CHAPTER 3 GUIDED TOUR This section is designed to quickly familiarize you with Digi-Paint 3's basic features. Keep your manual handy next to the computer;you'll be following the explanations in the Guided Tour while using Digi-Paint 3. DIGITAL PAINTING Using a computer to create artwork has only recently become commonplace. The advent of the Amiga with its low cost and high resolution 4096 color graphics makes it possible for an even wider audience to create high-quality computer images. Computer generated artwork can be thought of as digital painting(as opposed to traditional,"analog" painting methods). This is a medium of expression just as oil painting is a different medium than watercolor. Like learning to paint in any new medium,digital painting requires a new perspective on how you create artwork. While any paint program lets you change each pixel individually,trying to create an image in that fashion would take a very long time. Fortunately, Digi-Paint 3 offers a number of powerful features that make it possible to create complicated effects in a few moments. One of the most important features of digital painting with Digi-Paint 3 is the ability to Undo and Repeat an action. If you didn't like the last splotch of paint,Undo it and it disappears. Then you can change color,paint mode or transparency level and Repeat,and the action is re-done with the changes you have made. This gives you the freedom to experiment without fear of ruining your artwork. It may seem odd at first to paint by using a "mouse" instead of a brush or a pencil,but you'll quickly adjust. The medium of digital painting has its limitations,but the advantages make it a powerful and expressive medium. STARTING UP DIGI-PAINT 3 Before we proceed,let's clarify a few terms that are used repeatedly in this manual. BASIC TERMINOLOGY These terms are already familiar to you if you're an experienced Amiga user. CLICK:The operation of moving the pointer over something on the screen and then pressing the left mouse button. DRAG:Hold down the left mouse button as you move the pointer. DOUBLE-CLICK:The operation of moving the pointer over something on the screen and then pressing the left mouse button twice in rapid succession. PULL DOWN:Hold down the right mouse button to display the Menu Bar;move the pointer ove the designated menu,then move the pointer downward until the desired command is highlighted,then release the mouse button. 13 SELECT:Click on a gadget(one of the icons or little pictures in the Toolbox); when selected,it is highlighted. LOADING DIGI-PAINT 3 Turn on your Amiga. At the Workbench prompt,put the Digi-Paint 3 disk into the internal(df0:) disk drive. The Workbench included with Digi-Paint 3 loads in. Double-click on the Digi-Paint 3 disk icon to "open" the icon. You'll see the Digi-Paint 3 icon(see Figure 3.01);double-click on the icon to start up Digi-Paint 3. After a brief pause a black screen appears with the "Toolbox" at the bottom(see Figure 3.02). The black area is called the Canvas in Digi-Paint 3;this is where you can paint with the tools of Digi-Paint 3,bring in images,and manipulate images. The Canvas can be larger than the screen;in that case,the screen acts like a window over the part of the Canvas that it can display. The Toolbox is where you'll find the various features available in Digi-Paint 3,and(when you hold down the right mouse button)the menus are where other commands are available. 14 DIGI-PAINT 3 STRUCTURE The various features of Digi-Paint 3 are found in the toolbox. The toolbox is the area at the bottom of the screen that consists of the Color Strip and one of four different Sections below the Color Strip(as shown in Figure 3.03). When the right mouse button is held down,the Color Strip is replaced by the Menu Bar, where a number of features are accessed by pulling down one of the six Menus. The four Sections of the Toolbox are the Tools(which appears when you first start up Digi-Paint 3),Controls,Text Rendering,and Palette. 15 These Sections are displayed by clicking the appropriate icon in the lower left corner. The Tools section contains the basic drawing tools and brushes for putting paint on the Canvas. The Controls section contains the Warping and Transparency controls,as well as the Dithering and Smoothing controls. The text rendering section contains a number of font rendering controls for creating text. Finally,the Palette section contains color selection controls where you can select the desired color for painting. Each Section is described in greater detail in the Reference Section. The pointer changes as you move into the Toolbox. While over the Color Strip,it becomes a left-facing arrow(the Color Picker);while over the Toolbox Section,it becomes the standard pointer;while over the Canvas or the Brush Size or Brush Shape area,the pointer becomes the current brush selected. PAINTING Now that Digi-Paint 3 is active,we're ready to begin a tour of its features. When you move the pointer into the Canvas area of the screen,a round white dot appears where the pointer was;this is the current brush in the current selected color(this is a medium sized circle brush with white paint). Painting is easy: With the pointer located anywhere within the Canvas(where it becomes a brush), press and hold the left mouse button and move the pointer. A white trail appears wherever you move the pointer. When you release the button,the paint stops appearing. If you approach the Toolbox when you paint,the Toolbox disappears to allow you to paint "behind" it. Click the right mouse button to bring back the Toolbox. You can paint with any color from the Amiga's 4096 color palette. At the top left of the Toolbox is a row of 16 colors in small rectangles(called the 16 Color Palette). Click on any one of the 16 Color Palette rectangles to select that color. The current brush changes color to match the newly selected color;at the same time,the long rectangle(called the Current Color Bar)next to the 16 Color Palette also changes to the selected color. Now paint some more with the new color. Try selecting other colors among the 16 and then painting. The Toolbox contains differrent Brush Shapes,located at the upper right of the Toolbox below the colors on the top bar. The circle brush is highlighted currently,because that is the brush in use. Click on the icon next to the circle to select the square brush. Draw a few lines on the screen with that brush,and try out a few of the other brush shapes. You can also use any of these brush shapes(with the exception of the one-pixel brush at the far left)in any one of 7 sizes. 16 Click on one of the seven Brush Size icons to select that size brush or hold down the left mouse button over the Brush Size area and move the brush to the left to enlarge it,or to the right to shrink it. Try painting with different sizes of the barious brush shapes. The Toolbox also contains Drawing Tools for creating standard shapes. Currently the Freehand Tool is highlighted,showing that it is the tool in use. Click the Rectangle icon to select that tool. Now click in the canvas,and while still holding down the left mouse button,drag out the resulting rectangle to about two inches square and release the mouse button. A rectangle is quickly drawn on the screen using the current color and brush shape. You can also draw a filled rectangle. Click the Fill icon to select it,and draw a filled rectangle. You can choose any of the other drawing tools and use them in a similar fashion except for the Polygon/Straight Line tool. To use that tool: Click the left mouse button on the Canvas,drag out a line,click the left button again to set a new end point,and continue until you have shape you want. Then click the right mouse button to complete the polygon. CLEARING THE CANVAS By this time the Canvas is probably getting quite crowded with doodling. Let's clear the area to try some more features of Digi-Paint 3. Select the black color in the 16 Color Palette(click on the color to the far left of the 16 Color Palette). Press the right mouse button and hold it down. The Toolbox disappears and the Menu Bar appears. While still holding down the right mouse button,move the pointer to the word Picture. The Picture menu drops down. Move the pointer to the word Clear;when it is highlighted,release the mouse button. The Canvas is cleared to the black you selected.(Or press Shift-k on the keyboard to clear the screen to the leftmost color in the palette.) If you ever change your mind after clearing the screen,click the Undo button to "unclear" the Canvas;click Undo again to bring back the cleared Canvas. The Undo button is a very powerful command that "takes back" the last action you performed. 17 THE PALETTE You can choose any one of the Amiga's 4096 colors as your painting color. Click the Palette icon at the bottom of the Toolbox(fourth icon from the left); the Toolbox displays the Palette section(see Figure 3.04). Move the pointer over the three Color Selectorr squares(at the right of the Palette section)as you hold down the left mouse button. The colors change as you move the pointer;the Current Color Bar at the top of the Toolbox shows the color you've selected. Choose any color by releasing the mouse button. Now paint with that color,and try several others as well. You'll notice that as you draw and lay colors over one another,some "fringe" colors may appear;when you release the mouse button,the "Zz" sign will replace the pointer and those fringes will be erased. Sometimes,however,a trace of an- other color remains at the edge of what you drew. This happens because Digi Paint 3 uses the HAM display mode of the Amiga,and this display mode places certain constraints on the colors that appear on the screen(see Appendix B for a discussion of HAM mode and Digi-Paint 3). LOADING A PICTURE Now let's load a picture into Digi-Paint e. Press and hold the right mouse button,and move once again to the Picture menu. While holding down the mouse button,move the pointer down until Load is highlighted,then release the mouse button. The File Requester then appears. Click on the disk drive gadget(in the upper left corner of the File Requester window)where your Digi-Paint 3 disk is located(usually in df1: or df0:;the dh0: refers to a hard disk drive,if you have one). The drive whirs for a moment and the files and drawers available on the disk appear. Drawers and volumes appear in white letters;files appear in gray letters. Each volume(usually a disk)present appears at the top of the requester;ou can open a volume by clicking it. This is the same as clicking the drive name buttons(like df0:),but not all volumes are present as buttons(the RAM disk,for instance,only appears as a volume name). 18 Open up the drawer labeled Images by clicking it with the left mouse button. The disk drive whirs and you see a list of the pictures included with Digi- Paint 3. Select the picture named Fashion by clicking on it with the left mouse button (the name appears in the box at the top of the File Requester). Click on the Open File button in the upper right corner of the File Requester. A requester appears at the bottom of the screen asking you if you want to use the color palette from the file or the Palette on display. Load Palette from File is highlighted,so click OK. The picture loads in from disk and is displayed on the screen. Click the Close icon in the bottom left corner of the Toolbox to close the Toolbox so you can see the entire image.(Or press Esc on the keyboard to hide or retrieve the Toolbox.) Click the right mouse button to bring back the Toolbox. Creating a Custom Brush Let's experiment with some of the special Tools. Click the Tools icon to display that section of the Toolbox. Select the Rectangle tool and click the Scissors icon. The cursor changes to a pair of scissors. You can now cut out any part of the image and use it as a custom brush. Any Drawing Tool could be used in this manner by selecting it and then selecting Scissors. Draw a rectangle around one of the eyes of the woman in the image. When you release the mouse button to complete the rectangle,a copy of the area underneath the rectangle has been made into a custom brush. Move the pointer somewhere else on the Canvas(the middle of her forehead,for instance)and click. The eye is painted down on the image where you clicked. Click Undo to remove it. Transparency Now let's try making the eye blend in with the background better. For this,we need to use the Transparency controls. Click the Controls icon. The toolbox changes to show the Controls section. At the far right of the Tool- box are the Transparency controls(see Figure 3.05). There is a vertical slider on the left(the Hotspot Transparency slider),a large white square with four buttons on top(the Hotspot Locator and the Hotspot Selectors on top),and a vertical slider on the right(the Edge Transparency slider). 19 Click the Point Hotspot button(second button from the left on top of the white square). The Hotspot Locator now displays a small white square on a shaded background. This white square is the "hotspot" for the Transparency Control,determining where the center of the transparency will be in any shape you draw. Drag the Edge Transparency slider down to the bottom to make the edge of the brush entirely transparent. Now move the pointer to the middle of the woman's forehead and stamp down the "eye" brush by clicking. In a moment,you'll see the third eye blended in with the background(see Figure 3.06) You can try out different transparency settings by adjusting the Transparency sliders or the Hotspot Locator,then clicking Undo and then Repeat. The Repeat function duplicates the last drawing action with the current Control settings, and is therefore an easy way to try out variation in settings. 20 Using Text Finally,let's add a title to our picture. Reset the Transparency Controls by clicking the first button on the left in the Hotspot Selectors;this turns off Transparency(and brings back the solid white square to show this). Click the Text icon(third from the left at the bottom of the Toolbox)to display the Text Rendering section of the Toolbox(see Figure 3.07). Click on the white color in the 16 Color Palette to select that as the current color. Click in the Text Entry Window(the long black rectangle on the right side of the Toolbox). Now type Alien Lady and press the Return key. The words appear as a custom brush;stamp it down on the image by clicking,and you have a title. This title used one of the Amiga's standard fonts;other fonts are accessible by clicking the Fonts button,finding the desired font on disk and loading it in. The Tour Ends This short tour has only touched a few of Digi-Paint 3's many features. Now that you're familiar with the general layout of the program,you can continue to experiment on your own to find out more about Digi-Paint 3. However,we suggest you work through the Tutorials,then read the Applications section for some ideas on how to use Digi-Paint 3 more effectively. Before you go on,we strongly recommend that you MAKE A WORKING COPY OF YOUR DIGI-PAINT DISK and store your original in a safe place. After this point,you should never use your original Digi-Paint disk again except to make another working copy in case your first copy is somehow damaged. 21