************************************************************************* * * * * * Document: Update report for Take_2 * * ---------------------------------- * * * * This document describes any newly added or changed features since * * the last released revision (version). If you receive regular upda- * * tes for the program, you need only to check out this text. * * The contents of this file are transferred to the changes file when * * a new revision is released. * * * * * ************************************************************************* Revision Date: May 8th, 1995 Last Revision: Take_2 v 1.835 This Revision: Take_2 v 1.906 Vidi-Amiga RT digitiser support ------------------------------- Take_2 will now work with all digitiser models manufactured by Rombo, including the RT12 and RT24. When the digitiser interface is started the program will automatically recognize which model is attached to the parallelport and adapt its internal configuration. In short, the user doesn't have to change anything to use a particular Rombo digitiser. Which digitizer ? What digitiser should you get to obtain optimal results ? As always, this depends on what you want to do with it and what Amiga configuration you have. Here's a comparison of the digitiser models. VidiAmiga VidiAmiga12 VidiAmigaRT12 VidiAmigaRT24 ....................................................... inputs:video only video&Y/C 2 video&Y/C 2 video&Y/C power supply:Amiga ports Amiga ports 12V external 12V external minimal CPU: 68000 68000 68020 68020 availbility: obsolete available available available max greytones: 16 16 16/256* 16/256* max colours: 4096 4096 4096/256000+* 4096/256000+* pixel resolution: 320x512 320x512 360x576 720x576 videoadjust steps: pots(-) digital(8) software(50) software(50) colour conversion: none RGB splitter YUV conversion YUV conversion grab speed:1/25"mono 1/25"mono 1/25"colour 1/25"colour screen update:setup dependant, but the RT models are slightly slower *=AGA needed (A1200/A4000) As you can see, the VidiAmigaRT24 is the only model that has high reso- lution in both horizontal and vertical directions. If you need to see very fine details you should go for this one, but remember it takes up more memory for each picture and takes longer to store as well. Lowering the number of greys/colours saves memory, though. A 16 colour 320x256 picture and a 2 colour 640x512 picture use the same amount of memory. Source control The RT digitisers have no digital or analog image adjustment tools. The 4 sliders on the digitisercontrol panel can be used to adjust the 'B'rightness, 'C'ontrast, 'S'aturation (colour) and 'H'ue (NTSC only) of the image before any rendering is done. The brightness and contrast range is finer and wider on the RT models (50 steps) than on the Vidi- Amiga-12 digitisers (8 steps). This should allow greater image control. The gadgets labeled 'SV', 'V1' and 'V2' are used to select one of the 3 possible videosources on the RT digitiser. When the digitiser screen is first invoked, the program will try to find a videosignal and select it automatically. If more than 1 videosignal is present, the first one found is choosen. You can select another source manually, if needed. Image control The digitiser controlpanel has been changed to support the new resolu- tions available with the RT models. The relevance of the resolution gadgets depends on computer and digitiser hardware availability. For instance, if you have a RT24 digitiser but a non-AGA Amiga, you can have a hires-laced-oscan picture but only 16 greys or normal HAM colour. The resolution buttons (colour/overscan/ntsc/hires/laced) simply toggle an image property on or off. Only the depthbutton (number of colours) is used differently. Clicking on the left- or rightarrow on it decreases/increases the number of colours in the grabbed picture. Clicking on the number itself pops up a requester with the available colours to choose from. The TUNE-button toggles between preview and true image quality. If it's OFF, only a lowres monochrome (grey) image is displayed, resulting in faster screen update. The complete picture is only read from the digi- tizer and rendered when its stored in memory (grabbed). This is the working mode. It allows better monitoring of the incoming videosignal. If the TUNE-button is ON, the final resolution is read from the digi- zer and rendered on the screen. This takes longer, but shows the picture as it will be when stored and displayed in the flipper. Storing the pic- ture is actually faster, because the image is already read and rendered. This mode is useful for monitoring the image quality while grabbing. The options of the MixMethod menuitem in the digitisermenu on the xsheet determine how coloured images are rendered. They are non-exclusive. If 'Optimize' is tagged, a new palette is created for each grab. This will always give a better approximation of the original image, but takes extra time to calculate the new palette. If 'Dither' is tagged a pointilist-like method is used for more accuracy. The resulting pixilized effect is less obvious with higher resolutions. Grab and flip speeds The higher screenmodes (hires, laced) and colourgrabs can take very long to render on unaccelerated Amigas (less then 68020). The topspeed of the flipper depends on the resolution of the pictures. Even an Amiga 4000/40 can't flip hires-interlaced-HAM8 pictures at 25 frames a second (if each frame is different, that is). For linetesting, a choice will have to be made between more shades (best for rough sketchings) and a finer pixel resolution (best for detailed cleaned drawings). Use the SpeedCheck option to check if the requested speed is met. New keyboard shortcuts The digitiser shortcuts are changed to: F1: ...... toggle colour F2: ...... toggle oscan F3: ...... toggle ntsc F4: ...... toggle hires F5: ...... toggle laced F6: ...... toggle vcrmode F7: ...... toggle dubmode F8: ...... toggle negative F9: ...... toggle tunemode F10: ..... set colournumber enter: ... as before backspace: as before cursor up: as before cursor dn: as before tab: ..... as before esc: ..... as before Consult the Rombo manual for more information about the RT hardware. The Digitiser ControlPanel infobar. ----------------------------------- There is now information displayed at the top of the digitiser control- panel. The 4 infoblocks concern to the gadgetgroups just below them. Dubpic info. If the dubmode is turned on, the picture currently being superimposed (dubbed) over the incoming digitiser image is shown here. If you click on this picturename, a new picture can be choosen from the picturelist. This list is also presented when the dubmode is turned on (DUB-gadget) and there's more than 1 picture in memory. Resolution info. This part shows which digitizer hardware is currently attached, if any, and the pixel resolution (width and heigth) that will be grabbed and displayed while in tunemode. This information is dynamicaly updated. If no hardware is detected the message 'no video signal' is displayed. Autolevel info. If the AddCells option in the General menu on the main screen is set to Automatic, this will show to which level the newly created cells will be appended. If the option is set to manual a dash (-) is shown instead. You can change the current level from the digitiser controlpanel by clicking on the autolevel infotext. It will cycle through the 4 levels. Picspace info. 'How many more pictures can I store in memory ?'. This question is now answered above the grabbutton. You can see how many picture are stored already and how many can still be grabbed. You can check if the number of drawings you intend to digitise will fit in memory before you start. If not, lower the resolution and/or number of colours until the 'pics free' info exceeds the number of drawings. The Flipper ControlPanel infobar. --------------------------------- The information display at the top of the Flipper controlpanel has been redesigned to mimic a frame as displayed on the xsheet. The colours of the sounds and cells are shown as well as the sound's framecount. This way it is possible to see which cells changed (white/blue), if you are only looking at part of the scene (red background) and where you are in a sound (the sound's framecount). The framenumber is always black text on a white background (it is the current frame that is shown), making it stand out. Selective Scene saving and merging. ----------------------------------- The state of cells (selected in a block) and levels (ON or OFF) can now be used to save or merge only a part of the exposure sheet. When any cells are in a block or levels are OFF just before the scene is saved or merged, you will be asked if you want to use the selected levels and cells only or the whole xsheet. You can then choose SELECTED or ALL, as appropriate. This feature can be used to split up very long scenes into smaller parts (save selected) or use different mergenames for parts of a scene, etc. Redesigned menus ---------------- The Take_2 menu layout has been subject to a mayor revision. The goal was to make the them more intuitive and straightforward by adapting both the visuals and the naming of the choices. Each menuitem gives you a hint as to what will happen if you select it. An arrow (>) at the rightside: the item has subchoices. A hand before the itemname: current choice from more (sub-)options. Three dots (...) after the itemname: a window or requester will pop up. 'OFF/ON' at the rightside: current setting of a toggle. Select to change. This seams like the appropriate place to refresh your knowledge about the meaning of each of the option-menu choices. These options are saved in the configuration file, so you don't have to set them for each new session. (Settings menu) Auto-XSheet: OFF/ON Create new cells whenever new pics are added. VideoMonitor: OFF/ON Set screens to video frequency (15.6/15.72 KHz) BaseSpeed: ... Set the framespeed for frame calculations (sound) (DigiOptions menu) Flip Horizontal: OFF/ON Reverse the grabbed videoimage left to right Flip Vertical: OFF/ON Reverse the grabbed videoimage top to bottom Optimal Palette: OFF/ON Calculate a new palette for each colour grab Error Diffusion: OFF/ON Use dithering to simulate extra colours (FlipOptions menu) Anti-Glitch: OFF/ON Avoid flashes while flipping non-lineart images SpeedCheck: OFF/ON Warn if the set flipspeed couldn'd be reached Hide Pointer: OFF/ON Don't show the mouse pointer while flipping AudioFilter: OFF/ON Use the Amiga low-pass audiofilter (from 4KHz on) LevelColors: Greys Preview unmerged levels as 1 greyshade per level Black Preview unmerged levels as 1 colour (black) StartFrame: First Start showing the animation at the first frame Current Start showing the animation at the current frame Edit timing from Flipper ------------------------ It is no longer needed to switch between the Flipper and the XSheet to make adjustments to the timing of single cells. If you click on a cell- name on the flipper controlpanel, a numberrequester will pop up beneath it. You can then change the timing of that cell using the increase- and decrease-buttons or by manualy entering the desired number of repeats. The XSheet (and Flipper) will reflect the change when you clickon the 'OK'-button or type ENTER/RETURN in the number gadget. Autoxsheet and autoname ----------------------- Normaly, when cells are created automaticaly (Auto-XSheet option), the multiply-number on the CellPanel is used for timing (repeating cells). Animators who name their drawings to match the actual framenumbers and thus use the namestep-number on Digitiser controlpanel, will want the corresponding timing on the xsheet when using the Auto-XSheet option. In this case, the multiply-number on the CellPanel should be set to a value lower than 1. If the program sees this unsuitable multiplier it will use the namestep-number instead and interleave the timing between the newly created and the last cell using the namestep value. This is actualy a temporary solution for Anglo-Saksian users until a proper function or choice is added that is more intuitive. If you have any questions related to the Take_2 program, write me at this address: Geert Vergauwe Zwembadstraat, 76 9032 Wondelgem Belgium