Re: [stella] technical diagrams/voiceover for documentary

Subject: Re: [stella] technical diagrams/voiceover for documentary
From: Glenn Saunders <cybpunks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 09:26:22 -0700
At 08:11 AM 5/18/99 -0400, you wrote:
>  Sounds fun.  I have only a minimum of experience with Stella programming,
>but I would certainly love to help, since it sounds like what you need is
>a set of notations and diagrams to visually demonstrate the states of various
>parts of the system as these programs execute.  I must add the disclaimer
that
>I am a student and thus my time is not my own

I was thinking of reserving a box for the current assembly representation
of the code that is being chomped on at every given cycle and having a
semi-transparent beam scan across in sync with this code, and in sync with
the voiceover explanation of what the TIA chip is doing.  There are a lot
of ways this could be accomplished.  I start out with a screengrab of an
emulator, take it into Aura on the PC, and that can be used to rotoscope
(hand paint frame by frame) the pixels out, which, when reversed, will
build the pixels.

Another way to do it is in Lightwave 3D, as a texture applied with world
coordinates, or perhaps front projection mapping, and have each scanline by
a physical slot that slides into position to reveal its texture.  The
advantage of using Lightwave is that you can zoom in and out and control
motion easier with keyframing.  However, I have learned a lot of tricks in
Aura.  I can think of a couple ways to automate or gain greater control
over the rate that the rotoscoping happens.  Changing the assembly code
would be tedious, though.

But we wouldn't be tracking an entire screen from top to bottom.  We would
only be doing a few scanlines and jump ahead to different zones in the kernel.

It would be possible, of course, to create the scanline effect in Aura and
then use that as a projection onto a 3D object in Aura.  But for something
like this it's probably best to keep it fullscreen and flat due to the
limitations of NTSC display.  One scanline on the display should line up
with one actual NTSC scanline (actually two, if you count interlace).

I am using the Amiga mostly for video editing via the Toaster and Flyer
cards.  The PC needs to be used for the rest because of its brute-force
advantage.  However, at the heart of this editing system is a heavily
hotrodded Amiga 1200, the last true "home computer" in the Atari 800XL
sense of the word.  I thought it would be appropriate to use the Amiga to
edit this.  I am also planning on creating some custom Atari transitions
and overlays for the Toaster.  Some of these, and credit scrolls utilize
Amiga native graphics.

A long time ago I asked whether somebody could come up with a good credit
scroll on the 2600.  I thought I might be able to go that route for the
heck of it, but it turned out too flickery.


=========================================================
== Glenn Saunders  --3D Graphics / Videography / Web development--        ==
== krishna@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx      http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/1698 ==
== Stella@20 video page         http://users.cnmnetwork.com/~krishna
 ==
=========================================================


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