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THE NEW FANTAVISION GS V2.1 DOCUMENTATION

To draw using Fantavision GS you plot a series of points which the computer
connects together to form objects-something like the way that "connect the dots"
works. Then you and Fantavision GS manipulate those objects to create animation
and special effects.

"Tweening"-short for "in between" frames-is the animation technique that makes
the objects that you create "flow". Frames are the building blocks for
Fantavision GS. Each frame contains a still picture that you create on the
screen. (Frames are indicated on the screen by the film strip in the right.)
If, for example, you draw a stick figure standing straight up in frame 1, and
then draw the same figure touching its toes in frame 2, Fantavision will run
the sequence of frame 1 and frame 2-with as many as 64 intermediate
positions-so that the figure will appear to bend over slowly and touch its
toes.

Transformation is another useful technique. If you were to add, say, a frog as
�frame 3, the stick figure, after touching its toes, would turn smoothly
into a frog.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Each of the functions below is discussed in the sequence with which it appears
on the Fantavision GS screen.

To draw you plot a series of points which the computer connects together to
form objects. You plot points by pressing the mouse, joystick or pad button
when the cursor is in the desired position. You tell the computer that you
are finished drawing an object either by connecting the last point plotted
to the first, or by changing the object number or frame number. If you
accidently close off an object pressing the cursor or joystick button twice
will re-open it. You can then continue working from the last point you
plotted. There is a limit of 32 points per object. The object status box will
tell you how many points you have plotted. If you try to plot a 33rd point,
you will be told the object is full. Fantavision allows �you to animate
8 objects in each frame.

THE OBJECT COUNTER

The object counter tells you the number of the object you are currently working
on by highlighting that number in black. When you are finished working on
an object, you can use the counter to move on to the next simply by clicking
the cursor on the new object number. You do not need to work on objects in
numerical order, however, the higher the object number, the greater the
priority of the object. In other words ,if you draw two objects in exactly
the same place, only the second object will be visible. By using the Capture
Box, it is possible to work on more than one object at once. In this case all
objects being manipulated will be highlighted in black in the object counter.
You can use the counter to insert or delete objects from the capture box by
pressing the appropriate object number. You can introduce a new object or
delete an existing object at any point. To delete an object do not use
that object number for at least one frame. To introduce a new object,
just make sure that the object number that you want to use was not used in
a previous frame. The "French Window" to the right of the number 8 in the
object counter is used for two purposes. Normally, you will select this
window when you are working on a background color. In this case the OBJECT
STATUS BOX will show the background color and the total number of points in
the frame. The French Window also gives you access to two special functions
called "Looping" and "Clipping Window" which will be discussed later.

THE FILM STRIP

At the right of your screen is The Film Strip. There are sixteen squares with
sprocket holes visible in the strip. Each one of these squares represents
eight frames of your movie. To tell what frame you ar working on look at the
frame counter at the top right corner of your screen. To move to a different
frame, press the UP arrow which takes you up to the beginning to the
m�ovie, or the DOWN arrow which takes you towards the end of the movie.
You may move to any frame at any time. However, whenever you "look" at a
frame you "expose" it. That doesn't mean that you can't use it, but it does
mean that a blank frame will be added to your movie. Blank frames can be
deleted using the CUT and EDIT MENU commands. If you are working on a long
movie and want to move around quickly, rather than one frame at a time,
touching one of the s{symbolic frames in the strip will put you at the
beginning of that block of eight actual frames. You may also move quickly
through the film strip by holding the cursor button down on one of the
arrows. The film strip shows you which blocks of film are exposed by turning
them a different color. The block in which you are working at the moment will
be black. You may "drag" this black block to any exposed frame in the movie.
In addition, you can get to the last frame in the movie by clicking the
cursor in the unexposed area of the film strip.�

THE GRAB POINT

This command allows you to "grab" and move any point in any object in the
current frame. Lines which act like rubber bands will show you the points
which connect to the one you're moving. The object counter will highlight
in black the object number you have grabbed. Where many points are close
together it may be difficult to grab the one you want. You may have to move
the other points out of the way and then put them back after you've grabbed
and moved the point you want.

INSERT POINT

To insert points into a completed object select the Insert Point function (the
pointing finger). By placing the cursor between two adjacent points
(positioning it as close to the middle as possible),and then pressing the
cursor button, you can "rubber band" around your new line until you reach the
desired location. Release the button and the new point is set. You cannot
insert a point into the middle of a solid object without starting at the
edge.

DELETE POINT

You can delete points from an object with the Delete Point knife. Place the
cursor button over the point to be deleted and press. If you wish to delete
an entire object point by point you must delete every point in it. The object
will become a line, then a point, and then disappear. There are easier ways
to delete objects by using the Capture Box.

MAKE CIRCLE

The Make Circle command places the center of a circle at the spot where the
cursor is located when you press the button. The perimeter of the circle will
be placed at the point where you release the button. The circle is made up
of 16 points. Point 1 is located at the place where you released the cursor
buttton. If you don't like the way the circle looks as you are trying to set
it up, move the cursor off to the side of the screen and release the button.
Now you can start a new circle. Very small circles will not look
p�erfectly round when you blow them up with the ZOOM command. Circles are
not "clipped" by the edges of the screen. Rather, they are flattened against
the edge and won't look circular if moved to the center at a later time. You
can't use Make Circle when there are any points already plotted in that
object number. To make elipses with MAKE CIRCLE you can squash or stretch
your circle using the SQUASH command in the Goodies Menu.

MAKE RECTANGLE

Use the Make Rectangle (box within a box) function to quickly make rectangles
and squares using a rubber band box, rather than drawing them point by point.
You can't use this function if there are any points already plotted in the
current object number you are using.

TEXT

Fantavision allows you to place text on the screen in two ways. The easiest and
most flexible way is to use the TEXT mode, which you select with the "A"
icon. This method allows you to type in the lette�rs you want to appear
on the screen. The second method, which is more difficult to use, allows you
to load in very complicated characters. This method with be covered later
in "Using From The Demo Disk". Once you have selected text mode place the
cursor where you want to start typing and press the button. Wait until you
see a square cursor, then start typing. If you accidently start typing before
pressing the button, you will wind up entering keyboard commands, not typing.
The text mode characters are always from the same font, but you can
manipulate them using the Goodies Menu to simulate a variety of typestyles.
Once you start typing you can put four letters into each available object
number. As one number is filled, the text will automatically start to fill
the next available number so that you don't have to stop typing. To delete,
use the left arrow key. To end a line, use the RETURN key. To end an object
number, use the right arrow key. This feature is useful for manipulating
le�tters or words separately. For example, if your name is Bob, you may
wish to press the right arrow after typing "Bob", even though you could enter
one more letter into that object number. Keeping the word "Bob" as a separate
object number enables you to ZOOM, TURN, LEAN, etc. "Bob" without including
the letter which follows. You may go back and re-open an object number with
text in it if it is not yet made up of four letters. At this point the
software will once again automatically move to the next available object
number so that you can keep typing without stopping to choose new numbers.
An object number needn't be empty of text before more text is added. This
means that manipulating a single object number may affect letters sitting
in words quite far apart from each other. Likewise, the left arrow key will
delete down through the object numbers in sequence, not back through the
letters in sequence. The letters created in text mode are actually lines made
up of seven segments. Therefore, they ar�e difficult to manipulate point
by point. Study Line mode in the Dimension Box to gain a clearer
understanding of the problem.

CAPTURE BOX

The Capture Box (broken box within a box) function allows you to select which
objects in a frame you wish to manipulate using the commands in the Goodies
Menu, and COPY,PASTE and ZAP in the Edit Menu. When the capture box is not
selected the Goodies affect all objects in the frame. There are two ways to
capture objects with the box. The first way is to surround the objects with
the box. Do this by holding the cursor button down and maneuvering the box
around the objects until they are enclosed then release the button. The box
will shrink to tightly surround the objects within it. The object counter
will highlight in black those objects included in the box. The second way
to capture objects is to select the capture box option, then go straight to
the object counter and select the objects you want in the box. The box
will expand to include those objects. With either method of capturing
objects you may delete objects from the influence of the box by de-selecting
their object numbers in the object counter. To move objects in the capture
box place the cursor within the box and drag it to the desired location. To
create a new capture box place the cursor on the outside of the current box
and start from scratch.

THE COLOR PALETTE

Fantavision GS comes with Palettes of 16 colors or patterns. You can cycle
through the different palettes with the UP and DOWN arrows in the lower left
corner. The number between the arrows gives you the number of the palette
you're using. The colors and palettes are created in such a way that you
needn't worry about mixing colors as long as you stay within a single
palette. Mixing colors from different palettes in a single frame puts you
at risk of getting "jaggies" in your movie. You get these jagged diagonal
lines on the Apple when you mix certain colors due to the limitations
of the hardware.

OBJECT STATUS BOX

This displays the color and the number of points in the current active object.
If you have selected a group of active objects with the capture box, the
object status box will display information about the lowest numbered object
in the group.

Selecting GO will run the current movie. To stop the current movie press the
cursor button and the movie will revert to the last frame you were working
on.

WHILE RUNNING KEYBOARD COMMANDS:

1-7 Set Speed
Space Bar Stop Motion
Esc Escape: If you press ESC when the animation is running, or when you are stepping through the animation using the Space Bar, you can copy the image to the clipboard, so that it can be inserted with PASTE as a new frame Returns you to current work frame.
Return Same as ESC. Returns you to last viewed frame.
Left Arrow Backward Animation
Right Arrow Forward Animation

GLOBAL

Selecting the Global (globe inside a box) command means that changes to an
object using the color palette, animation box or dimension box, will be made
to that object automatically in all frames in which it appears. The global
command looks for all frames in which the object to be changed has the same
color (or animation type, or dimension) as in the current frame and changes
those frames at the same time. In other words, if you have a blue fish as
object #1 in frame 1 which you want to change to green, selecting global and
then changing object #1 from blue to green will change all frames in which
object #1 was blue to green. If object #1 was yellow in frame 3, it won't
change to green because the command was blue to green. �
OVERLAY

Activating the Overlay (two boxes connected within a box) command allows you to
preserve everything which appears on the screen at any time during the
editing process. This enables you to keep your animation in register,to keep
your background visible as you make your movie, to study several frames at
once, or to save multiple screens as a single backdrop.

ANIMATION BOX

There are four animation modes available to you. These are:

Normal Mode
Background Mode
Lightning Mode
Trace Mode

NORMAL MODE

An object animated in normal mode will change from the object drawn in the
current frame to the object drawn in the subsequent frame with whatever
number of intermediate frames you set when you establish the film speed.

BACKGROUND MODE

Whenever you want an object you draw to become a part of the background
you use the background mode. You may use this mode to create a background
at the beginning of your movie, or you may drop objects into the background
temporarily in order to use their object numbers for new objects.

NOTE: WHENEVER BACKGROUND MODE IS USED, THAT OBJECT NUMBER MUST BE LEFT
BLANK IN BOTH ADJACENT FRAME! If you don't leave them blank then your
background will animate.

LIGHTNING MODE

Lightning mode has two main uses. The first is for creating special effects
such as the spider movie demo. Best results are achieved by using a solid
object with a line around it. The effects tend to look better at slower
speeds. You can also use this mode to speed up an animation. This rather
complex function will be described later.

TRACE MODE

In trace mode an object will leave its image behind without erasing it. Trace
mode is useful for a variety of special effects.

THE DIMENSION BOX

Although all the objects are drawn by plotting points, the objects themselves
may be solid shapes, lines, or dots. The default value for each new object
is solid shapes. With each "dimension" are a variety of modes which give you
added options. These are:

SOLID SHAPES
------------
0. No outline
1. Black outline
2. White outline
3. Black outline with last segment open
4. White outline with last segment open

LINES
-----
0. Outline with last segment open
C. Connect last segment to close shape
9. Leave a blank segment after 9 are drawn
8. Leave a blank segment after 8 are drawn
7. Leave a bl�ank segment after 7 are drawn
6. Leave a blank segment after 6 are drawn
5. Leave a blank segment after 5 are drawn
4. Leave a blank segment after 4 are drawn
3. Leave a blank segment after 3 are drawn
2. Leave a blank segment after 2 are drawn
1. Leave every other segment blank

DOTS
----
1. Smaller Size
2-8. Progressively larger
9. Largest dot size

SOLID SHAPES

The default value for solid shapes is No Outline mode. The DOWN arrow cycles
through the other modes. Using either of the two outline modes gives the
object a clean, distinct look. NOTE: USING THE OUTLINE MODE WILL SLOW DOWN
THE ANIMATION BY HALF! The purpose of the two modes that leave the last
segment open is to allow you to add segments to a solid object without
intervening lines.

LINES

Line mode is normally set to "Open". This means that a line is drawnconnecting
the points you plot but no further. The "DOWN" arrow puts you in "Closed"
mode which will connect the last point you plot with the first one in order
to form a solid outline. The numbered Line modes are reached by pressing the
UP arrow. The purpose of the numbered modes is to allow you to draw a variety
of seemingly distinct objects which nevertheless all use the same object
number.

DOTS

The default value for the dot size is 5. The down arrow makes the dots bigger
while the up arrow makes them smaller. The smaller dots are simply the exact
points you plot on the screen. The largest dot is still made up of only a
single point, which is in the center of a dot. This means that you can't edit
the edge of the dot in any way since there are no points plotted there.

THE PULL DOWN MENUS:
--------------------

THE GOODIES MENU The Goodies Menu consists of:

ZOOM FLIP
TURN SQUASH
LEAN

plus the two indicators to the right of the word goodies, which look like this
when you boot up: ---><--- <----->

All goodies commands act on all objects in the frame unless you specify which
objects you want with the capture box.

ZOOM

When you enter the goodies menu for the first time the zoom command is already
activated and will have a check mark next to it. Each time you select outward
arrows the object or objects to be zoomed will be enlarged by 12%. Each time
you select the inward arrows the selected objects will shrink by 12%.

TURN

When you select the turn command, two spiraling arrows �will appear at the
right of the goodies menu. One spirals clockwise and the other
counter-clock-wise. Each time you select one of the spiraling arrows the
object(s) to be turned will rotate 22.5 degrees in that direction. When you
use turn without using the capture box all objects turn around a point in
the center of the screen. When you capture an object and turn it, it turns
around a point in the middle of the capture box.

LEAN

Selecting the lean command allows you to lean objects to the left or right by
using the left or right arrows.

FLIP

The Flip command allows you to flip the desired object(s) horizontally with the
left-right arrow or vertically with the up-down arrow. When you use Flip
without the capture box, the center of the screen is the line over which the
objects will flip. When you use the capture box, objects flip within it, and
not throughout the frame.

SQUASH

The Squash command is used to flatten objects or stretch them. Squash can
be used to make elipses out of circles and is useful for creating shadows.

THE EDIT MENU

The Edit Menu consists of the following functions:

UNDO PASTE
CUT CLONE
COPY ZAP

UNDO and CLONE are the only functions which don't work differently on the frame
level versus the object level. UNDO works exclusively on the commands
indicated by the icons on the left hand side of the screen, plus the color
palette, clone always means clone frame.

UNDO

1. UNDO and DRAW. Using Undo with the Draw command will Undo the last point
plotted unless that last point was used to close an object.

2. UNDO and GRAB POINT. Undo will return the previous point grabbed to its
former position.

3. UNDO and INSERT POINT. Undo wi�ll delete the last point inserted.

4. UNDO and DELETE POINT. Undo will restore the last point deleted.

5. UNDO and MAKE CIRCLE. The whole circle just disappears with a poof.

6. UNDO and MAKE SQUARE. That squares a goner!

7. UNDO and TEXT. Undo will remove the last object typed. Since an object may
be made up of as many as four letters, up to four letters may be
removed by the undo command.

8. UNDO and CAPTURE. Undo will restore an object moved with the capture box to
its former position. It will not Undo Goodies functions. To
Undo Goodies functions just do them in reverse.

9. UNDO and COLOR PALETTE. Undo will undo the last change of color. Colors
changed with the Global command cannot be undone with Undo, you
simply have to change them back with Global.

10. UNDO and GO, GLOBAL, OVERLAY, OBJECT COUNTER, BACKGROUND COLOR,
FRAME COUNTER. � Undo doesn't affect any of the above.

11. UNDO and ANIMATION TYPE, DIMENSION. Undo will change back to your last
change of Animation Type or Dimension, though its just as easy
to change it back manually.

CUT COPY PASTE
(Frame Level)

Cut is one of the three functions that interact with the Clipboard. The other
two are COPY and PASTE. When you Cut a frame, the whole frame goes to the
Clipboard and replaces anything else that might have been on the clipboard.
Likewise the frame that has been cut disappears from your movie. To get the
frame back you must Paste it in front of the frame you want it to precede.

COPY differs from CUT in that it copies a frame to the clipboard with-out
cutting it out of the current movie.

PASTE enables you to make a single copy of the frame you have Cut or Copied by
selecting Paste while on the frame you wish it to precede.

NOTE: If you press ESC when the animation is running, or when you are
stepping through it with the space bar, you can Copy the image to the
clipboard, so that it can be inserted with Paste as a new frame.

CUT COPY PASTE
(Object Level)

You may also use these commands on the object level by using the capture box. In
this case only the objects selected by the capture box are affected. If no
objects are selected, the entire frame will be cut and copied. In addition,
when you paste objects into a frame they will simply be added to the objects
already in that frame, rather than creating an entirely new frame. If,
however, the number of objects in the current frame plus the number of
objects on the clipboard is more than eight, the extra objects will simply
fail to Paste. Lower object numbers have precedance. You may Paste a single
object in a frame multiple times by re-selecting Paste.

CLONE

Selecting Clone automatically copies the current frame to the end of the
movie. Clone doesn't affect the contents on the clipboard. Clone is a bit
deceiving because nothing seems to be happening when you use it. If you look
at the frame counter however, you will see that you've jumped to the end of
the movie. When you use Clone with the capture box it works exactly the same
way without it, except that the capture box stays highlighted even in the
newly cloned frame. This means that you can select Clone and then the goodies
option without having to re-capture the object in every frame. Remember that
even though you may clone with an object selected with the capture box, clone
is still copying the entire frame. You cannot clone a selected object from
one frame to another.

ZAP

Using Zap enables you to delete a frame or an object without affecting what's
on the clipboard, whereas cut replaces the contents of the clipboard with the
cut material.

THE FILE MENU

LOAD MENU SAVE BACKDROP
SAVE MOVIE CLEAR BACKDROP
CLEAR MOVIE FORMAT DISK
LOAD BACKDROP QUIT

LOAD MOVIE

Selecting the Load movie command will put the filenames of files currently on
your disk onto your screen. Use the down arrow and Movies option to view all
the filenames.

Clear Movie and Save Movie commands are self explanatory.

LOAD BACKDROP

This command will load a backdrop off of the disk in the same manner as a file
load. There is a separate backdrop file catalog on the disk. You may also use
single hi-res PRODOS file screens from other programs if you wish.

SAVE BACKDROP, CLEAR BACKDROP, FORMAT DISK, and QUIT are self explanatory.

Here Are Some Special Functions
-------------------------------
LOOPING
-------

The Looping function is something you use only when you make a show disk. Begin
by selecting the French Window in The Object Counter Box. The two boxes to
the right disappear and are replaced by the word LOOP. Here's how it works.
When you save a movie, the number to the right of the word Loop is saved
within the file. It tells the computer how many times you want that movie
to play until it goes to the next one. Loop is normally set to 1. The
greatest number of loops is 9. If you want your movie to run forever just
load the movie and select GO.

USING FONTS FROM THE DEMO DISK
------------------------------

There are several files on the demo disk called "Something" font. These files
can be copied into your movie. The complexity of the fonts causes trade-offs
however. When a single character uses as many as three or four object
numbers, you will not be �able to animate very much text at one time. You
may wish to use a more complex character as the first letter in a word made
with regular text mode, or you might put all your complex characters into the
backdrop and animate on top of them. In either case, transferring characters
from font files to your movie can cause you some headaches if you intend to
do a lot of it. The basic maneuver involves copying the characters you wish
onto the clipboard, then changing to the movie you are creating in order to
paste them in. The main difficulty is that the characters are made up of
several objects, and only eight objects will fit in a frame or onto the
clipboard at one time.

FRENCH WINDOW USES
------------------
The Clipping Window
-------------------

Fantavision let's you make a clipping window which is much smaller than the
entire screen. This enables you to do things like watching the stars
shoot by a spaceship window. This is how you do it:

1. Select the French Window in the object counter.

2. Select the capture box. You will actually be handling the clipping
window after this step.

3. The clipping window will behave exactly like the capture box,
except it will not shrink to surround any objects that may be
inside it. You can move the clipping window by putting the cursor
inside of it. You can start a new one by putting the cursor outside
of it etc..

4. Any backdrop you have loaded will not be affected.

Note: When you use the clipping window it should be the last thing you
do after you have completed all of your other animation.

USING LIGHTNING MODE
--------------------

Lightning mode can cause a flickering effect on your screen which would be good
for simulating earthquakes and explosions. It does this by not using the
hidden second screen that does the erasing in between frames. This means
that lightning mode will also make the movie go faster but not quite as
clean. Also, it takes as much time to erase as it does to draw, so the more
you can use lightning mode, the faster your movie will be.

The New Fantavision GS V2.1 has these added features; Within the Apple Icon at
the top left of the screen is a pull-down menu mode under the About, that
runs all movies in sequence. You also have two apple Prodos programs in the
CONVERT sub-directory that will allow you to convert old Apple II Fantavision
movies into the New Fantavision GS V2.1 format & a program that is called
FVGS CONVERT. This program can be launched at the start of the boot by
selecting it from the boot launch through Prodos launcher. Select the
CONVERT, then select-> FVGS CONVERT This system program will allow you to
convert any graphic file for use with Fantavision GS Version 2.1. This can
be done in a varity of ways. The Convert system program will load any
graphic file and you must then convert & save it as an SHR 320
(Packed/byte) type file, for access as a screen. You can save it to a
formatted data disk, then you can load it through Fantavision GS as a screen.
An extensive collection of screen pictures are included in the sub-directory
"CONVERT". This is the only type of SHR 320 picture screen file that
Fantavision GS V2.1 will access. All older Fantavision movies made with the
Apple II version and the Apple IIGS version 1.0 are convertable using the
util'ity convert basic program. The addition of an improved Stereo sound
(Stereo Card required), is also included for intergration of sound with the
New Fantavision GS V2.1 movies.

A special new feature is included in the New Fantavision GS V2.1. You can now
overlay your movies on any screen that you load. First, load the movie, then
move down one screen, with the arrow/mouse to frame #2 and load the screen
you wish the movie to be super-imposed/overlayed onto. Next press go and
watch the action begin. Try loading the movie titled "DEMON.SAMPLE", then
load the screen, "DEMON.BREW". Then follow the directions listed above.
This will give you an example of what can be done. The possibilities are
endless. Animation with the Apple IIGS has never been more simple, using
Fantavision GS V2.1.