DopeX V1.1 © 1993 David Buck



LEGAL POOP

This program is freely distributable as long as all it's contents 
remain intact including this documentation. No money must be charged 
except for a reasonable copying and disk costs (i.e. $5 US or less).



HISTORY

DopeX was created by David Buck at the request of Algonquin College's 
Animation-Television program. In this course artist are trained to 
become professional animators and use the Amiga for testing their line 
drawings. Take-2 has proven to be the best software for this purpose 
and is quickly becoming an industry standard for studios equipped with 
Amigas. Although it's interface is based on the animation industries's 
standard "exposure sheet" system, it lacks the option of printing 
these forms in a standard way. DopeX simply solves this problem!

As an added bonus, DopeX will also accept Animation:Soundtrack 
".tchor" scripts. Students at Algonquin use this software to build a 
soundtrack that will synchronize with their animation. It is must 
useful in analyse dialogue required when synchronizing speech in 
animation. This information can be displayed in the 'Dialogue' of the 
DopeX's sheet and can be printed on a blank exposure sheet for 
reference while animating. 



MENU COMMANDS

The menu commands for DopeX are as follows:



New: Creates a blank exposure sheet(s) for the number of frames 	
	specified.

Open: Allows you to load a Take 2 ".xsht" file

Header: Allows you to edit the top portion of exposure sheets

Dialogue: Allows you to load a Animation:Soundtrack ".tchor" file.

     	You must specify at which frame the sound begins

Save As: Will let you save an exposure sheet as standard text file

Print: Prints exposure sheet

About: Credits the program's creator

Exit: Quits the program



USAGE

Running DopeX will bring up a window on the workbench. Simply load a 
Take-2 ".xsht" file, enter the header information, and print. 

DopeX comes with an example of dialogue synchronized with animation. 
To see this animation simply double click the Cougar icon. Press 'Esc' 
to quit.

The scene "WorldSeries" features a cougar and is a good example of 
"stock" animation often used in limited animation production. It is 
used to introduced students to lip-sync as well as the use of multiple 
levels in animation. The file "WorldSeries.tchor" is the phonetic 
breakdown of the dialogue. 

WorldSeries dialogue begins on frame 10. If you know the length of 
your scene you can create a blank exposure sheet and then add just the 
dialogue.



SOFTWARE MENTIONED

Take-2 is a commercial line testing program created by Geert Vergauwe 
and distributed by Rombo in Scotland.

Animation:Soundtrack is a commercial sound program created by Martin 
Hash of Hash Enterprises.