D E L U X E   P A I N T   I I 
 				by Jon Benjamin

 Well,..... Deluxe paint II,.... What can you say? 
 G O   O U T   A N D   S E E K   A   D E M O   N O W ! 
 
     Seriously folks, this software has to be looked at to be believed.
 For those of you that are into the power of graphics that this
 magnificent machine AMIGA, can achieve..... DELUXE PAINT II is on the
 top of the list for the key to unleashing this power to you.

     Deluxe Paint, the father of this latest creation from Electronic
 Arts was of course made possible by Daniel Silva.  Dan has obviously
 been on the ball and has kept up with the new developments in graphic
 creation and manipulation. We are starting to investigate new avenues
 in resolution, colour control, etc and we are all in need of something
 that will let us (the users), get into the real abilities of our AMIGAs.
 If you have any artistic ability and you want to put it down onto a
 disk, DELUXE PAINT II is the most powerful user-friendly piece of graphic
 software ever to be found. Deluxe Paint was a good start. There was no
 other software at the time that showed off with ease the amazing powers
 of the AMIGA. All of us graphic loving people drooled with respect and
 quickly got stuck into creating graphics....

     .....But we got spoiled. 

     Wouldn't it be nice to be able to switch to different resolution
 modes at any time?.....(Lo-res, Med-res, Interlace, Hi-res)...........
 How about better control on the cycling effects?...reversing etc......
 Boy I wish I could do pattern fills like Aegis Images.........       
  How long did I take to do that nice shading effect on that sphere?

     .....and so on...
     Well guess what? DELUXE PAINT II has opened the doorways to all of
 the above dreams.......and many more.

     The back of the software package boasts 50 extra graphic
 controlling options. Believe me when I say that when you start to 
 explore the first one, you can get so involved and impressed that you
 can quickly forget that there's more to come.

     I have not the space here to give a full evaluation of this software
 and its new features. So I'll do my best to describe what I have found
 to be the most impressive.

     P e r s p e c t i v e   M o d e : Unbelievable! gives you full 3D
 AXIS control over any held brush. Frame any portion of a picture, go into
 the perspective menu and select "centre". This determines your viewpoint
 angle. Select "do" and your brush becomes a polygon that now be
 manipulated in 3D X,Y and Z axis via the numeric keypad. When you are
 ready to paint you just press the mouse button. With a full "Anti-Alias"
 control (improves the graphic representation when set on HIGH but takes
 longer to compute), this feature is at the top.

     C o l o u r   R a n g e   F i l l : Easy to do and results are
 extremely impressive and of course addictive. Perfect light-shaded spheres
 are now possible with a press of a button. (well there's a little more to
 it than that!) ...but when understood, this option is powerful. Select
 a range of colour, Decide where you would like the light source, Adjust
 the "Dithering" (the overall spread of the colour range), back to the
 main menu and create your dreams.

     S c r e e n   F o r m a t : Sick of Lo-res? want to do a bit of
 experimenting in Med-res, Interlace, or High-res? (then perhaps go back
 to Lo-res cause there are more colours!)..... all too easy. Switch to any
 mode from within the software. Now you can also read Med-res from Lo-res
 or read Lo-res from Hi-res or any combination. All via pull down menus!

     C y c l e   C o n t r o l : Like to see the water running backwards?
 Easy. Now there is an added "Direction" control on the cycling menu to
 make it all even better.

     P a t t e r n   F i l l s : No worries. Choose from the Patterns
 offered or make your own. Quick and easy, no mess, no fuss, backgrounds
 galore at your fingertips.

     D i r e c t o r y   C o n t r o l : I just had to mention this. Now
 it is all a dream come true. ON WINDOW "DF1: / DF0: / Parent (Dir) on sub
 menus" and more... (forget about typing the Path-Directory) all to make
 the artist think "ART" and not "Where the heck am I?"

     D e l e t e   P i c t u r e : Strange that you would have to! But now
 you can. Built into one of the new menus!

   > > > > > >    There are pages of praise and salute I could write about 
 the new DELUXE PAINT II.   But the best opinion I can give will always
 begin with one leading sentence of nothing but praise: "Stop mucking 
 around and get into DELUXE PAINT II". Good on you Dan! 
 

     :NOTE ...... DELUXE PAINT II  Requires Kickstart 1.2

     Can be found quite easily sitting on a shelf for $249.00

     P.S. ( Worth every cent )


 END OF "DPAINTII.RVW"   
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