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Project Dogwaffe from Dan Ritchie (FreeWare)
By admin | June 2, 2007
This is paint and animation software from Dan Ritchie. The program is available in two version - freeware and commercial. Downloading of the application is available at the Web-page Download Page. Here is the link for downloading free version. Commercial version of the application can be dowloaded here. Here is The official Web-site of the developer.
This program is suited for creative individuals with desire to paint - not simply to re-finish pictures 
When you start the application the program opens a window in which you set the size of the buffer size for a picture in pixels - from 160×120 up to 1920×1080. After setting the canvas size the program creates a blank image.
On the right in the Main window is located the application Toolbar. It contains instruments for painting (Brushes), various selecting tools, color palettes, etc.
The Main Menu of the application has eight options: File, Buffer, Brush, Filter, Alpha, Animation, Window, Help.
The option Help opens a small Help popup consisting of only two options: About Project Dogwaffe… (opens the window About) and Keyboard shortcut help…. There are no other on-line help in the application. But if you want help for the program you can receive abundant information at the official site. There are plenty of options for downloading various help files either in HTM-format or in PDF-format. Simply open DogWaffe FAQ. There you can find a PDF help version, an HTM-Help version as a ZIP-file, a Quick Reference Guide in the Windows Help format and much more. There are plenty of links to other sites of the DogWaffe community. Besides that there is a Gallery of DogWaffe images at the official Web-site of the developer. There are a number of forums for DogWaffe users. The links to these forums you can get here. And here is a Message Board for the DogWaffe Yahoo-community in the Web.
The option File opens File Dialog. This popup has the following options: New - for creating a new image, Open… - for opening an existing image, Import…, Save… - for saving images to a disk, Export…, Print Properties… - allows setting properties for printing, Print… - for printing images through the selected printer, Prefs - for setting preferences working with the application, and Quit - cancelling the program execution and quitting the application.
The free version of the application (DogWaffe proper) is specifically tailored to work only with two image formats: Targa and Bitmap (BMP). This is a serious shortcoming of the program. Other image formats (especially one of the most popular - JPEG) are supported only in the commersial version of the program (which has the name PD Pro). The options Import… and Export… open windows for executing plugins for the application.
The option Buffer of the Main Menu opens in essence Edit Dialog. This popup contains standard editing options of undoing/redoing changes (Undo and Redo), clearing the image buffer - i.e. the currently opened image - Clear, temporary storing the image buffer - Store buffer… (generally speaking, the DogWaffe is a dedicated painting program, you work on one image at a time; however, you can store a buffer or a number of buffers to access at any time later). There is a Zoom option with the small submenu for zooming options. There is a group of options dealing with the stored image buffers: Swap buffers, Copy to swap, etc. The are standard options for flipping (Flip) and rotating (Rotate) images, cropping the current image to a selection (Crop to selection). There are some other editing options (Fill, Paint fill, Greyscale, Invert, etc). The option Buffer info… brings out a small information window about the current image buffer (Image width and height in pixels, and buffer memory size).
The option Brush deals with application brushes. There are three types of brushes in the program: Internal, Custom and the Anti-Aliased Pen. The Anti-Aliased Pen (AA Pen) allows you to get images without undesirable segmentation, always with rounded shapes. An Internal Brush is a small image you get in the Brush panel and use later as a brush There are a number of such images in the application. The images used as internal brushes are limited in size (only 35 x 35 pixels). You can select the needed brush from the Brush panel just right-clicking on the Brush icon in the toolbar. You can create your own Brush sets by creating similar images and placing them in a single directory. Loading new Brush sets is being done by clicking a Load Set button on the bottom of the Brush images panel or by selecting the option Open… in the Brush popup of the Main Menu. Accordingly, the option Save… in the Brush popup allows you to save the current brush set to a disk in the selected directory for a later use. There are usually some 40 images 35 by 35 pixels in size in such directories. The Custom brushes don’t have the limitation of 35 by 35 pixels in size. The options Flip and Rotate in the Brush popup allows flipping and rotating the currently selected brush.
The option Filter of the Main Menu opens a Filter popup. There are a lot of internal image filters in the application. And besides that there is the Filter plugin… option allowing to execute an external filter plugin. All the internal filters are extensively covered in the application manuals; there you can find appropriate samples, too.
The option Alpha deal with so-called Alpha-channel. The Alpha-channel is some greyscale image that controls the transparency for painting operations. On screen, the alpha channel is represented by a border which is animated. In other image applications the alpha-channel is usually called ‘a selection’. You can store alpha-channels (i.e. selections) for a later use.
The option Animation allows you to create animations out of sets of images. You can Load… and Save… animations, Load sequence… of images for creating an animation and Save sequence… of images to a disk for a later use, Free the current animation from memory. In this popup there are also Animation controls… and Stroke player… allowing to play tha animation frame by frame.
The option Window opens the Window Dialog popup of the application. This Window Manager allows to open and close toolbars, palettes and panels of the program.
Summarizing, the DogWaffe is the program for artistic painting, first of all. The work with the application is extensively covered in the tutorials.
Topics: Computers & Software |