Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!cmcl2!husc6!bbn!uwmcsd1!marque!gryphon!pnet02!hrlaser From: hrlaser@pnet02.cts.com (Harv Laser) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: How to make Dropcloth pix w/PIXmate Message-ID: <2029@gryphon.CTS.COM> Date: 4 Jan 88 05:40:10 GMT Sender: root@gryphon.CTS.COM Organization: People-Net [pnet02], Redondo Beach, CA. Lines: 111 When we left Harv yesterday, he had posted some queries to Eric @ ASDG about how to convert various types of IFF pix to a format that Dropcloth2.0 would like. In the meantime, Harv asked some other folks, including Justin V. McCormick, author of the new image processing program called "PIXmate" now hitting dealer shelves, published by Progressive Peripherals & Software. If you've seen or used "Butcher" or "Butcher 2.0" from Eagle Tree Software, PIXmate is similar but its functions do not necessarily overlap all of Butcher's functions. For one thing, PIXmate can perform thousands of operations on HAM format pictures, while Butcher can only convert HAMs to non-HAM, allowing no other processing on HAM pix. For the fully equipped Amiga Artist's Arsenal of tools, I'd recommend both programs. But I digress... If you own PIXmate, and want to make Dropcloth2.0 pictures out of virtually any format Amiga picture file, here's the poop directly from Justin: ------------------------ Yes, I downloaded DropCloth and put it through it's paces. I don't personally plan to use the program, but it _is_ cute and gives those arrogant Mac users something to think about. I wish it would work automatically with interlaced Workbench -- currently it displays garbage on the bottom half of the screen if you try to dropcloth a 640x200 image on a 640x400 Workbench. Oh well, can't have everything, especially for free. Although I never really thought people would use PIXmate for this purpose, you can indeed convert any image into a format suitable for backdrop use. The ORDER in which you perform the conversion steps is critical. Here is a step-by-step technique that should work with good results: 1) Load PIXmate, and DO NOT use the "Other" screen yet! The colors for the Other Screen are initialized to your Workbench colors, which will make the "Match Palette..." operation easier later. 2) Load the image to be converted. If this is a HAM image, use "HAM to 32" to convert it to 32 colors. 3) Use "Match Palette...With Other" at this point to make an approximate match with the default Workbench colors set for the Other Screen. Note that this includes the mouse pointer colors, so there may be as many as 7 colors at this point (the 4 Workbench colors, plus the 3 sprite colors). 4) Use "Less Colors" to reduce the palette to 4 colors. 5) Using "Reformat As...", convert the image to 640x200. As an alternative, you can use the Display Control Window to manually re-size the image and change the ViewModes to "HIRES" "NOLACE". 6) The size and color are correct, but we still need to insure that the image uses only 2 bitplanes, like Workbench. Pull up the Display Control Window ("Display" from the Effects Menu). Turn off all the bitplane gadgets except for the ones labeled"1" and "2". For instance, if bitplane gadgets "1", "2", "3", and "4" are highlighted, click on "3" and "4" to turn them off. Now, click on the "ReForm" gadget to permanently change the number of bitplanes to 2. Exit the Display Control Window. 7) Finally, use "Match Palette...With Other" one last time. 8) Whew! Save your creation. You could skip step 3 but I have gotten better results from doing the initial match early in the process. This could be made much easier (even automatic!) but it didn't occur to me during PIXmate's creation. Perhaps we need a super iconmaker-workbench backdrop creator option. Note that the "Match Palette..." can be deceptive. For instance, lets say you have a 4 bitplane, 16 color image on the Current screen, and a 2 bitplane, 4 color image on the Other screen. Even though the Other screen can only _display_ 4 colors, this does NOT mean that the _palette_ has only 4 colors. Indeed, the palette can have as many as 32 colors, but only the first 4 can be displayed on a 2 bitplane screen. When you choose the "Match Palette...With Other" option, PIXmate looks at the number of colors of the DESTINATION IMAGE (the Current screen) can have, and matches the palettes based on this number of colors. In this example, PIXmate would copy the first 16 colors from the palette used by the Other screen. The image on the Current screen is then translated to use the best colors available from this new set of 16 colors. The two images are now using the SAME PALETTE, but the image on the Current screen may be able to use MORE COLORS from this palette than the image on the Other screen, since the Current screen has two more bitplanes! To truly make the color usage identical between the two screens, you need to change the Current screen bitmap depth (number of bitplanes) to be the same as the Other screen -- then use "Match Palette...". Why did I do things this crazy way? Flexibility was the primary reason. Perhaps I made a poor decision here...I might do things the intuitive way in PIXmate 2.0, or offer an adjustable technique -- a "Match Palette" which allows you to select the range of colors to use for the translation. Hope this helps. Let me know if this doesn't do it! Justin ------------------------- So, Eric, I've pretty much answered my own question, but I'd still be interested in reading YOUR technique for creating Dropcloth-acceptable pictures, just to see how you did it with your sample pictures. DisclaimerCity: I have no relationship with either Eagle Tree Software or Progressive Peripherals & Software except for being a satisfied user of their products. Justin McCormick can be reached on People/Link as i.d. PROGRESS** UUCP: {hplabs!hp-sdd!crash, cadovax}!gryphon!pnet02!hrlaser INET: hrlaser@pnet02.cts.com