Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

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There's nothing worse than having a
powerful. flexible product being plopped
in your lap followed by an illegible, unintelligent
manual that makes the package
harder to use if you do decide to read
Witness Imagine 2 and its appalling
accompanying paper-wasting literature.
One of DP5's strong points is its
mainly well-written manual, Easy to follow
with a fair sprinkling of tutorials to
break in the computer graphic virgins.
Electronic Arts have come up with a
hefty but not intimidating tome. There
ate a couple of weak areas that do need
a little time going through them and a
few more illustrations here and there
would have been nice to exemplify some
of the options that aren't massively clear
I textual form
For ARinix users, a full list and
description of each available command
is documented and should aid the teamirig
curve necessary for picking up the
basics of AmigaDOS
One of the 11105t welrorne
i large
the top. upgrades has to be the
is been
oldo airbrush and its romplete
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24-bit images. This feature is highly useful
and an absolutely necessary inclusion for
professional users. One of the most
'welcome upgrades has to be the airbrush
arid its complete overhaul.
Featuring a rather classy look, the new
version puts the specKly, ST-like ancient
effort to shame with a smooth spraying
OkilOft, However, for those who wish to
remain faithful to the original tool they've
Probably been using for years, the makers
have kindly included the old version as well.
DP5 also includes an ARexx facility for
engineering the paint package to your exact
requirements - at last, Through the use of
an extensive library of commands listed at
me back of the manual with individual
descriptions, the user can create the
recordings of toolbox choices, menu
choices and mouse and screen interactions
that can be recalled via the series of
inables user-definable macros available.
ing of The more advanced out there can really
1
go to town interacting with other programs
and can create complex scripts to suit their
needs, The colour side of 0P5 has received
something of a facelift as well. There's now
an option to turn the grid around the colour
cells on and off to do accurate side by side
colour comparisons, and ROB and HSV
sliders are shown simultaneously.
OPTIONS
Also, there are now true RGB colour
cells, colour cell extended selections and a
larger enhanced mixing area for the palette
maestros among you. One feature that has
been overlooked and would have benefited
the program immensely is the lack of image
processing abilities, for example being able
to lay a texture over a picture as you can
with Photogenic&
There's no emboss, false colour, motion
blur, displace or other 'paint-on effects' that
could have pushed DP5 in to the pole
There are now a wide
range of textures,
media and tools to
choose from. Here is
a list of some of the
best and most eyecatching.
•Heavy boarah at,aks
The drawing
screen
the Sam. a.
ewer with orgy
the odd,
Inconspicuous
addition
Multiple
N
.
m
e
d
The all new and Improved
i
a
spray brush produces
professions/ toodting results
m,,,matto ottarbilo
Amiga Computing
MAY 1995
Watrwcotour nets the
fighter tones used to give
the investssion of water
GRAPHICS
A bugging 155UP
On several occasions while running
Deluxe Paint 5, the computer packed in
and crashed for no apparent reason
While not devastating by any stretch of
the imagination, it's a worrying habit, so
remember to save as frequently as possible
to avoid losing your work, especially
belore any major graphics Operation&
Another area that requires a whinge is
changing the screen modes — when a
new resolution is selected the program
flicks back to Workbench, changes the
resolution and then moves back into the
drawing screen. In some cases, though, it
remained in Workbench and I had to flick
back manually to Deluxe Paint 5. Not a
massive complaint but an annoying glitch
all the same.
position as the ultimate art tool for professional
artists, and given a whole new
dimension to the animation side of the
package in terms of special effects.
The omission is surprising considering
the programmers at Electronic Arts must
have seen the potential thorn in their side -
Photogenic& Perhaps they didn't realise, or
didn't have the time to inject some of the
ideas into their own product. Maybe in the
next version?
Deluxe Paint's strongest side has always
been animation and it's that principle
feature that has sold previous versions in
lorry loads. One new feature outshines all
the other in DP5: Being able to enter your
key animation frame at both the beginning
and end points of your sequence.
Echoing the user friendliness of
Lightwave, select either the start or end of
your anim and click on adjust. A wire frame
preview of either the beginning or final position
of your logo, character or whatever
appears on screen. It can then be
Plough paper
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