Your Commodore - Commodore Is Awesome

Undo
If like me you're a bit of a klutz when it
comes to art then this option will be a
life saver. Quite simply UNDO will
remove the last operation from the
screen. This also comes in handy when
trying something out since you can
always go back to the last picture if you
don't like the effect.
Windows
This is probably the most complex
menu of all. A window is basically a
box that is defined on the screen which
can then be manipulated in some way.
Options available allow you to clear a
window. You can cut the window out
of your picture and move it somewhere
else. You can make copies of a window
elsewhere on the screen. It is even possible
to increase or decrease the size of
a window, making that area of the picture
larger or smaller. If this wasn't
enough you can even rotate the
window around as well as flip the
section of picture that is in it.
Fill
This option allows you to fill or colour
in an area of your picture. The solid fill
option allows you to fill an area with a
solid colour. If you select textured fill
you can fill the area with one of 32 different
patterns. This could be used to
give walls a brick texture, etc. You can
also paint with a texture colouring
areas of the screen as you pass the texture
over it. Just in case you require a
special texture and it doesn't appear to
be available you can use the edit texture
option to design your own.
Magnify
When you draw your picture there will
no doubt be areas of the screen that
require special attention. The easiest
way to make small changes to an area
is to magnify it. This means that it is
easier to see just what you are doing
and where you arc placing your colour.
The magnify option allows you to
blow up an area of the screen by X2,X4
and even X8. There is also an option
for having a grid behind the picture so
that you can have even greater control
over where you place the colour.
Text
Quite often it will be necessary to place
some text within your picture. The text
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option offers various facilities. You
can print text from left to right or
downwards. Your characters can be
double or treble height. You can even
have double or treble width. If you
don't particularly like the font that the
characters are in then the Font Editor
allows you to design your own.
Shapes
REVIEWS
• The final menu option allows you to
choose from a variety of different
shapes/lines for drawing. You can for
example simply plot points on the
screen. You can draw continuous lines,
rectangles, triangles, rays and even
circles. An interesting point is that the
circles can be drawn in two different
ways, you can either specify the radius
and then the circumference or viceversa,
the only problem with this is
that you tend to forget which option
you are using. Again the UNDO
option comes in handy if you do make
a slip.
The OCP Art Studios is probably
the easiest to use graphics package that
I have ever used on a Commodore
computer. What is unusual is the fact
that ease of use doesn't mean that it
isn't a powerful program. In fact the
Art Studio is also one of the most
powerful graphics packages I have
used. Rainbird, who market the program,
say that an Advanced Art
Studio is being worked on. My only
question is what on earth are they
going to put in it?
YOUR COMMODORE november 1986:92
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Unlock
No Undo
Picasso's Revenge
Originally an American and imported
into the UK by Precision Software, this
package has one major difference over
the others. Its controller is included
with the price.
Rather than being controlled by a
joystick, etc, this program comes complete
with a light pen. If you have never
seen one of these before, a light pen is
rather like a biro. One end of it plugs
into the joystick parts of your computer,
you then 'draw' on the screen
with the other end. It is worth pointing
Out that you don't actually draw on the
screen, the computer 'looks' to see
where your pen is and places a dot on
the screen at the relevant point.
Picasso's Revenge has all of the
normal facilities that you would expect
from a graphics package, though there
aren't too many 'fancy' ones.
When loading the program, tile
first menu allows you to either load a
printer program or the graphics
package.
The printer program is especially
useful as it allows you to load in pictures
that have been saved with other
programs, for example Doodle and
Koala Paint. In some cases you can
even make final alterations with the
light pen before you do any print out.
When in the drawing package the
menu options appear at both the top
and bottom of the screen. These can be
removed with the F3 key. Pressing it
again •ill bring them back so that you
can change commands.