Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

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40
GRAPHICS
on par with Lightwave in some
4 4 1 1 quarters_ he Deluxe Around Paint legend since the is nearly early
days of the Amiga, the package has grown
up and finally reached its fifth instalment
under the protective wing of software giant.
Electronic Arts.
Used for the last few years by amateurs
and professionals alike for picture creating,
sprite making and animation, its reputation
in its field has been second to none. Then
Photogenics happened - while not boasting
any animation facilities, it's a package that
offers some extremely powerful image
manipulation functions at a cut-throat price.
With Deluxe Paint 5 and its pedigree in
tow behind it, perhaps the young upstart
can be put to shame. Well, yes and no...
Coming on four disks with a rather substantial
manual weighing in at 337 pages,
DP5 requires the minimum of installation
fuss. My initial reaction when booting the
package up was one of disappointment -
the interface remains the same, but for a
few tweaks here and there. I can live with
this non-development quite happily but the
main, immediately obvious gripe is the
same old lack of speed - go up to a
pop-down menu and it croaks open.
SLOW DOWN
Fair enough that in high resolution modes
you're going to have some slowing down
but, even on a 4000_ the lack of speed is
disheartening and easily detracts your
attention away from some of the program's
powerful features and upgrades. I couldn't
help but feel that while there have been
hest' rounds of ammo tucked into 0P5's
artistic arsenal, the same cranking code
that made up DP4 remains and doesn't
appear to have been touched, even though
the manual states differently.
Getting through this disappointment
though, and flicking to the new features list
in the manual stops this tide of negativity
and hope springs forth. There have been
over 25 enhancements and updates to the
program, some of which are extremely
powerful and highly useful.
True Colour and ARexx support. the
much needed natural media option, light
table enhancements, loading animations of
any size, key frame animation, improved file
format support that now includes Arum
Op-8 as well as the old anim 5 format and
many other facilities. options and fancy bits
The main muscle
of DP5's talent is
animation and,
whether it be
brush or camerabased,
is simple
and produces
some highly effective
results. With
the arrival of the
latest version, we
can show a couple
of new features
that deserve
a mention:
Set your animation frames at
the desired antosiM and stamp
yolar &Veil down. CaHing isp the
movement!! menu. notice the
adjust button - the ideal way to
create beginning and end key
harries
balloon
animation
Clicking on adjust brings up a
wirsitreme *satins Of your
brush_ Wove rotate and
mattipulate it into the desired
position and hit enter. The
opening key frame is set. De
the aarree with end position...
Amiga Computing
MAY 1995
the newt
With Photogenirs setting the
graphits 5I
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1191510 fil MIME
Paint rata;
on lost ground?
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bin and fik1f5 LIP d MUM
have been included to create a formidable
package.
For those who don't know, Deluxe Paint
5 has two main halves to it - the picture
creating on one side and animation on the
other. Each has always proven to be versatile
and popular with users. Some of the
professional companies interviewed by
Amiga Computing during the last few
months always quote DP4 as their main 20
image and animation creator
The main screen is presented as a drawing
surface with a list of tools and palettes
...and hit the draw
button. The animation is
produced in front of your
very eyes. The same
process Is used to
cre ate camera
movement
down the right-hand side and a
amount of pull-down menus along the all
The painting side of the package has oal
improved upon. Along with the If
favourites such as smear, blend al
smooth which are all as effective as heal
there is now a set of natural media al
textures.
PAINTING ON CANVAS
A series of canvases can be loa
for example differing oil canvases
mesh, and varying grades of paper
can in turn be painted onto with
different brush styles on offer. While the
of textures for the canvas may
substantial and on the whole look
effective, there's only a paltry amourill
brush types available - watercolour. chill
fell tip and oil.
Despite this, what is on offer works
and satisfying results can be gleaned wl
quickly. Remember though that this is MI
puter graphics. not an exact simulation
the mediums being emulated - there
a few cases where the reactions seen
,screen wouldn't happen on a real unveil
24-bit graphics card users can rein
the , new true colour option which enani
the ' loading, saving and editing