SpriteMaker 
			Copyright (c)1986 by Ray R. Larson
			
    This program may be freely copied and distributed, but not sold without 
the author's permission. If you are interested in the source code I will send
you a copy for $15, that will include registration and notification of updates 
to the program. (I.e., the good old shareware ethic applies.)
		Write to:
			 Ray R. Larson
			 6425 Central Ave. #304
			 El Cerrito, CA 94530
 
    The SpriteMaker program lets you 'paint' sprites and converts your painting 
to a C data structure that can be used in your programs. It has some
similarities to the pointer editor included in the Amiga Preferences program.
It does not, however, change the default Intuition pointer. It was written
primarily to avoid interminable messing about with graph paper and such when
writing programs that use the Intuition interface and need a fancy mouse 
pointer for something. 

    The sprite image generated by the program can also be used for VSprites. 
This version outputs an initialized data structure, color information, and 
a C routine to make the sprite image the Intuition pointer for any particular
window opened by your program. The output can be compiled as a separate 
subroutine and linked to your program, or dissected and used where you want.

    To draw your sprite, click the left mouse button in the large rectangle
on the left-hand side of the screen. Each pixel of the sprite will appear
as a small square. A real-size copy of the sprite will appear in a small
box in the middle of the screen.

    You can change brush colors by clicking on any of the 4 colored boxes in 
the lower right of the screen. The current brush color may be modified by 
moving the R, G, & B sliders below the color boxes.

    Sprites may be up to 200 pixels high but can be only 16 pixels wide. You
can move the sprite editor up and down in a long sprite by moving the
vertical slider in the middle of the screen. 

    To 'exercise' your new sprite, click on the TRY IT gadget. To get back to
the editor pointer, click TRY IT again.

    Clicking on SAVE will bring up a requester asking you for the name to
give the sprite and the name of the file to save the c data structure in.

    Clicking on the POINT gadget will let you position the 'hot point' for
the sprite (if you don't set the point it is assumed to be the upper-left 
corner of the sprite area.) This assumes that you will be using the sprite
as a replacement mouse pointer in your program. If you have some other purpose
in mind you don't need to set the hot spot.

NOTA BENE:
 Intuition will cause a sprite used as the mouse pointer to vanish whenever
 the hot point is set further down than 24 lines from the top of the
 the sprite image. The hot point will still be active, but the image will
 disappear as the pointer is moved towards the top of the screen. (So,
 don't say nobody warned you. This is, apparently, an "undocumented feature"
 of Intuition.

    Clicking on the RESET gadget will change the sprite colors back to their
original (that is, the default) values for the program.

    Clicking on CLEAR IMAGE will clear anything displayed in the editor window. 
It will not change portions of the sprite outside of the editing area.

    Clicking on QUIT/EXIT will leave the sprite editor and put you back to 
wherever you came from.

    Note also that the background color (blue in the default colors) is not
output, since it represents the "transparent" color for the sprite, and 
would be ignored anyhow. It's real use in the editor is for erasing parts
of the sprite while drawing.

   
Have fun and make beautiful sprites.