPE will pick up where it left off, and proceed to the end of the designated frame range. If you decide to halt the operation, only those frames already affected by the operation will be changed; they cannot be undone. page 98--------------------------------------ZOETROPE REFERENCE SECTION THE MAIN MENU The main menu bar contains the following seven menus: MENU, CLIP, DRAW, MODES, FRAME, BRUSH, and COLOR. Hold down the right mouse button to display the main menu bar. While still pressing the button, point to any menu title to dislay its options, then point to the option itself and relase the mouse button to select that option (or relase the mouse button from the main screen to avoid selecting any option). In the following section, we will describe each of the menus in the menu bar, from the left side of the screen to the right. Each function, or command within each menu will be described in the order listed in the menu - from top to bottom. MENU The MENU contains global, generalized functions affecting your entire animation sequence; including such things as disk I/O (input/outupt), playback time, and APM effects. MENU also contains information about ZOETROPE and the status of your animation, and it allows you to return ot the workbench, either through pausing or exiting the program. ABOUT ZOETROPE Displays program specification information: Title, program version, the name of the author, publisher, copyright, etc. TIME [T] Activates the Time submenu, which allows you to alter the overall playback speed of an animation sequence, and set the frame mode (which frames are acted upon) to individual frames (To Frame), to a range of frames - or segment (To Segment), or to the entire animation sequence (To All). page 99--------------------------------------ZOETROPE REFERENCE SECTION PLAYBACK BAR - The Playback Bar makes up the top row of the Time submenu. Its functions are the same as when it is displayed from the main screen, with the one exception that the frame modes are not displayed (See Playback Bar, above for details). MORE - Left-click on More to load the latter part of an animation file that will not fit entirely into your Amiga's memory. (See Load/Save.) If your animation file is too large for memory, ZOETROPE will load as much of the first part as it can, leaving 10 percent of the loaded file free for editing. It will then display a requester saying: 'File too large to fit into available memory', and will highlight the More box in the Time submenu. Click on Continue to exit the requester and resume ZOETROPE functions. When you are through editing the first part of the animation, you may save your changes under a different file name, then select More from the Time submenu to load the next ortion of the original file. (It is recommended that you save the changes as a separate RIF file.) A requester will appear saying 'Advance to next part of DF0:\FILE? This will destroy frames in memory'. Left-click on either Yes or No (or press [Y] or [N]. If you select Yes, everything currently in memory will be replaced with the next part of the animation. The More option is primarily desinged to break up large animation files into manageable chunks. More does not alter the original, oversized animation file, and does snot append edited changes to that file upon saving. You will be alerted should you try to save edited segments using the original, oversized file's name. But it's esential that you keep a backup copy of non-edited animation files (See Patch, below). ANIMATION SPEED CONTROL BAR - This allows you to increase or decrease the playback speed of your animations. Click on the left arrow to increase playback speed, click on the right arrow to decrease playback speed. You can also drag the numbered box left or right to set your animation speed. The Animation Speed Control indicator number displays how many Amiga video frames are used to display each animation frame of an animation segment. One Amiga video frame is the eriod it takes your monitor to scan and refresh the screen once. The video-frame refresh rate is measured in jiffies, which are 1/60th of a second. The default ZOETROE animation playback speed is four (4). Thus, each frame of your animation, at default, is displayed for a period of four jiffies - 4/60, or 1/15th of a second. If you set the box at 60, each frame will page 100-------------------------------------ZOETROPE REFERENCE SECTION be displayed for one seocnd (60/60). ZOETROPE's fastest animation speed is two (2) - or 30 frames per second. TWEEN - Tween is a mode which affects ZOETROPE clip-buffer and APM operations, and certain Pixel f/x and Color f/x functions. It can be either active or inactive. When Tween is active (or highlighted, the default condition), the beginning and end positions of your images (or palettes) affect each frame through intermediate steps based on the number of frames indicated by the frame modes: To Segment, or To All (Tween has no effect on To Frame). When Tween is inacive, only the final, altered position of the image (or palette) affects each frame identically. For example, given 10 frames, and a vertically shaped clip-buffer image that is Rotated 90 degrees to horizontal: With Tween on and frame mode To All - frame #1 will contain the vertical image, frame #10 will contain the horizontal image, and frames #2-9 will contain images in varying degrees of rotation between vertical and horizontal. Given exactly the same situation with Tween off, each frame would contain an identical image in the final, horizontal position. Left-click on Tween to toggle it on or off. Tween works with the Rotation, Move, Scale Paste, and APM f/x functions. In the Pixel f/x menu, Tween affects Shatter, Crystallize, Ripple, and Buzz. In the Color f/x menu, Tween affects Shift and Fade. Tween may also be turned on or off by clicking on the lower-case (t) found in the Pixel f/x, APM f/x, and Color f/x menus. The third row of the Time submenu contains the three frame-mode functions: To Frame, To Segment, and To All. These allow you to select the range of frames affected byi time-oriented functions. Click on any one of the three boxes to activate that mode. Only one mode may be active at any time. (Frame modes may also be selected from the layback Bar to clickon on 'f' for To Frame, 's' for To Segment, and 'a' for To All.) TO FRAME - Left-click on To Frame to activate it. When active, time- oriented operations will be performed only on the currently displayed frame and will affect no other frames in the animation sequence. TO SEGMENT - Left-click on To Segment to activate it. When active, time-oriented operations (including animation playbacks, and I/O Saves) page 101-------------------------------------ZOETROPE REFERENCE SECTION will be performed on the range of frames specified by the Segment Range Bar. Reversing the Segment Range Bar (described below) will revers the effect of these operations. TO ALL - Left-click on To All to activate it. When active, time-oriented operations will be performed on all frames in the animation sequence. The following oeprations are affected by the frame mode settings: Clip: Paste Rotate Stretch Frame: Separate Blue Pic Unblue Pic Clr Pic Defocus Delete (To Seg. only) Load/Save: Save .rif (To Seg. only) Over/Under (.pic only) Pixel f/x: All APM f/x: All Palette: All Color f/x All The fourth row of the Time submenu is the Animation Segment Range Controller, which allows you to set the range of frames affected when the To Segment frame mode is active. The Segment Range Controller is duplicated in the Pixel f/x, APM f/x, and Color f/x menus. SEGMENT STARTING FRAME - The first three boxes in the row consist of a frame number displaying the starting frame in the segment, bracketed by left nad right arrows allowing you to adjust the starting frame number. Click on the left arrow to move the starting frame backwards, click on the right arrow to move it forwards. Clicking on the number page 102-------------------------------------ZOETROPE REFERENCE SECTION itself will position the starting end of the Segment Range Bar (described below) to match the currently displayed frame. SEGMENT RANGE BAR - You maydrag the dots within the Segment Range Bar to dynamically set the start and end frame of your segment range. The beginning and end frame numbers will be indicated in the Segment Starting and Segment Ending Frame boxes. When first dispslayed, the Segment Range Bar will display only one dot. Drag it to the left or right to reveal the second dot. Both dots will be connected by a line. One dot will represent the starting frame, and the other will represent the ending frame. Note that the segment range order may be reversed (i.e. the starting fram enumber higher than the end frame number) by dragging one dot across the other. Thus, in a 20-frame segment, you could have a range running from 1 to 20, or from 20 to 1. By reversing the segment range numbers, time oriented operations - such as APM f/x, clip manipulations, and Saves - will, in effect, be reversed, and will play back in reverse. SEGMENT END FRAME - The last three boxes in the row consist of a frame number displaying the end frame in the segment, bracketed by left and right arrows allowing you to adjust the end frame number. Click on the left arrow to move the end fram ebackwards, click on the right arrow to move it forwards. Clicking on the number itself will position the end of the Segment Range Bar (described above) to match the currently displayed frame. LOAD/SAVE [L] Select Load/Save to activate the file selection menu. Load/Save allows you to set drive paths, and to load or save a variety of ZOETROPE file formats. See also Appendix C for a description of how to convert the file formats of other Amiga products into those compatible with ZOETROPE. page 103-------------------------------------ZOETROPE REFERENCE SECTION The Playback Bar appears at the top of the Load/Save menu, permitting a last-minute run-through of your work before you save it to disk, or before you load in another file (effectively erasing your current work). You may also set the frame at which to begin loading an overlay or underlay animation, or a picture. In addition to the Playback Bar, the ZOETROPE Load/Save menu includes three file functions on the left: Load data from disk to memory, Save data to disk from memory, or Kill (delete) a data file on disk. The second and third rows contain the types of files (file formats) which may be affected by the I/O functions. Below these four types of I/O compositing modes - Normal, Over(lay), Under(lay), and Splice - which are available with certain of the file formats. The bottom row contains the drive drawer field, followed by the Patch function. In a typical file I/O operation, you first enter into the field labeled 'Drawer:' the drive ath contain your data (e.g. DF1:Zoeanims/). Next, select the file format by clicking in its box (e.g. .rif), followed by the type of I/O compositing operation (e.g. Normal). Finally, choose the I/O action (e.g. Load, Save, or Kill). Following this, a custom ZOETROPE file selector menu will apear from which you may select your file. The first three actions, above, may be done in any order. No action is taken until either Load, Save, or Kill is selected. In the case of Kill, a requester will prompt you to continue or abort the operation. Keyboard alternatives: [L] Load; [S] Save; [K] Kill; [D] Drawer. NOTE: You may Save your .rif animation files in reverse order by setting the frame mode To Segment and reversing the direction of the Segment Range Bar. You may not, however, Load animations in reverse order. The ZOETROPE Load/Save menu can access the following types of file formats (other formats may be converted as described in Appendix C): .rif ZOETROPE animation file format. Rif files are delta animation files designed by Jim Kent expressly for ZOETROPE, and for the LIVE! real-time digitizer from A- Squared Distributions, Inc. Delta files use the full 40,000 bytes of a standard Amiga low-resolution screen to display the first frame of an animation. The second frame consists of data describing the changes that took place since the first frame. The page 104-------------------------------------ZOETROPE REFERENCE SECTION third frame describes the changes since the second, and so on. The rif form of delta file also compresses the first frame, (using vertical byte run-length encoding which is about 30 percent better than IFF 'normal' run-length encoding). Using .rif files you can get far more screens in memory than would be possible using 'page-flipping'. The more pixels changed between frames, the greater the memory use. On the other hand, if no change takes place, each additional frame will use only74 bytes. Rif files load into memory one frame at a time. You may abort the load process at any time by ressing any key, or the right mouse button. (See Appendix C for a description of .rif file format.) .pic This is a standard, low-resolution Amiga .IFF file format used by amiga paint programs. Any frame of a ZOETROPE animation may be saved to disk as an .IFF picture, or any frame in memory may be replaced by an .IFF picture. Also, .IFF pictures may be loaded as overlays or underlays into any range of frames, depending on the frame mode. (See Over and Under, below.) .apm Allows you to load or save the motion settings from your APM f/x menu (see APM f/x). .win The contents of the clip buffer (described later in the Clip section). When saved, this image takes on the palette of the frame it was clipped from (unless its alette has been previously altered by the Fit Colors comand in the Clip menu, described below). When loaded, ZOETROPE does not automatically adapt the new cli-image colors to those of the current palette. You must choose Fit Colors from the Clip menu to accomplish this. Note also that any image currently in the clip buffer is relaced by the loaded cli image. .Win files are identical with Delux Paint brush files. The ZOETROPE file selector will let you load brush files without the .win extender by clicking on the wildcard selection. .col Color palette files. You may save the color palette of the currently dislayed frame, then reload it at a later time to effect the palette of whichever frame is displayed during the load. .Col files in ZOETROPE are the same as .col files in Aegis Animator and Aegis Images. page 105-------------------------------------ZOETROPE REFERENCE SECTION Memory permitting, you may composite (merge) additional animations and/or stationary graphics on top of or underneath your existing work, or splice animations onto the end of whichever sequence is in memory. These functions are represented by the Normal, Over(lay), Under(lay), and Slice buttons. NORMAL - Left-click on Normal for standard I/O operations. Loaded animations (.rif) will replace the animation currently in memory. Loaded stationary grahics (.pic) will replace whichever frame is currently displayed and will change the color palete of that frame to that of the loaded picture. OVER - Left-click on Over to merge an animation (.rif) or a stationary grahic (.pic) from disk on to of the animation currently in memory. Overlay operations maintain the color palettes of the frames currently in memory. The background color (color register #0) will remain transarent so that existing images will appear beneath the transparent portion of the overlayed data. If the incoming file is an animation file, its first frame will appear surrounded by a box. You may, at this point, drag the animation to any position on the screen befor ebeginning the loading rocedure. Frame by frame, ZOETROPE will automatically remap the color alette(s) of the loaded file tomaintain, as much as possible, their original hues. Animation overlays will begin at the frame currently displayed; static picture overlays will load according to the frame mode (To Frame, To Segment, To All). You may load as many overlays as your Amiga's memory will allow. UNDER - Left-Click on Under to merge an animation (.rif) or stationary graphic (.pic) file from disk underneath the animation currently in memory. Underlay operations maintain the color alettes of the frames currently in memory. The background color (color register #0) will remain transparent so that images from the loaded underlay will appear beneath the transparent portion of image data currently in memory. If the incoming file is ananimation file, its first frame will appear surrounded by a box. You may, at this point, drag the animation to any position on the screen before beginning the loading procedure. Frame by frame, ZOETROPE will automatically remap the color palette(s) of the loaded file tomaintain, as much as possible, their original hues. Animation overlays will begin at the frame currently displayed; static picture overlays will load according to the frame mode (To Frame, To Segment, To All). You may load as many overlays as your Amiga's memory will allow. page 106-------------------------------------ZOETROPE REFERENCE SECTION SPLICE - Left-click on Splice to apend an animation onto the naimation currently in memory. Splice automatically appends the chosen file to the end of the existing one, regardless of frame mode or current frame position. DRAWER - Left-click in the field to the right of Drawer: to activate a cursor within the field. You may now type in the path you wish ZOETROPE to search ofr subsequent loads and saves. Typically, this will be DF0: or DF1:. If your files were in a drawer labeled 'Zoeanims', on a disk in drive DF1:, you would enter: DF1:ZOEANIMA/. Hard drive owners will find the first partition labeled DH0:, and the remaining partitions labeled P2:, P3:, etc. As default, the drawer will point to wherever you booted ZOETROPE from. This path may also be altered in the ZOETROPE file selector (described below). PATCH - Patch allows you to work on 'patches', or sub-ranges of animation files. This feature can be used for animations that are too large to fit into memory. When you click on Patch, a menu box appears with four rows of functions, described below: - START - Start designates the first frame of the animation segment you wish to load. To the right of Start is a numerical slider bar that lets you specifiy a frame, from one to 2048. To select the first frame of an animation segment, click on either the left or right arrows on the Start slider bar until you reach the desired frame. You can also quickly select the desired frame by manually dragging the frame number box right or left. You must select a frame number that actuallly exists in the animation file for this function to work properly. - FRAMES - Frames represents the total number of frames you wish to load (beginning with the designated Start Frame). To the right of Frames is a numerical slider bar that lets you specify the number of frames you wish to load (see KBytes, below). To select the number of frames you wish to load, left-click on either the left or right page 107-------------------------------------ZOETROPE REFERENCE SECTION arrows on the Frames slider bar until you reach the desired number of frames. You can also quickly select the number of frames by manually dragging the frame number box right or left. - KBytes - KBytes represents the amount of memory in your Amiga you want to allocate to an animation segment before you attempt to load it (reserving the remainder for editing changes). The numbered box indicates how much memory you have currently allocated. If you drag the box to its far-right position, you will be using the total amount of memory available in your Amiga. To select the amount of memory you wish to allocate, left-click on either the left or right arows on the KBytes slider bar until you reach the desired amount of memory. You can also quickly select the amount of memory by manually dragging the frame number box right or left. NOTE: When you Patch-load an animation segment, you can only load in either the number of frames you've specified, or the maximum number of frames that will fit into the memory you've specified - whichever comes first. - DRAWER - Left-click in the field to the right of Drawer: to activite a cursor. You may now type in a path from which your animation file may be read. - LOAD PATCH - Left-click on Load to actually load the patch of animation file. A file selector will appear from which you may select your file name. Once your patch is loaded, you may edit it and return to the Path menu at any time. (It will be highlighted in the Load/Save menu to indicate its activity. After the first patch load, the bottom row of icons in the Patch menu will have changed to the following: - NEW - Left-click on New to load in another patch without saving the one currently in memory, or to cancel the current Patch procedure. When you click on New, it brings back up the original Patch menu. - DF1:ZoeAnims/MyAnimation.rif - The second box in the lower Patch menu displays the name of the ifle you are currently patching. - PAGE - Left-click on Page to save the currently edited patched and automatically load the next patch from the full animation file. After page 108-------------------------------------ZOETROPE REFERENCE SECTION selecting Page, ZOETROPE will overwrite and replace the original frames in the disk file of your animation with those of the patch range in memory. It will then automatically load in the segment of frames from the animation file immediately following the segment you've just completed editing. - SAVE - Left-click on Save to save to disk the edited animation segment patch without advancing to the next patch range. The edited frames will overwrite and relace the original frames in the disk file of your animation. When the save is completed, the original Patch menu will reappear. WARNING: Do not switch data disks once you have started a Patch operation, as ZOETROPE looks for the original file to overwrite the new information. Also, make sure you've made a backup of your animation before using Patch - or before using any function which can permenantly alter your artwork. THE ZOETROPE FILE SELECTOR The custom ZOETROPE file selector will appear whenever you are loading data from disk into memory, or saving data to disk from memory. At the top of the file selector is a title bar describing the current I/O action. (I/O stands for Input/Output. A typical disk Input action would be to load a rif file, in which case the title bar would display: Load rif File.) The remain sections of the file selector are described below. - FILE WINDOW - Most of the left side of the file selector is taken up by the File Window, which lists all files and drawers within the file path designated in the Drawer field of either the Load/Save menu or the file selector (both Drawer fields page 109-------------------------------------ZOETROPE REFERENCE SECTION function identically). You may enter and list the files within any drawer by clicking on the drawer title (containing a '/' before it) in the File Window. You may select file by clicking once on it, then take action (Load,Save, or Kill) by clicking in the OK box at the bottom of the file selector. Or, you may both select and take action by double-clicking on the file. If there are more files than the File Window can show, you may scroll through them by either dragging the slider bar to the left of the window, or by clicking on the u or down arrows of the slider bar. Hold down the mouse button while pointing to a slider area that does not contain the bar to page the file window up or down. - FILE - The File field will dislay the name of whichever file is currently selected for whichever I/O action. Typically, this field is used to enter new file names to be saved to disk. To enter text in the field, you must first click inside the field so that a square cursor appears. You may now use the backspace, delete, and cursor arrow keys to edit and enter text. Only the filename is required. Extenders are optional for specific types of file actions (e.g. if youu are loading a rif file, you do not need to include the .rif extender, ZOETROPE will assume it). After entering the text, press [Return] and the chosen file action will take place. You may click on the word 'File' to toggle the filename between the current file entry and the last file entry (assuming there was one). - DRAWER - This field works as the Drawer field in the Load/Save menu, and displays the current path of the files displayed in the file window. Left-click in the Drawer field to activate a square cursor. You may now type in the path you wish ZOETROPE to search. Typically, this will be DF0: or DF1:. If your files were in a drawer labeled "ZoeAnims' on a disk in drive DF1:, you would enter DF1:ZOEANIMS/. Hard drive owners will find the first partition labeled DH0: and the remaining partitions labeled, tyically, DH1:, DH2:, DH3:, etc. (These labels depend on your hard disk software. Some may label the partitions P2:, P3:, etc.) As a default the drawer field will point to where you booted ZOETROPE from. If you have entered on or more drawers, you may click on the word 'Drawer' to toggle the drive path between current path page 110-------------------------------------ZOETROPE REFERENCE SECTION and the last path (e.g. between DF0:devs/keymaps/ and DF0:devs/). - WILDCARD - This field displays the current wildcard mask which may be used to limit the display of files in the file window. You may enter text in this field by first clicking in the field so that a square cursor appears, then using the backspace, delete, and cursor arrow keys for editing text. You may click on the word 'Wildcard:' to toggle between the current, default wildcard mask (e.g. *.rif displays only .rif files), and a wildcard mask displaying all files. Note that drawers will be listed no matter what the wildcard mask. NOTE: ZOETROPE does not use the standard Amiga wildcards (sorry, but neither does anyone else). ZOETROPE wildcards are fashioned after those used by most microcomputers today. An asterisk (*) stands for any or all letters on either side of the extender period, and question marks (?) replace unknown letters. Thus, *.rif will display all files with a .rif extender. Frog.* will display all 'Frog' filenames, no matter what the extender. Frog*.* will display all files that begin with the letters 'Frog'. F??g*.* will display all files that begin with 'f.' followed by any two characters, followed bya 'g', and any extender. - DEVICE BOXES - Using the eight boxes below Wildcard, you may quickly move beetween youur available disk devices, or partitions. Click in the box in the upper left (/) to move one step out of the current drawer you are in. If you were two layers deep, two clicks would take you to the root directory. The remaining boxes display the disk devices available, depending on your Amiga's configuration. If yo have two disk drives, you might see DF0: and DF1:. With two disk drives plus a triple-partitioned hard disk containing a RAMdisk, you would see DF0:, DF1:, DH0: (the root partition), P2:, P3:, RAM:. As an example, to find picture files in a drawer labeled MYPICS that is in the third partition, of your hard disk, you would click on P3: to move to that partition, then click on MYPICS, which would be displayed in the file window. If you see no .pic files, click on Wildcard: to see all files. page 111-------------------------------------ZOETROPE REFERENCE SECTION - OK/CANCEL - Click on OK to take the chosen file I/O action on the file dislayed in the File: field. Click on Cancel to avoid any file I/O operation and return to the Load/Save menu. MATTE [$] Select on Matte to activate the Matte menu - a single bar containing the options Load, Save, Mask, Imask, and Xor. The Matte menu is designed to create traveling masks, which are animated 'holes' through which other images or animations may be displayed. The holes can be as complex as any image drawn on the ZOETROPE screen. To see the Matte menu, first load an animation into memory which will become your traveling mask. Next, select the type of mask you want - normal, inverse, or xor. Finally, load a second animation into memory which will be merged and displayed through the masking effect of the first animation. Keyboard alternatives: [L] Load; [S] Save; [M] Mask; [I] Inmask; [X] Xor. Load/Save - Load and save in the Matte menu are identical with the Load/Save functions in the main Load/Save menu, except that they are always set to normal, .rif, and To Frame. Thus, using Load from the Matte menu will replace any animation in memory with the selected animation from disk. Using save from the Matte menu will save the current animation in memory. Mask - Click on Mask and a file selector will appear. Select a .rif file to load. The loaded file will be merged with the animation in memory in such a way that color register #0 of the original animation will mask the incoming file's images, and all other colors of the original will become transparent, allowing the merged animation to show through. The final animation will use the palette(s) of the incoming file. Inmask - Click on Inmask (Inverse mask) and a file selector will appear. Select a .rif file to load. The loaded file willbe merged with the animation in memory in such a way that color register #0 of the original animation will be transparent, allowing the incoming file's images to show through, while all other colors of the original will mask the incoming animation with color register #0. The final aniation will use the palette(s) of the incoming file. page 112-------------------------------------ZOETROPE REFERENCE SECTION Xor - Click on Xor and a file selector will appear. Select a .rif file to load. The loaded file will be merged with the animation in memory in sch a way that overlapping colors will be xor'd creating a translucent effect. Xor is most eful for merging two animations - one of which has been Masked and the oter Imasked with the same mask. This creates a full 'traveling matte' effect and is particularly useful for elaborate wipes and disolves. For example, create an animation that is nothing but a box moving from one side of the screen to the other. Save this as MATTE.SEQ. Now Mask this with another animation, say FIRST.SEQ. Save the results as MASKED.SEQ. Load MATTE.SEQ again, and Imask it with still another animation, say SECOND.SEQ. Finally, xor the result with MASKED.SEQ. The result is an animation that has FIRST.SEQ where the box was in MATTE.SEQ, and SECOND.SEQ everywhere else. NOTE: In all cases, if the merging file contains less frames than the existing animation, the last frame of the merging animation will be duplicated throughout the remaining frames in memory. Should the merging file contain more frames than the masking animation, the extra frames will not be loaded. Also, the frame mode settings have no effect while merging files within the Matte menu. The Xor is applied to bit planes and affects colors based on their register position in the color palette, rather than their actual RGB value. The following chart shows the results of Xor'ing any two color registers. If, for example, the color in register 0 is xor'd with the color in register 0, the result will be the color in register 0. If the color in register 5 is Xor'd with the color in register 8, the result will be the color in register 13, and so on. page 113-------------------------------------ZOETROPE REFERENCE SECTION Page 113 contains Xor chart page 114-------------------------------------ZOETROPE REFERENCE SECTION SET FONT [=] Select Set Font to alter the subsequent appearance of the text font printed using the Text option of the Draw menu. A Font menu will appear displaying a list of available fonts (dpending upon which fonts were in the fonts drawer of your boot disk, or the drawer to which you have assigned your fonts.) If there are more fonts than may be displayed within the font-list window, you may scroll through the list by either dragging the slider bar, or clicking on the up or down arrows to the left of the window. Left-click to select the desired font, and an example of it will appear in the lower-right window. In the upper right of the Set Font menu box are three text styles: Underline, Bold, and Italic. Click on any or all of these to affect the chosen font. Click on Default to reselect the default ZOETROPE font (topax 8). If you are using separate fonts disks, (or have changed the fonts drawer via (for examle) 'assign fonts: DF1:fonts' from the CLI), click on Relist to refresh the list of available fonts after switching disks. Click the right mouse button to return to the main screen. AIR SPEED [#] Select Air Speed to set the speed and the breadth of the Airbrush, and the speed of Streak (see Airbrush and Streak in the Draw menu, below). An Air Speed adjustment box will appear with two slider bars labeled: Speed and Spread. The Speed of the Airbrush flow (or intensity) may be adjusted from 1 to 100 by either clicking on the left and right arrows in the slider bar, or by dragging the number box. (This also affects the speed at which Streak begins to skip). The Spread (or breadth) of the Airbrush may be adjusted in the same way. Click the right mouse to return to the main screen. page 115-------------------------------------ZOETROPE REFERENCE SECTION STATUS [?] Select Status and a box will appear indicating the current status of your computer's RAM (random access memory). Available: Displays the total bytes of free RAM currently available for your frames. Used: Displays the total bytes of RAM used by all frames of your animation. CHIP Free: Displays the total bytes of memory usable by the Amiga custom chips, including the blitter. ZOETROPE uses this memory for rotating and stretching the clip buffer, and for all APM buffers. FAST Free: Displys the total bytes of memory not used by ZOETROPE and available for other programs after invoking the Pause command. Last Frame Update: Displays the number of bytes of delta information used between the current frame and the previous frame. Next Frame Update: Displays the number of bytes of delta information used between the current frame and the next frame. Average Update: Displays the average number of bytes of delta information used per frame over the entire animation. NOTE: The amount of delta information required between two identical frames is 74 bytes, no matter how complex the image. PIXEL f/x [~] Select Pixel f/x to access the Pixel ff/x menu. From this menu, you may apply 12 different functions to the pixels on a frame, or range of frames, creating stunning visual effects. Four of the functions - Shatter, Crystalize, Ripple, and Buzz - are affected by the status of Tween. You may exit the Pixel f/x menu at any time by pressing the right mouse button. page 116-------------------------------------ZOETROPE REFERENCE SECTION The top two rows of the Pixel f/x menu contains the Playback Bar, and Segment Range Bar respectively. Both of these have been described earlier and their functions are identical in the Pixel f/x menu. (See The Playback Bar section, and Segment Range Bar in the Time section.) The remaining 12 boxes contain the ixel effects. While Pixel f/x menu is displayed, the first letter of each effect becomes a keyboard alternatives. Thus, press [D] to activate Defocus, [T] for Tile, etc. Press [Help] to reverse any To Frame operation, or you may click in the Undo box in the Pixel f/x menu. Multiple frame operations may not be reversed, so you will be promted to proced. You may abort multiple frame oerations at any time by pressing a key, or holding down the right mouse button. NOTE: The standard ZOETROPE keyboard alternatives are not in effect while the pixel f/x menu is displayed. DEFOCUS [D] - Defocus is a blurring effect similar to, but less discriminating than Antialias (below). It does pixel averaging over the entire frame, or range of frames, and may be repeated a limited number of times for increased effect. Defocus functions identically in each frame in a range regardless of the Tween setting. ANTIALIAS [A] - Antialias is similar to defocus (above), save that it does not affect vertical and horizontal edges and is a little more discriminating in the pixels it chooses to alter. Its overall effect is to smsooth the jagged edges caused by the visible pixels in low resolution. It can be repeated to a limited extent for increased effect. Antialias functions identically in each frame in a range, regardless of the Tween setting. NOTE: For the best antialiasing, your palette should contain a range of some colors similar to the color you wish to antialiase. page 117-------------------------------------ZOETROPE REFERENCE SECTION OUTLINE [O] - Outline removes all pixels within every solid, single- colored area on screen, leaving a one-pixel edge of the original color of each area. The smallest possible 'solid' area of color affected by Outline would be a 3x3 pixel square, in which the single, middle pixel would be removed. Outline functions identically in each frame in a range, regardless of the Tween setting. EDGE IN [E] - Edge In changes the one-pixel border of all solid, single- colored areas of a selected screen color, to the current drawing color. When selected, you will be presented with the full screen. Click on any color and all borders of that color will be changed - one-pixel in depth to the current drawing color. You may outline multi-colored clusters within the background color by clicking on the background rather than a color. Edge In functions identically in each frame in a range, regardless of the Tween setting. SHATTER [S] - Shatter shifts every other scan line of an image horizontally, one ixel, in opposite directions. Over a range of frames with Tween off, Shatter will perform an identical one-pixel shift on each frame. Over a range of frames, with Tween on, Shatter wil calculate the amount of shift necessary, over the range, to split the entire screen in two, leaving a blank screen as the last frame of the animation. You may reverse this effect by performing Shatter To Segment after reversing the direction of the Segment Range Bar. CRYSTALIZE [C] - Crystalize looks at every pixel on screen, adds the color-register numbers of the four adjacent pixels above, below, left, and right of it, then puts the result (modula 32) in the center. Luckily, you don't have to udnerstand how crystalize works to use it. It works best with simle shapes. In To frame mode, select Crystalize and its effect on an image will be immediately evident. Crystalize is a cumulative effect and may be repeated on a single frame for heightened effect. Over a range of frames with Tween off, crystalize will perform the identical effect on each frame. Over a range of frames with Tween on, crystalize will use only the first frame as a 'seed' frame and perform a growing crystalization of that seed over the given range. WARNING: The images in all remaining frames will be lost when you crystalize over multiple frames with Tween on! Only frame #1 will remain unchanged.