Background music is Copyright © 1996, 1997 by Michael D. Walthius. All Rights Reserved.
he
software WinImages from
Black Belt Systems installed easily and consumed 21 MB of hard
drive space. It created 3 directories and 2 separate applications in
the process. The applications are the WinImages:F/x and Morph. The
CD-ROM includes installation capabilities for Windows 3.1, Windows
95, Windows NT (Intel and Alpha), Power PC and Mips. The Windows 3.1
area also contains Win32 files. The CD-ROM contains tons more stuff.
It has demos of the application for every platform. It has many more
animations beyond that which it installs. It has information that
describes how to run it from the CD-ROM instead of installing it to
the hard drive. It also has a terrific bunch of HTML files that allow
the user to navigate to many images that have been completed by a
wide variety of artists. It also includes a list of the films, TV
episodes and corporations that use WinImage. There is a bug fix area
on the CD that contains a readme.txt file which directs the user to
rename the morph.exe file and the fx.exe file to new names and
replace them with ones from the CD. There are a few other files they
suggest replacing however I searched my hard drive, found that I had
newer versions than theirs so did not replace mine with theirs. All
is not roses here though. There is no manual. Those of you who read
my reviews know how annoyed I can be when there is no manual. The
installation process includes adding on-line documentation for both
applications. There is no Windows 95 type uninstall available however
the on-line documentation describes the procedures. The hardware
requirements as specified in the on-line documentation for WinImage:
F/x are very minimal and vary from platform to platform.
he
first 3 sections of the documentation deal with an introduction,
piracy, what's new, hardware requirements and installation. Chapter 4
is where the getting started stuff begins. WinImage: F/x is launched
and the work begins. Notice the adjacent screen shot, below, of the
interface. WinImage: F/x has a unique (at least in my experience)
icon arrangement. The icons do not have bubble help however their
purpose is stated in the lower left corner of the interface.
There are over 90 icons available across the top but only 7 are
immediately available with a 600 X 800 display. When I shifted to
higher resolution (1280 X 1024) 13 icons became visible.
Unfortunately the WinImage: F/x interface did not rescale with the
resolution change. I had to close it then relaunch. Anyway WinImage:
F/x has scroll buttons on the right end of the icon strip that allows
the user to scroll to any icon.
Furthermore groups of icons that pertain to a particular procedure
are instantly available via the several buttons just below the icon
strip. The icons to the right of the icon strip are for launching the
filmstrip window, the time line window and performing undos and
redos. The help file indicates that WinImage: F/x has 20 undo levels
that are controlled via the settings drop down menu. However when I
went there I found that as many as 32,000 undos are available. This
is truly awesome. After WinImage: F/x is launched the display
settings can be set. WinImage: F/x allows the user to set a large
variety of settings via the display drop down menu. See the screen
shot at right.
This only changes what is viewed in WinImage: F/x and has no effect
anywhere else. Next the documentation describes WinImage: F/x's
working methods. There are 2 different ways a user can do work in
WinImage: F/x. The adjacent screen shot, above left, explains all.
The control is available via the settings drop down menu. The
immediate painting method is to be used for the tutorials.
Next the user is tasked to set the sequence dialog box as per the
adjacent screen shot. It is accessible via the time line drop down
menu. Note that the save result radio box is unchecked. Had it been
checked WinImages: F/x would have provided the user the choice of
saving the resulting animation in a wide variety of outputs.
WinImages: F/x supports outputs in .bmp (colors selectable to 24, 16,
8, 4 and 1 bit), .flc (8 bit color), .iff (24 bit), .jpg (full color
with user controlled quality), .pcx (24, 8, 4 and 1 bit colors), .tga
and .tif (both at 24/32 bit with alpha and 24 bit), .trm (24/32 bit
with alpha), .avi (24 and 8 bit color) and .fs (Toaster 16 bit color).
All pages copyright© Roger A. Moncrief, Indepth Reviews, 1996, 1997, 1998
Thanks to Judy Gefter, !LuM! and Charles Blaquiere for their advice and counsel, some I heeded and some I didn't.