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From: ekrimen@ecst.csuchico.edu (Ed Krimen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Sozobon Sprites
Message-ID: <1991Jan01.015336.18335@ecst.csuchico.edu>
Date: 1 Jan 91 01:53:36 GMT
References: <1990Dec17.211812.21144@lsuc.on.ca> <1990Dec21.181322.11004@ecst.csuchico.edu> <1990Dec27.050229.5360@lsuc.on.ca>
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Organization: California State University, Chico
Lines: 77

jimomura@lsuc.on.ca (Jim Omura) writes:

- That's not to say that it's impossible to create a great
- picture with Degas, for an artist you're working against the program
- rather than with it.  It's like this:  You're standing in front of
- your canvas with your "assistant" sitting beside you.  Every time
- you want to change colours on your brush or think about picking up
- a different brush, he throws a blanket over your picture. . . .
 
A real artist must look down to his palette to change colors, right?
So he's not always looking at his canvas. :^)  Anyways, wouldn't a
real artist have the image in his mind, so putting a blanket over the
image wouldn't be so bad?  Dunno.  Like I said, I'm not a real artist.
:^)

-      Then again there was the disappearing cursors.  That was another
- "classic feature" of Degas.  Degas was a "passable" program at a
- time when the only other program on the market was Neochrome.  I
- hated Neochrome even worse, though thankfully, it's been so long
- since I used it that I've actually forgotten exactly what it was
- I didn't like about it.  Hey Neato!!!  A bad memory has its 
- compensations! :-)

Perhaps I should have been more specific to say "Degas Elite" instead 
of Degas.  I've never used Degas.  It was a mistake to bundle the two 
together.
 
-      Anyway, CyberPaint is the best program I've tried on the
- ST so far in this regard.  Deluxe Paint may be better, but I
- haven't gotten around to trying it yet.
 
I never regarded CyberPaint as a paint program, but more of a tool 
for animations.  Now that you mention it, I guess it could be used as 
a paint program.

-      With CyberPaint you don't "hold down the right button."  You
- just click it to bring the menu bar up and click again to get rid of
- it.  This is the best user interface for artwork that I've seen
- so far -- as I've said before.

Have you used any of the paint programs on the Mac?  Pixel Paint 
Professional is one I like (but it's on the Mac :^( ).  It has many 
features that aren't on other programs, but like other drawing 
programs for the Mac your image is always on the screen, and you just 
change your tool or select your color by selecting one of the icons on
the left.  Or another way would be to have two screens, like with the
Lumena, ArtStar, or Dubnar systems; one screen is for the commands and
the other is for the image.  Finally, TIPS and RIO also implement a 
nice interface with a menu that appears up over the image when you
press the right mouse button or the stylus button.

- In fact, it's so good that I obtained Jim Kent's permission to copy
- the whole CyberPaint user interface for a paint program on another
- computer.  That's an interesting story.  I actually finished that
- program and it works.  Jim Kent has a copy of it.  Unfortunately, the
- computer I wrote it for was marginally popular and the negotiations
- for the distribution of the program died.  9 months of work went down
- the drain.  Life'ls like that. . . .
 
Zoetrope on the Amiga seems to be exactly like CyberPaint.  It was 
strange seeing it on an Amiga.

-      On the one hand you say you've used lots of paint programs.
- Yet you obviously don't know how CyberPaint works.

Well, I know how CyberPaint works.  It's just that I never thought of 
it as a drawing program, but more of a coloring utility for 
animations.  This discussion started about using the right mouse 
button in programs to bring up a menubar and just noted Degas as an 
example -- not that it was the premier drawing program.  I guess it 
got a little out of hand. :^)

-- 
         Ed Krimen  ...............................................
   |||   Video Production Major, California State University, Chico
   |||   INTERNET: ekrimen@ecst.csuchico.edu  FREENET: al661 
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