Amiga Pioneers Desktop Video Technology
Personal computers and television have never gotten along very well. Even though both produce images on video screens, their signals are quite different and normally cannot be mixed.
The exception is Commodore’s Amiga computer, which from the beginning has been more compatible with television than other personal computer designs. As a result, Amiga owners have been developing a growing application known as desktop video. It allows you to do everything from adding simple graphic titles to your home videos, to full video production including sound, graphics and three-dimensional animation.
Equipment and software are being developed to do the same thing for IBM and compatible computers and Macintosh models, with the likely result that desktop video will become an even more popular computer application.
But for now at least, Amiga holds the lead. (Amiga computers are not directly compatible with either Macintosh or IBM, but they can be equipped to run software programs written for either of those two computer families.)
Desktop video started with the Amiga 1000 in 1985, which had a built-in jack to connect directly to a videocassette recorder. The composite video signal delivered by the Amiga combined color, brightness and synchronization information in compliance with the standard of the National Television Standards Committee.
As a result, developers began to provide a variety of software programs and hardware accessories to enhance the Amiga’s video capabilities.
Later, the Amiga 1000 was replaced by the Amiga 500, Amiga 2000 and Amiga 2500, which carry suggested prices of $799, $1,699 and $4,695, respectively. None of the three current models retains the original composite video connector.
But the fledgling desktop video industry had been born, and third-party manufacturers quickly provided accessories to create a more robust video signal, taking advantage of improvements in the new trio of computers.
Among the features of Amiga computers that benefit desktop video are a multitasking operating system, fast graphic animation processing by special-purpose chips, stereo sound and many color graphics modes, including some with a characteristic called overscan.
One obvious difference between the image on a computer screen and an image on a television set is that the TV image fills the screen; the computer image has a black border around it. Overscan is what allows a computer image to fill the screen like a TV image. Without it, even if the computer and TV signals could otherwise be mixed, that black border would mar the image.
Although the Amiga can produce 4,096 colors on its screen simultaneously, when used for TV work, 32 is typically the maximum that can be effectively used. That is paltry compared to the millions that a TV image can display, and the Amiga’s graphics resolution is certainly not true broadcast quality, but it makes up for that in affordability.
This is not to say the Amiga cannot be used professionally. Despite its limited graphics resolution, the Amiga can connect with the highest-quality video production equipment.
The easiest way to start out in desktop video is to use the Amiga to add titles or other text dubbed over the top of your home videos.
In addition to an Amiga (the cheapest one will do), a VCR and a video camera, you need a gadget called a “genlock” and titling software. The genlock plugs into the video output of the Amiga to create the NTSC composite signal needed to mix with the video. Genlocks cost as little as $200, but you can spend upward of $3,000 for a top-notch model.
Titling software such as Video Titler 1.1 from Aegis Development costs $150, with competing products ranging from $50 to $300.
If you want to get fancier, you can add animation by using any of a number of two-dimensional or three-dimensional paint or graphics programs.
It is very easy using Deluxe Paint III ($150 from Electronic Arts) to create an object that moves across the screen or appears to draw closer or recede. The object can even rotate as it moves.
Once you’ve mastered the basics, you can move on to the really sophisticated applications.
There are a number of software packages for the Amiga that can do true three-dimensional modeling, complete with surface rendering and any kind of movement imaginable. They range in price from $50 to $2,000 and work by computing huge quantities of mathematical formulas to generate the appropriate shapes and colors.
Once you move into the three-dimensional animation realm, with software such as Sculpt-Animate 4D ($500 from Byte-by-Byte Corp.), you will want the fastest Amiga you can get; even then it may take days to create the scenes you want.
The process is fairly simple, although time-consuming. An outline of the objects, called a wire frame, is created and the motion is tested.
That goes quickly. Then the software is instructed to make the image into a solid. It creates as many single-frame images as you desire and each is stored separately. Once the computing is done, the stored images can be played back slide-show fashion at whatever speed you want and copied onto a videotape.
I saw a fine video that was put together just that way by Joe Conti of Polaris Arts Software in Sylmar.
Conti had created a set of wire frame designs of spaceships for use with 3D modeling software. Rather than try to describe his product to software distributors, he made a five-minute video showing the fully rendered spaceships in action and sent the video to distributors. They liked it well enough to start carrying his product, Starships 2050.
Conti, who makes a living producing Amiga graphics for movie production design, toy manufacturers and a theme park designer, said it took about a week of computing time on his Amiga to produce the images.
Desktop video can get very complex in a hurry. An excellent book to help you get started is “Amiga Desktop Video” by Steven Anzovin, published by Compute! Books, $19.95. It is thorough and honest, describing the weaknesses in Amiga-based systems as well as the strengths.
