This is an archive of CompuServe forum messages from 1985 to 1995, as saved in transcripts by John Foust.
Search Results (998 messages)
George, I tried recreating the genlocked sky effect using Imagine 3.0, but my efforts were as fruitless as yours. Seems like Imagine will not render using color 0, period. As a test, I placed a chrome sphere in front of a black plane, and gave the Globals a nice gradient…
#Backup strategy redux
Message #163417
On Aug. 31 I moved, so I've been offline for 2 weeks or so. As it turns out, I'd left a message asking for advice regarding backup programs; my message, and any replies, have long since scrolled off the edge of the Earth. Well, the ol' Amy is plugged in…
Peter, the anim is actually a very slow thing, quite different than what I've done before. (And 10 seconds of it requires as little effort from my optical disc recorder than a 3-second quickie) This means the anim would not look like much as a quarterscreen upload. And the anim,…
Mike and Greg, Thanks for explaining that the particle setting is akin to attributes. I was able to particlize an object, then Shift-select all and Apply the particle setting to all objects. This is wonderful! I can now work quietly on an article submission for 3D-Artist, probably, which uses several…
And here's a tip for anyone who's going to buy that Bernoulli (I strongly recommend them — you'd have to pry mine off my dead fingers with a crowbar): The Bernoulli 150 on the Amiga has a default spin down time of 30 minutes. In other words, if there is…
Steven, Oops! You're right, my bridgeboard isn't the 386 model, rather, it shows 2286 as a model name. It's the C= _286_ bridgeboard. Blaq!
#3.0 Particle bug
Message #88213
Mike, I discovered a bug in Imagine 3.0; I have no idea, obviously, whether it's been cured in 3.1. In the Detail editor, if you select an object and particlize it, everything goes according to plan. But select multiple objects, and only the first will be particlized. Once you cure…
The way I see it, getting your negative scanned onto a PhotoCD would be your best bet for the digitizing stage; you could also take advantage of the situation and pick some of your favorite negatives out of their showbox, and wind up with a custom CD full of pics…
#New BBoard Needed
Message #159733
Carl, I have the original Commodore 386 Bridgeboard with 5.25" floppy drive mechanism for $60 US. Interested? Blaq!
#Flicker Fix Wanted
Message #158350
Stephen, look what just popped up:
#Stuff must go!
Message #158325
Andrew, I'd like SuperJam; I'll include $5 for shipping to Canada. What's your address? Blaq!
#More suggestions
Message #86567
Ben, Some suggestions that came to me while I was working on that alpha channel macro of mine: When I issue the 'area' ARexx command, the user must use the current area selection tool; this is most unfortunate if the 'entire image' button was selected before the macro was invoked…
Kevin, From the tool palette, select "Color keyed selection" and the "Exclude area" logical button. Select "Process/Standard adj/HSV Set". Set R, G, B and Var to zero. Click on "Key on RGB" for faster processing. Click on Done. Imagemaster will select all pixels which do _not_ fall inside the color…
Mike, ummm no, I didn't say that Imagine 3.0 had problems with my FC24; so far, they seem to get along as well as ever. My problem is with ARexx. I'm trying to create a script to view an IFF24 image on the Firecracker, and 'showiff24' leaves the Amiga layer…
Michael, what a great idea! If the message hasn't scrolled off, I for one would love to see an annotated copy of that message show up here. I'm always curious as to our relative position vs. the rest of the DTV world. Blaq!
Michael, please don't leave this conversation with the impression that one should steer away from Amiga Forums. This is a touchy time for us all, with the future of our platform in the balance. This brings justified recoil from business-minded users like Jerry Saperstein, and understandable insecurity from enthusiastic supporters…
The ability to change palettes on different frames of an animation would be nice. Streamline the user interface! If I bring up the "Goto frame" requester, why do I have to revert to the mouse, aim carefully at that tiny field, and click on it? The field should pop up…
Third time's a charm!
Message #86496
Mike, when I use showiff24 on my Firecracker in overlay mode, the Amiga display stays on. Is there a command line switch to tell showiff24 to turn off the Amiga while the 24-bit image is being displayed, and restore it when showiff24 quits? I tried various combinations of aon, aoff,…
Ben, umm, nevermind. B^) There were actually two bugs, and I solved them on my own. 1) After the user selects an area, I do a 'cdef' to get color values for that region. However, those values will be _lost_ when the macro ends, and there's no way the _next_…
Oops — the version I uploaded has most image processing functions disabled, to save debugging time. The only operation left is "fill all non-key color areas with black", which turns the ampersand black, leaving the green background untouched. When frame 2 rolls along, the improper key color (altered by Imagemaster…
#Help! Buggy macro
Message #86372
Ben, I've created a wondrous macro to perform automated background removal on a series of images. The user just samples the background color to be keyed out, and away it goes, creating one anti-aliased alpha mask after another. Unfortunately, it has a bug which I can't solve. I tried it…
David, to check the name of an object in Stage, select it and pull down the Object/Rename function. The requester that pops up shows the current name. Blaq!
Ditto — this question came to mind last week but I forgot to post it. It is well known that to zoom in/out you simply need to adjust the camera's X axis (in fact this was the simplest method to visualize before Imagine 2.9 gave us a live Camera View),…
Michael, if you only want to simulate screw threads, then yes, you can use a bump map. Create an image like this: +—————-+ |1111111000000001| |1110000000011111| |0000000111111110| |0001111111100000| +—————-+ where 0 = black and 1 = white. Wrap this around your object as Wrap Z, Flat X (if the object is…
Mike, unlike the Mac and Windows environments, the Amiga world took forever to enforce an interface standard, and I don't blame you guys for having an odd interface. When Imagine came out, every program interacted with the user in a different way. It can also be argued that the programming/design…
Daniel, no, I don't think these are "gun to the head" terms, especially when explained in the thoughtful manner you just used. As an occasional producer of very low-cost (or no-cost) animations, I prefer to know about licensing before buying any product. I'm on the lookout for music/clip-art/sound FX/animation/image libraries…
#Catalog idea
Message #86097
When cataloguing a set of directories, if an unsupported file type (e.g. some text) is encountered, you can click on a button to ignore & continue. Here's an idea: add an "Ignore all errors" button, to facilitate cataloguing an entire disk volume. Blaq!
[ continuation ] factors, giving you a pointy screw rather than a straight one. Then you just need to add a screw head as described. Blaq!
Michael, If your tube is odd-shaped, i.e. it curves in weird ways, there doesn't seem to be an easy way out, as in: rotate the object so a clean cross-section appears in one of the views, zoom in, and use the Shift key along with the lasso to circle all…
Peter, That's right, and my lover hasn't received a light meter he ordered from Florida. I'm wondering if Canada Post has decided to wage a silent war on our household… Have no fear though, Mike has made yet another chivalrous attempt. Blaq!
David, And so, the default speed value should perhaps be a Preferences setting, so European users can set it to 25 and forget about it. Blaq!
Willie, I would prefer a more Amiga-like interface, where Tab/Shift-Tab would move from field to field, Return would be equated to clicking on OK, and Escape to clicking on Cancel. Oh, and speed up that pesky keyboard routine, which forces me to slow down or else Imagine loses characters when…
Oops. Murphy's Law ensures I would notice a bug in my description the day after I posted it. When I said that the Stage editor's anim playback speed slider should start at the center, I forgot that for a default speed of 30 fps, say, it makes little sense to…
A great source of info is Joel Hagen's superlative "Accent on graphics" column, which appears every month in Amiga World. You may want to ask your local or regional Amiga dealer about schools in your area which have bought Amigas; if you're lucky, these schools may have a full set…
Mike, Thanks a million for the genuine concern; I honestly don't know what to do at this point. I haven't phoned Canada Customs yet, will do so tomorrow hopefully. (I keep forgetting about such things when I get to the office — I just left myself a voice mail message…
Steve, in the Stretch Clip requester, enter 752 in "X Dimension" and press Return. The "Horizontal scale" slider will change to a certain value; adjust "Vertical scale" to the same value, and click OK. By the way, I don't have a Toaster, so I have no idea whether the Toaster…
Rick, thank heavens I have a pinball art calendar to keep me company, or else I'd feel pretty lonely waiting for my 1994 Siggraph calendar. My address is 122 Collier St, Toronto, ON, Canada M4W 1M3. ObImagine: thanks for your tip on Corel Draw. I'm annoyed at Imagine's poor PS…
Mike, It sure is comforting to learn (the postman having still not delivered 3.0) that the default state for all interpolations is spline. This will make all animations look much more natural, with no effort on the part of the user. Especially important when dealing with novice users, who'll be…
David, If the points are moving linearly from the open state to the closed state, it means your states were created with the "shape" button clicked on. This will memorize the points' location, and morph between them. No, no, no. Instead, define the closed state with "grouping" turned on; this…
Michael, An alternative to modelling an ice cube's surface imperfections using hundreds of faces would be to use an altitude map or texture. Like any good software, Imagine often offers you several tools with which to approach a given problem. Blaq!
Jim, Until Apex ports Essence to the PC, you could use Forge to create bitmaps of your Essence textures, and apply _those_ to your objects. The resulting scene would render on PC or Amiga, and would render faster to boot. Blaq!
"Notice that the bend is not very smooth… that's because we only gave the effective bone area two vertical sections to bend." Instead of making a cylinder with more vertical cross-sections, you could also drag a selection box around all "bendable" faces and fracture them. The non-bending faces wouldn't triple…
You know, product support would be _crucial_ in the case you just mentioned. I mean, what if the T-shirts shrink in the wash or something? Blaq!
DJ, Please report on success or lack thereof running 3.1 on your 3000, since that's what I have. Blaq!
Daniel, curious about the royalty-free status of "most 256-color GIFs". Ummm, that leaves out some 256-color GIFs, and all the 24-bit images. Can you tell me what licensing restrictions are on those images? Thanks. Blaq!
#Help re: A3000 '040 acc.
Message #152565
I have 24 hours to respond to a classified ad (I'm going on vacation Friday) and would like your opinion. I have a 25 MHz A3000, and have been quietly waiting for the right '040 accelerator to come along. Someone wants $800 US for a PP&S Mercury 35 MHz '040…
Mike, when I wrote that message asking whether Impulse envisioned the constant upgrade program as a substitute for honest-to-goodness bug fix releases, I _did_ wonder whether my tone would be interpreted as more strident than was meant to be. Looks like it was. No, I haven't received Imagine yet. I…
Geir, Does Photoshop give you real-time previews of every effect, in any display mode? Pardon my inexperience, but I had the feeling that Photoshop would only preview certain effects, such as Saturation, when in 256-color indexed display mode. The reson is simple: Photoshop only needs to update the 256 colors…
Mark, here's my best idea to manipulate a blend buffer in order to perform a fade from one image to another: To prepare for ths procedure, create a tiny (10 x 10) buffer, set to all-white. You can save it to disk for future reuse. Set blend controls to use…
Michael, I have a hunch that you've encountered the 180-degree problem. Imagine is a keyframe-based program: set the start values, set the end values, and let Imagine calculate all the in-betweens. If your start value is a rotation of 0 degrees, and the end value is 180 degrees, you have…
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