Subject: Visionaire, new morphing prog
Keywords: Visionaire, morph
Organization: Alex Technologies Ltd
Apparently-To: mail2news@demon.co.uk
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 10:26:57 +0000


Here is the Readme for a new morphing program called Visionaire.
I've used the demo version and its very nice, good 2.0 interface, and fast.
Well, here is comes:-

                                                  December 21th, 1992

                       Visionaire Demo Version
                       -----------------------

Visionaire is the newest and most powerful morphing and image warping
software for the Amiga.  Visionaire is published by Impulse, Inc, the
well known publisher of quality Amiga software like Imagine.
Visionaire and the Visionaire Demo are copyrighted by Bruno Costa &
Lucia Darsa. This Demo version is freely distributable as long as it
is kept in its original form, including all the support files and this
ReadMe. In fact, we encourage you to distribute this archive in its
original form to anyone who might be interested and to other ftp sites,
BBS and networks.

We have provided this Demo version upon request from many potential
users that would like to feel and see Visionaire's user interface.
Visionaire is fun to use, allowing you to quickly create simple
morphings.  At the same time it is a powerful and versatile software,
so that you will be able to create effects just as complex as those
you've seen in movies and commercials. No other Amiga or PC program can
create morphings as complex and creative as Visionaire can.
Visionaire was created by computer graphics professionals, with
computer graphics professionals in mind.

This Demo version will enable you to test *all* the features of
Visionaire, including the creation of animations, output for the
newest AGA chip set, and 24bit rendering.  As this is a demo version,
something has to be disabled...

  - the saving of project, settings and macro files is disabled;
  - all the animations are limited to exactly 10 frames;
  - all the output frames will have Visionaire's logo stamped at the
    center, within a dark horizontal stripe.

Apart from that, everything is enabled, including ARexx interface, the
powerful mixers, unlimited undo/redo, etc.

The installation of this demo is as simple as possible. All you have
to do is to copy all of the files included in this archive (keeping the
directory hierarchy) to anywhere you want. Before running Visionaire,
double click the setup icon, which will create two simple assignments.
Then double click either Visionaire (for non accelerated machines) or
Visionaire_FP (for Amigas with 68030/68881 or better). Note that
Visionaire *requires* Workbench 2.04 or greater, and at least 1.5Mb of
free memory (3Mb are recommended for full performance).

We have included a couple of simple examples, to help you understand
how Visionaire works. To load any project, select the menu item
"Project/Open..." and select any project from the Projects directory.
To render an image or animation, select one of the items of the Output
menu: Warp is used to produce deformations of images, Morph produces
morphings ;-), and Dissolve produces complex cross-dissolves between
images.

An animation created using some of Visionaire's more complex features,
like alpha channels and background compositing, is currently available
through anonymous ftp from amiga.physik.unizh.ch as the file
"gfx/anim/DrinkMorph.lha". It's probably also available at the place
where you've gotten this archive.

If you wish to send us any comments or suggestions, we can be reached
on Internet as bruno@visgraf.impa.br or lucia@visgraf.impa.br.  We
would *really* like to hear your opinion. Visionaire is a product
under constant development, and your feedback is essential to make the
program correspond to your expectations.


Availability
------------

The fully featured version of Visionaire is available NOW from:

     Impulse, Inc.
     8416 Xerxes Ave. North
     Minneapolis, MN 55444

     (612) 425-0557
     FAX: (612) 425-0701


Some of Visionaire Features:
----------------------------

- Morphing, Warping and Dissolving;

- Range of effects is limited only by your imagination;

- Morphing and Warping using animations as input (to create warpings
  and morphings of moving subjects, like in the "Black or White" clip);

- Color and Shape Mixers give total visual control over the progress of
  the warping or morphing, limited only by your imagination;

- Exclusive Local Color and Shape Mixers allow the warping or morphing
  of different parts of the images at different times (a *must* for
  professional results!);

- Sophisticated 2 level antialiasing, the best for dramatic deformations;

- The best and most complete alpha channel support, for transparencies
  and background compositing;

- Image cache scheme that avoids unnecessary loading of images from disk;

- Full support for the AGA chip set new modes;

- Support for 24-bit displays and single-frame video tape recorders.

- Unlimited Undo/Redo capability;

- Full support for Workbench 2.0 and beyond, including ARexx, special
  display modes and public and auto-scrolling screens;

- Intuitive, easy-to-use user interface, including an Expert Mode;

- Full Image Zoom in and out, that makes it easy to work on image
  details -- proportional gadgets and arrow keys (or in fact, any other
  key) allow you to move over the image;

- Fully configurable keyboard shortcuts and macros;

- Completely customizable with many preferences-like requesters.

- Includes predefined ARexx macros that allows you to create special
  effects without knowing anything about ARexx.

- Includes ready-to-use effects such as Sphere, Wave and Twirl, and
  you can easily create your own effects, too. The effects are
  naturally integrated with the rest of the package, and can be
  combined with all the other features.

- Comprehensive 180 page user and reference manual, including
  many tutorials and examples, and also a reference for all menus,
  requesters and ARexx commands.