Jan 5 1992

        Vapor Paint (readme file)


Vapor Paint is written 
   by J Henry H Lowengard
      43 W 16th St #2D
      NYC NY 10011-6320

and is primarily for his own use, but if you can figure out how to use it,
you're welcome to. 

Vapor Paint runs nicely under AmigaDos 1.3 and 2.0.

 Since Vapor Paint uses the Arp file requester, you'd better have Arp.
You'll miss a lot of things by not having ARexx running - the startup
macro for example. Vapor Paint will tell you if ARexx is not running
when you start it up.

Vapor Paint starts from the Workbench, but doesn't make or use data file
(.vee file) icons.

Vapor Paint makes frames, so to animate the frames you probably want to
have utilities like MakeAnim, SuperView, RTAP, Rend24, or convert around to
turn the frames into useful objects and animations. Full blown programs like
Deluxe Paint I-IV, Disney's Animation Studio, Art Department, IP,IM or other
various 24-bit manipulation programs are also useful. 

There is no "doc file" - instead, the VHelp:  directory has a number of
files which can be called up via the "HELP" button, or printed out.  These
files are pretty complete as far as the descriptions of the concepts and
functions of Vapor Paint are concerned - and, because there are NO
INTUITION MENUS in Vapor Paint, you'll need to read them to find out what
to do!


Here's an annotated list of the files in this archive:

ReadMe            This file

vee               Vapor Paint executable file
vee.info          Its .info file
assigns           Some assigns to do (optional)

     Rexx (dir) Useful Rexx Routines

animake.rexx      A routine which uses SuperView(sv) and MakeAnim to 
                  build a looping animation out of the frames in VFrames:

Penex.vapr        Creates a picture via ARexx commands demonstrating large
                  numbers of pen options.
smac.vapr         "Standard" macro key settings.
Vapor0.vapr       Erases all frames in the VFrames: directory.
vclear1.vapr      Example of a macro to be executed every time
                  the workspace is cleared.

      Help Hypertext files
     Vhelp (dir)
!Home             Main menu for the Help system,
AnimPum           About the Animation  Pop-Up-Menu
AREXX             About the AREXX usage
Concepts          Some of the many things to master in using Vapor Paint
Fixes             Recent log of fixes/features added to Vapor Paint
Glossary          More detailed description of some concepts.
Icons             About those little icons.
Keys              How to use the keys, and the AREXX names for them.
MainPum           About the Main (defaults) Pop-up-menu
Manual            Actually a jumping point for other help screens.
Mouse             How to use the mouse in Vapor Paint and conversion pens.
Pens              The rendering Pens
Renderers         The Renderers
Requirements      Approximate requirements.
Specs             Some specifications for Vapor Paint.
State             State of the Art of Vapor Paint (ha!)
WorkScreen        How to use the Work Screen

      These macros are called from the 6 on-screen buttons.
      They're just examples...

Vmac1.vapr        Select "distance to Mqass and Radius" Drawing Pen
Vmac2.vapr        Set a new color
Vmac3.vapr        Draw Text
Vmac4.vapr        Render the animation
Vmac5.vapr        Call Rend24 with a single 24-bit frame.
Vmac6.vapr        Call HELP section

Vread.rexx        Rexx code to decode the Vapor Paint file format
Vstart.vapr       Macro which is executed at startup.

      These files are some example Vapor Paint files

     Vfiles (dir)
1992.vee          a walk over 1992...
Beryl.vee         Looks like Judy Holling's Beryl the Bitch...
bigbro.vee        Big Brother makes a speech (color)
blurskull.vee     Shows blurring effect on a skull.
Kat.vee           shows big, furry brushes
sea.vee           The 7-legged shrimp floats by
StdBack1.vee      a standard background
ugg.vee           The nebbish gets mildly disgusted.

      This is where finished frames go (satisfies the assign..)
     VFrames (dir)

This is not my program - it's an example bit-plane-to JPEG/JFIF converter
from Black Belt. Vapor Paint can call these Black belt Public interface
Programs as a special renderer.
     IMPI (dir)
       WrJpg       

Acknowlegements:
Vapor Paint originated in a true vapor form and I talked about it for
a year to various friends and strangers for years at Ami Expos, Mission
Graphics Support and Amuse. I finally started writing it in August '89
and it was animating its workscreen by January '90. I've befuddled a
number of beta testers over the years - most of them gave up nearly
immediately after constant pestering. Still, their names for posterity:
 Hugh Crawford, Jason Cunliffe, Bill Rabinovitch, Mark Segall, Darienn
 Fitzgerald, Perry Hoberman, Don Ritter.
Other moral/software support from
 Vincent Bilotta, Peter Wetzler, AMUSE, George Bakes and Ben Williams,
 and the general Amiga community providing other great PD utilities
 so I won't have to write them.