#Want Paint Advice
11 messages in this thread
What would be a recommended hardware/software configuration for an artist
getting into computer art. I'm expert in the AutoCAD and IBM PC world, but I'm
not too sure what to recommend to my mother for this. She's been playing with
Autodesk Animator on my PC and loves it. I believe the same programmers have an
Amiga package called CyberPaint???? Any info on it? But she would probably be
better off with a high-rez 256 color paint program with a rich set of tools and
image processing effects. What would such HW/SW cost in the Amiga world?
Rustin:
In the Amiga world, we don't have 256 color. We have 16, 32, 64 and 4,096 (all
at once) 😉 The 4,096 color mode is called HAM (hold and modify).
I'm not familiar with CyberPaint. I have two HAM paint programs I like very
much — and both come with image manipulation companion programs. The first,
DigiPaint3, is available mailorder for $65. The second, DeluxePhotoLab, is
available mailorder for $99.95.
Although I don't have it, a lot of people like DeluxePaint (a non-ham paint
program). It's latest incarnation is DeluxePaint 3 (which also does
animation). It is brand new, so I don't know a mail order price. (DPntII goes
for $86 — but that's the old version).
In addition, there are a number of 3-D rendering programs, both solid model and
ray trace, including at least three which are downloadable shareware (but they
are script based, rather than driven by a graphic interface). Scads of
animation programs, etc., etc., etc. By and large, most Amiga graphics
programs are under $200, in fact, as you can see, many are under $100.
Hardware: you want at least 1 meg of ram and two floppy drives. If you are
really serious, you want 3 megs of ram and a hard drive.
<continued>
Thanks for the info. What kind of resolution are we talking? 640×480 or 800×600
would be desirable. Does it take (is there available) add ons to achieve that
high of res? How much does harddisk and 3Mb add to an Amiga 2000 price? What
res and number of colors is DeluxePaint? Rusty
Rusty:
The resolutions are 320 x 200, 320 x 400, 640 x 200 and 640 x 400. The larger
resolutions are, in fact, available through what is called "overscan", i.e.
they go off the edge of the screen. The AMiga is heavily used for video work,
because it was designed to be used for video. The overscan modes (which are
quite variable, I have in fact had a picture of 650 x 480 pixels up and running
in 320 x 200 mode (that's right, the picture was over 4 times the size of the
screen, and you scrolled around in it).
Now, the 400 line verticle "mode (which can be considerably more than 400
actual lines in the picture) is in "interlace" (i.e. every 1/60 th of a
second, 200 of the lines are written to the screen, giving you a full switch of
picture every 1/30th of a second. Disney quality animation is done in 1/20 th
of a second, so that's ok. In fact, it is the way your TV set works. Which is
why the Amy in "interlace" mode can be hooked right into a video tape recorder
with gadgets that cost as little as $60. However, on a computer color monitor,
with its fast-fading phosphors, you will get a flicker in the picture, which
gets more noticable the higher the contrast between adjacent colors. The way
to eliminate it is called a "flicker Fixer", a gadget that sells for about $500
— but you have to have a multisynch monitor to use it. However, the OS and
ROM chip upgrade coming out over the next three to six months from CBM (which
should fit either 2000's or 500's) will also provide a non-interlaced 400 line
verticle resolution.
<continued>
<continuation>
You normally add ram in segments of 2 mb. I bought a 2 mb 16-bit ram card for
about $450. Hard drives — like the Mac, Amy seems to work best with SCSI
drives. So, you can buy a hardcard (internal, all on one card, whichcan also
take up to 7 more SCSI devices as add ons), a controller card and a separate
hd, or (in the case of the 500) an external unit with power etc. all in one
case.
Mail order prices for controller card only = $120 -$150. 30 meg hard card
(quantum) = $700. 30 meg drive without controller (seagate) $400 +. Your
prices may vary (grin).
DeluxePaintIII (which I don't have) does 16, 32 and 64 colors (I think). BTW,
gray scales are 16 levels max — tho I think the 1.4 upgrade may improve this.
I suggest you either ask to see if anyone here lives near you and would be
willing to give you a demo of their Amy (most of us like to show off), or go to
a good dealer, and get same.
I live in Brooklyn, NY, and would be quite happy to show you my set up, run it
through its paces, and let you play with it for a while.
Ray Lewis
Ray, how can you LIVE without Deluxe Paint III? –Rick Rodriguez
Rick:
I don't know, 'cause I've never used ANY version of Deluxe Paint. Guess I'll
have to break down and get it, since all the reviews are raves.
It's just that I've been able to do a whole lot of great things with Deluxe
Photo Lab and DigiPaint3.
But, having yet another good tool should be just fine.
Ray Lewis
A new tool is always welcome, although I think you always have a soft spot for
the first tool you learn to use really well. Dpaint is a great program with a
great interface, but I also think, because it is most people's first program on
the Amiga, it holds special significance. –Rick
There is a Mac 'lharc' decompressor. Search the Mac libraries for it, not
the Amiga libraries. 🙂 Try keywords "lharc", "lzh", etc. I know I have
it on my Mac, and I got it from Compuserve.
.LZH files are created with LHARC – which is available on almost all
computer platforms. Have you looked in the MAC forums for it?
—Betty
<continuation>
The Amiga 500, with 1 meg of ram, the keyboard, mouse, two floppy drives, a
color monitor with stereo sound (the Amiga has a 4 voice sound synthesizer
built in, and comes with a voice simulation program as part of the OS), 1
parallel port and 1 serial port will run about $1100 – $1200. However, to
expand it from there, you have to add on an external box.
The Amiga 2000, with all of the above, is more like $1,900. However, it is
very easy to expand, as it has slots inside like the PC. In fact, if you want,
for $500 you can put a PC-XT inside of it (complete with GFBasic, MS-Dos, a
half-meg of IBM memory [I think] and an internal 5.25" floppy drive [I know]).
It runs in parallel with the Amiga, is a full PC clone-on-a-card, can share the
monitor with the Amiga (and in fact, can run as a window on the Amiga system
while the Amiga multi-tasks away running one or more of its own programs). The
Amiga and PC sides can share data, share a hard drive, etc.
Those are the basics. Now that you know that much, what other questions might
you have?
Ray Lewis