From: bscott@nyx.cs.du.edu (Ben Scott)
Subject: Re: Trying to find the perfect morpher
Summary: IM docs comments 
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 07:01:37 GMT

In article <69612@cup.portal.com> blackbelt@cup.portal.com (Ben - Williams) writes:
>The manual is an issue even we agree with you on. Note that the addendum
>file is ready for printing, contains both table of contents and an index,
>and is nicely paginated. It's an interim measure, certainly, but what it
>does allow us to do is add features at the rate our customers enjoy. A
>new manual is due with version 10.

I noted that.  I realize that oftentimes a company can't produce an entirely
new manual with each software revision, and I expect a small "Addendum" file
to cover oversights or bug fixes or minor new additions.  But over thirteen
months since a manual revision, and a 244K Addendum file?  That's way beyond
reasonable.  I will look forward to the new manual provided my client
decides to pay for any upgrades. 
 
>Regarding the display panel lockup, that is a simple bug, fixed by making
>the default NOT "Quality HAM". Your dealer could have found that out with
>one phone call, btw. It is fixed in 9.22, which is already shipping.

Yes, I realize that as well.  But with bugs like that, I can't help
wondering how they got through the testing phase?  With new features coming
out every few weeks, IS there a testing phase?  (OK, loaded question, I
know)
 
>As for finding the addendum, there is an icon on the release disk that
>says "print-docs". just click on it and it will send the manual to your
>printer. You also had the opportunity to install the docs on your HD
>when you installed the software - I assume you used the installation
>routine provided, right? So I'm a bit confused as to why you had to
>go searching for the extra documentation. If we've made that difficult

I do not expect a file called "addendum" to contain the only mention of
probably half the major features in a software package.  I have this funny
idea that it should be possible to at least find the word "morphing"
somewhere in the manual of a software package that advertises morphing.

At any rate, I ended up taking a crash course in Morph+ and I did the morph
with that program.  It, too, crashed on me once or twice, and has some areas
that need major work (for starters, it should be MUCH easier to click on an
endpoint of a vector - careful as I am, half the time I click too close to
the line (a 4-square-pixel area can be hard to hit) and select the whole
vector), but overall the interface seems much more powerful.  Imagemaster
has a few aspects of its interface that are really wonderful, but (IMO)
needs even more work.  However, I haven't used either product enough as yet
to really get an idea of how they work.  I plan to write a comparitive
review once I do a few more projects with each program, and post it to
comp.sys.amiga.reviews.  (I've contemplated posting a mini-review here, now,
to catch my first impressions of each package, but figured the "replies" I'd
get wouldn't be worth it)

I will note that the user interface for Morph+ is not overly "intuitive" in
the usual sense of the word, but it is quite easy to learn, and
exceptionally easy to work with.  (in a way, this is the best way to make an
interface - a little opaque to the pirate without a manual, but if you DO
have one, easy to use)   I gave up on Imagemaster at around 5:PM on Sunday,
dove into Morph+, was setting up what turned out to be a morph with over 200
control points before 7:30, and started the render at around 10:30.  I'd
spent all Friday evening, all but a couple hours of Saturday, and much of
Sunday working with Imagemaster - admittedly, its interface is quicker to
learn, and overall (_overall_ - specific areas differ widely) is probably as
powerful, but between the sparsity of documentation (even in the addendum
file) and the bugs present in my admittedly outdated version, I was spending
too much time with it.  

On the other hand, IM gives you a wide range of other image processing
features, and if you don't already have something like ADPro, you'll want to
buy IM just for its breadth of function.  It's a fine deal for the price.
Morph+ comes as a sort of re-tooled, scaled down version of ADPro, with a
few new operators, and a program which essentially acts as a front-end for
animated morph operations.  ImageMaster's gigantic 1.3 meg executable is a
bit much if all you're doing is morphing, but I have read that you plan to
split it up.  

Gee, this is turning into the mini-review I said I wouldn't do... but I also
like Morph+'s very quick wireframe preview.  It may not be a fully rendered
graphic preview, but even for a 120-frame, 200-point morph, it takes just a
few seconds to generate, and gives you a good idea of points you might've
messed up, or group velocities you need to adjust.  I'd recommend you add
that to Imagemaster if you haven't already (I couldn't find mention of it
anywhere).  Also, I  had a lot of trouble keeping the (non-morphing)
background stable while the foreground faces were warped - even placing
dozens of non-moving points around the background, and outlining the faces
with them as well, I'd still get distortion even inches away.  (it was a
curtain with lots of vertical folds)  Morph+ also exhibited this but to a
lesser degree, as I was able to outline the faces with a series of connected
points and separate them as a group.  Perhaps I missed something in both
programs that would allow you to draw a freehand SOLID line separating the
morphing area from a background, and assuring (better, at least) the
confinement of the warping effect? 

.                            <<<<Infinite K>>>>

--
|Ben Scott, professional goof-off and consultant at The Raster Image, Denver|
|Internet bscott@nyx.cs.du.edu, or call the Arvada 68K BBS at (303)424-6208.| 
|"Don't tug on that - you never know what ][The Raster Image IS responsible |
|it might be attached to." Buckaroo Banzai][for everything I say! | *Amiga* |
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