Amazing Computer Magazine (January 1991)

100 Pages·51.7 MB·English

Exclusive Show Coverage: Amiga '90, COMDEX, & WOCA
mazi ?AMIGA
COMPUTING Volume 6 No. 1 January 1991
US $3.95 Canada $4.95
Yoitr OriginalAMIGA' Monthly Resource
AMIGA ANIMATION
EASIER THAN EVER!
► Disney's Animation Studio
► Cartoon Animation:
A 3-part Course
► The Amiga In Court
► Plus—
22 AMIGA Animation
PackasteTShowcased!
TENTS
Reviews
SketchMaster 8
by ErnestP. Viveiros. Jr.
A sleek, high-performance graphics tablet.
Professional Draw 2.0 10
R. Shamms Mortier
"There's nothing like it on the market at the moment.'
In This Issue
Spell-A-Fari 18
byJeffJames
Threejungle animals can help youryoungster
On The Road 22
learn to spell.
Amiga '90
COMDEX
PattyIheParrot
The Worldof
Commodore Amiga
Programming
AC has traveled the globe in search of new Amiga
products. From the newest in presentation and 3-D
products to the first public showing of CDTV, AC was Programming in AmigaBASIC 62
there. Read the exclusive coverage of Cologne. byMike Morrison
Germany's Amiga '90. COMDEX in Las Vegas. This month. Mike takes a look at recursion.
Nevada and The World Of Commodore Amiga in
Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ZoomBox 75
byJohn Leonard
Add a zoom box to an Intuition window.
Electronic Color Splitter 26
by Greg Epley
An inexpensive way to grab quality images off
Departments
video sources.
Feedback 4
Editorial Content 6
List ofAdvertisers 80
Public Domain Software 93
[Coverby
ErnestP.Viveiros, Sr. And Furthermore... 96
Volume 6
Amazing Amiga
Number 1
January 1991
Animation
Columns
New Products
And Other Neat Stuff 14 The Animation Studio 39
byJohn Rezendes byFrankMcMahon
Some new products Disney'sclassic approach in acharacter
this month include animation program.
QuickWhte
by New Horizons, Forensic Animation .42
PowerMongerby byAndrewLichtman_
Electronic Arts, The Amiga helps
and Vistaproby outin the
Virtual Reality courtroom.
TheArtDepartmentProfessional
Laboratories.
7 Medley 20
byPhilSaunders
AC'S new musiccolumn begins bydiscussing MIDI.
Cartoon Animation 48
Bug Bytes 37
byD. L Richardson
byJohn Steiner Backtothe basics in animation.
Afew problemswith PageStream 2.0. Plus,
QuarterbackTools is now shipping. Animation Chart 55
Twenty-two animation packagesand features.
PD Serendipity .86
Memory & Animation 60
byAimee B. Abren
Nowyou can changefrom PALto NTSC byChris Boyce
Even 512K userscan animate!
easilywih NTSC-PAL. Plus, updates from
Fred Fish disks 381-390.
—^—■ Animation Extras ——^~
C Notes
byDavidDuberman
From The C Group .67
byStephen Kemp Animation with 3-D Professional 51
This month, a pop quiz to test your C Progressive Peripherals & Software
programming knowledge.
Animation Station 52
Progressive Peripherals & Software
Roomers .69
by The Bandito Elan Performer & Animation 53
It's time again forThe Bandito's fearless
Elan Design
predictions forthe New Year.
Animation with the Sculpt Family ...54
Snapshot 71 Byte by Byte
byft BradleyAndrews
It's upto you to save thewizard in Electronic Arts' Turbo Silver Animation 59
The Immortal. Impulse, Inc.
fAMIGA
AmazingComputingForTheCommodoreAMIGAP*
ADMINISTRATION
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AssistantPublisher: RobertJ. Hicks
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Circulation Manager: DorisGamble
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InternationalCoordinator:DonnaViveiros
MarketingManager: ErnestP.ViveirosSr.
MarketingAssociate: GregYoung
ProgrammingArtist: E. Paul
EDITORIAL
ManagingEditor: DonHicks
AssociateEditor: ElizabethFedorzyn
HardwareEditor: ErnestP.ViveirosSr.
Technical Editor: J.MichaelMorrison
TechnicalAssociate: AimeeB.Abren
CopyEditor: JohnRezendes
VideoConsultant: FrankMcMahon
ArtDirector: WilliamFries
Photographer: Paul Michael
Illustrator: BrianFox
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THE ADVANTAGE dard U.S. TV), these sections will occur forone, amglad to havethiscompatibil
IwouldliketoknowifAmazinghas only 30 times a second, well into the ity,andamwillingtoworkaroundflicker
done a review of the spreadsheet called thresholdofhumanperceptionofflicker. whenitoccurs.Whiletherewillalwaysbe
The Advantage' by Gold Disk? If a re Theydon't occur fast enough to fool the fools who willdesign programs with hi
viewhasbeendonethenpleasetellmethe brain intothinking thattheyarecontinu resinterlacescreenswiththin,brightgreen
volumeand issuenumber, ifnot, would ous,becausestandard phosphorsarenot lines on black backgrounds, more and
you considerdoing one? A comparative sufficient to keep the pixel illuminated moresmartauthorsarechoosingwisely.
review of spreadsheets including The until thenextpassofthebeam. Weusu Kudos go to Elan's Performer and
Advantagewouldbemosthelpful. ally don't see TV flicker because most Impulse's Imagine for their intelligent
imagesarelargeblobsofcolor,such that choiceofscreencolors.
Sincerely, all elements cover many scan-lines, not Interlaceisan importantpart ofour
Bob Lockie just one. Check out the weatherman's machine,butflickercanbefought.
Burlington,Ontario symbols, though: you'll see interlace
flicker,justlikeonyourAmiga. KarlSparklin
—Gold Disk released The Advantage 1.1 in But let's say you have created one- Dayton, OH
Septemberand zvchope todoa reviewofthe pixel-highgraphicsonyourAmigascreen.
packagein thenearfuture.—Ed. Theyareprobablyflickering,butthereare
manyvariablesastohowBADLY.Flicker #2 Comments on Jerry Masters' com
gets worse thebrighter the image is, the ments in theOctober 1990 issue, regard
FURTHER FUCKER FACTS 1-3 higher the contrast ratio between your ing interlace flicker: I have done some
#1 ItappearsfromMr.Masters'letterin highlightandbackgroundcolors,themore investigation as to its cause, and have
the October, 1990 issue, that there is still peripheralvisionyouuseinlookingatthe come to theconclusionthatitisnowhere
quite a bit ofconfusion regarding inter tube, themoregreenyou haveintheim nearthestandard NTSCinterlacescreen.
lace and "flicker" as seen on standard age,andalsovariesbetweenindividuals. Iputtheinterlacescreenon,typednlotof
televisionandourAmigas. Flicker WILL OCCUR in interlace sevens on the screen, and looked at it
Mr. Mastersassertsthatsomecolors modes. Butinyourownwork, you have through thebladesofa8" fanon whichI
flicker faster than others, that 1/30-sec- controlovertheseverity. Lowerthecon had installed a speed control. When the
ond is faster than human perception of trast of the image by raising the back correct speed was found, the alternate
flicker, and that flicker is not inherent in ground color from black, and lower the fields could be observed, and the result
theNTSCstandard.Thesestatementsare intensityofyour highlightcolor. Yes the was that the one field lost the horizontal
incorrect. He also states that "someone image tends to "wash out" compared to topofthesevens,andlikewiseshortened
withaccess to thepropertest equipment vivid,colorfulgraphicsyoumaybeused theotherlettersornumberson thatfield.
should investigate theproblem."There's to.Butnoticehowmucheasieritisto look That, and thefact that theaspect ratioof
nothingtoinvestigatebecausethereisno at the image for a long period of time. thescreen ischanged, makesmewonder
problem. Avoid brig1 green lines: theeye is most whatCommodore had in mind in build
Interlace is simply an electronic sensitive to this color, and can be over ing in such a nonstandard screen in an
methodtopaintaCRTimage."Flicker"is whelmedbyhighlevelsofit,causingyou otherwiseexcellentcomputer.
to sense flicker sooner. You can often
human perceptionofthis method, and it Thatitshould bepossible to change
varies with a staggering numberofvari choose to double up on pixels; ifyou've the screen is evidenced by the use of a
ables.Themostcritical oneis time. Any made a one-pixel-thick horizontal line, terminal program which was included
thingslowerthan60timespersecondwill putanotheronerightaboveorbelowit.If with the purchase of the Aprotek 2400
beperceivedbymostofusasflickerunder your contrast is low between these lines baud modem; this was called "Hand
some conditions. The most common oc and thecoloraboveandbelow it, flicker shake", developed by Eric Haberfellner,
currence is when an image consists of will nearlydisappear. who lives in Canada. One of the menu
horizontalsectionsonlyonescan-linehigh. TheAmigawasdesignedwithinter selections is Interface, with either half
In Amiga interlace modes (and in stan lace modes to remain compatible with screen or full screen interlace selection.
XTSCdevices,suchasVCR'sandTV's.I,
Amaxisc ComFtting
Full screen selection gives what appears to be the most difficult display to read, PC-SAS FOR THE AMIGA
to be very close to NTSC interlace, and whilegreenwastheeasiest—redwasthe My wife works in the medical field
remainsafterexitingtheprogram.Giving mostcommondueto its lowcost. usinganIBMPS/2(gasp!) torunastatis
thisscreenthefantestaboveshowed the Concerning whether NTSC broad tical packagecalled 'PC-SAS',putoutby
alternate fields had the same size letters castsaresubjecttoflicker,Ihaveyettosee theSAS Institute inCary, NC. These are
andnumbers,buttheywerebeingmoved anything transmitted which had a hori thesame people who recently tookover
vertically the distance of one interlace, zontalpatternmatchedtothescanlinesof theCCompilerfromLatticeandarepub
stillnutNTSCstandard,butmuchcloser, aTV.MustimagesIhaveexamined(even lishing the 'SAS/C Compiler for
and with reduced flicker. Several pro text patterns) tend to "fuzz" over the AmigaDos',version5.1,asofthiswriting.
gramsweretriedusingthisscreensuchas scanline boundary, and are thereby dis For those who are not familiar with this
IFFpictures, CanDo, and others, and the played ineach "halfframe". package, its statistical capabilities are
screenstayed inthisinterlacemodeuntil ThefollowingBASICprogramcanbe phenominal.Itiswidelyusedinthemedi
rebooting. Ifa picture was done in inter usedtodemonstratethemajordifference calfieldandforgovernmentapplications.
lace mode, that's the way it appeared; between the interlace and non-interlace It isalsoavailable to runon mainframes,
going on to another picture that was not modes. Onaninterlaced screen, the pro minicomputers, and workstations. Ad
nterlaced,camebacktothe"Handshake" gramopensawindowintowhichitwrites vertisementsin"PCWeek"provideafull
interlace. a series of horizontal lines. The left side descriptionofitscapabilities.
RegardingjerryMaster'sconclusion consists of alternating single-pixel lines. Icalledthemtoseeiftheyweregoing
onthesyncsourceintheAmiga,heisright Therightsidehasalternatingdouble-pixel to port 'PC-SAS' to the Amiga and was
about the sync coming from Agnus, but lines. Lastly, the program opens a non toldthattheycurrentlyhadnoplanstodo
thereisalsoaCsyncline(Compositesync) interlacedscreen/windowandwritesal so. However, theysaid that thebestway
comingoutofAgnuswhichfeedsDenise; ternatingsingle-pixel lines. Ifthis screen to get thoseplanschangedwasformany
soapparentlyAgnusistheculprit,devel is dragged downtoreveal the interlaced (read as 'hundreds and thousands of)
oping these off standard sync signals. screen, itcan be seen that the non-inter Amiga enthusiasts to write to them
There are IC's on the market which de laced single-pixel lines look the same as emploringthemtoputoutanAmigaver
velop NTSC standard sync signals, such theinterlaceddouble-pixellines. Afairly sion.
asRCA's22402;somethinglikethisshould goodexamplethatthemoitorisalwaysin IpersonallyfeelthattheSASInstitute
havebeenbuiltintoprovidethecompat interlacemode—anon-interlaceimageis is missing the boat by not porting this
iblescreenrequired. producedbyhavingthehardwarerepeat package to the Amiga. Their knowledge
There must be a way of program thesameimageonboth "halfframes." oftheAmigaoperatingsystemwhichal
ming thecomputer to produce betterin lows them to support the SAS/C Com
terlace- I hope someone with a lot more Interlace Flicker Demonstration piler should make the porting a feasible
savvythanI willcomeupwithit! Der.nis Lee Bieber Sept. 30, 1990 taskfor them toaccomplish. This would
This program opens a hi-res/interiaced
go a long way toward closing the gap
screen with two windows. The first window
Verytrulyyours, contains alternating Iir.es, the second betweenapplicationsthatrunontheIBM
JohnA. Wheaton has doubled alternating lines (each PCandtheAmiga.
Syosset,NY doubled line being equivalent x.o a single I encourage all of your readers to
line in a non-interlaced screen) .
write to theirmarketingdepartmentand
#3 I have a few comments to make in SCREEN 1, 640, 400, 2, 4 request that they port 'PC-SAS' to the
regards to Mr. Masters' letter (Re: Inter WINDOW 2, "Alt(e2r,1n0a)tin-g(630,3851D,o1u6b,led1", Amiga.Theiraddressis:
lacenicker,intheOctober1990issue. COLOR 1,2
First, with regards to the apparent CLS SASInstitute,Inc.
L2 = WINDOW(2) SASCampus Drive
difference between the primary colors. I
LI = L2 / 2
can think of two possible reasons for a FOR i = 1 TO WINDOW(3) STEP 2 Cary, NC27513-2414
noticeabledifferenceinperceptibleflicker LIME II,i) - [LI,I) Attn: MarketingDepartment
between the threeprimaries. NEXT i
The firstoftheseinvolves theactual FOE i = 1 TO WINDOW(3) STEP 4 Sincerely,
phosphors used in the monitor. Should LINE (Ll,i) - (L2,i) GeraldHaworth
LINE (Ll,i+1) - (L2,i+1) Millersville, Md.
the green phosphor have a shorter
NEXT i
persistancethanthoseofredandblue,the
green would appear to flicker more in 1 for comparison purposes, open a non-
1 interlaced screen, andput up alternating Alllettersaresubjecttoediting.Questionsor
tensely thanredorblue.
1 lines commentsshouldbesentto:
The other possible explanation in
volvesapropertyoftheeyeitself.Theeye SCREEN 2, 540, 200, 2, 2
WND0W4, "Noninterlaced, Alternating (drag AmazingComputing
is most sensitive to light in the yellow-
screen down)",
P.O. Box869
green portion of the spectrum. It seems 12,10) - (620,185), 0, 2
reasonable to assume, therefore, that a COLOR 1,2 FallRiver,MA02722-QS69
CLS Attn.:Feedback
small change of intensity in the green
FOR i = 1 TO WINDOW(3) STEP 2
wouldbeseenmoreeasilythanthesame LINE (1,1} - (WINDOW(2),i)
Keaderswhoselettersarepublishedwillreceive
intensitychange in theothertwo prima NEXT i
fivepublicdomain disks freeofcharge.
ries.Irememberreportsfromthelate70's
Sincerely,
(when calculators used LED and plasma
DennisLeeBieber
displays) thatbluehad beendetermined
Sunnyvale,CA
January 1991 5
\
Traveling Editor: A story of there and back again
ONEOFMYFAVORITEbookshasalways From this enormous demonstration Amiga event in North America this year
been Tolkien's The Hobbit. Tolkien cap of Amiga enthusiasm, I dropped directly (over 32,000), but sold more Amiga com
tured the essence of travel. Through the intothe area whereIBM iskingandApple putersatanyonetimethanIhaveeverseen
escapadesandescapesofMr. Baggins,we is considered a pretender to the thrown, before. One dealer had sold seventy-two
are treated to the broadening of his wis Comdex. Comdex Fall '90 was held in Las machines by the secondday ofthe event.
dom.Webegintoseehoweachadventure Vegasandattractedover126,000attendees However,thisisnotabouthowmany
strengthens his character and hardens his during its five-day run. units were sold. The people whocame to
resolve. With each new person he meets, Commodore placed their booth in TheWorldOfCommodoreAmigabelieved
Mr. Bagginsbecomes more understanding the newly completed Sands Exhibition in the Amiga. Maybe, since there is only
of his world. After the number of trade Center.But,evenwithahalf-millionsquare oneshowintheareaeachyear,WOCAgets
showsinvolvingtheAmigainwhichIhave feet of exhibition space, the Sands was people excited about what the Amiga can
either been a participant or an observer away from the main segment of Comdex do for them. Whatever the reason, they
lately, I am beginning to feel a great deal and, apparently, so was the Amiga. Al believetheAmiga isthe bestcomputerfor
like Mr. Baggins. though Commodore demonstrated the their needs.
Last month, we brought you our Amiga from its newestUnix release tothe Whether I was talking to a young
coverageoftheWorldOfCommodoreand magic of Digital Creations' DCTV, and German at Amiga '90, viewing a demon
AmiEXPO(TwinPeeks",December 1990) NewTek, with their booth at the Sands, strationbyanAmigadeveloperatComdex,
that were held simultaneously from Octo wowedgrowingcrowdswiththewizardry or witnessing a family carrying their first
ber5to7 inChicagoandAnaheimrespec ofthe VideoToaster, the main contingent Amiga home fromThe World OfCommo
tively. Home from these shows, we com ofComdex could not or would not listen. doreAmiga,the same truthcamethrough.
pletedboththeDecemberissueofAmazing "Windows" wasshouted and"multi Thesepeoplebelieve thatthe Amiga isthe
Computingandthe largestperiodical ever media"waswhisperedthroughouttheevent, best. They prove it by their actions, their
for the Amiga, our Fall/Winter edition of but few of the thousands of attendees dedication, andtheirpurchases.Theysup
AC'sGuideToTheCommodoreAmiga,With understood that the Amiga was there first port the Amiga because it is superior for
theGuideandACsatc\yatpress,itwastime andstill remains in theforefront. Fromthe their needs.
tograba plane, but thiswould bea much euphoric Europeanexhibition, 1 fell tothe Mr.Bagginsfoundthathisworldwas
differentjourney. world ofWindows and more Windows. I muchlargerandagreatdealmorecomplex
My travels started with a long over wondered, amidstall the talk ofwindows, than he ever believed it could be. He
nightflighltoKoln,GermanyforAmiga'90. whether any ofthem couldsee. respondedby retiring fromtraveling, stay
Injustafewshortdays,1wasintroducedto From Comdex, itwasonlyoneshort ingathome,anddiscussinghisadventures.
the mania that the Amiga has spawned in holiday and another short week to The I have found the world to be a bit
Europe.DistributorstoldmethattheAmiga World Of Commodore Amiga in Toronto, smaller. Athough there are differences in
500 was sold out in some areas through Canada. The Hunter Group had promised thewaywe usetheAmiga anddifferences
Christmas. I watched while over 60,000 a largeandexcitingshow.Theydelivered. inwhatweexpecttodowithanAmiga,the
attendeesdescendedonthetwolargehalls WiththefirstpublicshowingofCDTVand Amiga is a common thread that unites
ofAmiga '90over its four-day run. the work of exhibitors such as peopleofdifferentlanguages,cultures,and
My limited German wasjustenough WaltDisneyComputerSoft altitudes. TheAmiga, more thananyother
to keep me out oftrouble so most of my ware, WOCA not only computer platformcurrentlyavailable, ex
conversations with the German people attractedthelargest cites people into being creative.
were through their knowledge ofEnglish. number of at Fortunatelyformyhomelife,thereis
I wasamazedwiththe waytheylovedthe tendees at not another show for at least a month
Amiga. It was as if we had taken the any (CF.S), but I am very grateful for the
enthusiasm of an American Amiga user chancesIhaveatviewingourworld.
groupandappliedittoanentirecontinent. Like Mr. Baggins, I have learned
The second thing that struck me that there is always more to
aboutAmiga '90 wasthe large num learn, but there arc always
ber of North American Amiga good people to leach me.
developersthatattended. Ei
ther working in their own Sincerely^
boothsorwiththeirdistribu
tors,developersdemonstrated
their products and listened to Don Hicks
the concerns and needs of their
Managing Editor
European customers.
(5 Amazing Computing
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GSA*>GSOO:<-90-AGS-5342 Formoreinformation, orfornearestdealer, catltoday. Dealerinquirieswelcome.
!-800-331-17S7E*t5227
Tel. [phone] • FAX [phone]
Circle 123 an Reader Service card.
Back thru the drawing board...
The SketchMaster Graphics Tablet
by ErnestP. Viveiros,Jr.
WHAT COMES TO MIND when you think Once you have properlysetupand con
"graphicstablet"fortheAmiga?It'slikelyyou nectedtheSketchMasterhardwaretotheAmiga
think high prices, software incompatibilities, (A 1-minute operation), it's time to install the
bigclunkyset-ups,overlycomplicatedinstalla software.Softwareinstallationiseasy!Justpop
tion, expensive accessories...but great perfor intheinstallationdiskandclicktheinstallicon.
mance! In the past, the drawbacks have far Twofiles—acontrolpanelandadriver—willbe
outweighed the benefits of a graphics tablet. copied to your SYS: Preferences and Utilities
Enterthenewgenerationofgraphics tablets— drawers respectively. To use the tablet, just
the SketchMaster series graphics tablet from open the Preferences drawer and run the
Dakota Corporation. SMControlapplication.Fromhereyoucanturn
TheSketchMasterisasleek, high-perfor thetabletonoroff,changethesizeofthework
mancegraphicstabletwhichrunsonalmostany ingarea,andevenselectwhichtransducer(sty
A500, A2000, A2500, or A3000. (The lusorcursor) touse.
SketchMasterwillalsorunon theAl000,how Software compatibility is excellent. The
everitrequiresaspecialadapteravailablefrom SketchMaster should work with any mouse-
Dakota.)TheSketchMastersupportsbothasty drivenapplication (the drivergenerates simu
lus and a cursor (both are included) and in lated mouse events to the operating system).
cludesallthenecessarycablesandsoftware. The tablet responds smoothly and accurately,
Additionally,theSketchMasteristheonly even when tracing though material 1/2-inch
Amiga graphics tablet that does not require a thick.
power supply. It's powered directly through Sowhatdoyoureallygetforyourmoney?
theRS232Cserialport,whichhelpstoeliminate The SketchMaster system includes the tablet,
the clutter ofbig, clunky power supplies and pen-stylus,4-buttoncursor,interfacecable,9to
theircables. 25-pinadapter,software,andmanual.Thetab
let is available in two sizes: 11.7" x
The SketchMaster is the only Amiga graphics 11.7",and12" x18".TheSketchMaster
tabletthat does not require a powersupply. It's isalsocoveredbya5-yearlimitedwar
powereddirectlythroughthe RS232Cserial port.
ranty.Nottomentionthegreatperfor-
^& mance you'll get! Now think
.' "SketchMaster graphics tablet". What
comestomind?Reasonableprices,great
softwarecompatibility,sleekorganized
set-ups, easy installation, and no ac
cessories tobuy...it'sallinthebox.
•AC-
SketchMasterGraphicsTablet
11.7"x 11.7": $449.00
12" X 18": $699.00
DakotaCorporation
55 HeritageAvenue
Portsmouth, NH 03801
[phone]
inquiry#231
8 Amazing Computing