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| Deluxe Paint | |
|---|---|
 Deluxe Paint V box cover - OEM re-release on CD | |
| Developer | Electronic Arts |
| Initial release | November 1985; 40 years ago (1985-11) |
| Final release | 5.0 / 1995; 30 years ago (1995) |
| Operating system | AmigaOS,GEM,MS-DOS,Apple GS/OS |
| Platform | Amiga,MS-DOS,Atari ST,Apple IIGS |
| Type | Bitmap graphics editor |
| License | Proprietary |
Deluxe Paint, often referred to asDPaint, is abitmap graphics editor created by Dan Silva forElectronic Arts and published for the then-newAmiga 1000 in November 1985. A series of updated versions followed, some of which were ported to other platforms. AnMS-DOS release with support for the256 colorVGA standard became popular for creatingpixel graphics in video games in the 1990s.
Author Dan Silva previously worked on theCut & Paste word processor (1984), also from Electronic Arts.
Deluxe Paint began as an in-houseart development tool called Prism. As author Dan Silva added features to Prism, it was developed as a showcase product to coincide with the Amiga's debut in 1985. Upon release, it was quickly embraced by the Amiga community and became the de facto graphics (and later animation) editor for the platform. Amiga manufacturerCommodore International later commissioned EA to create version 4.5 AGA to bundle with the newAdvanced Graphics Architecturechipset (A1200,A4000) capable Amigas. Version 5 was the last release after Commodore's bankruptcy in 1994.[citation needed]
Early versions of Deluxe Paint were available inprotected and non copy-protected versions, the latter retailing for a slightly higher price. Thecopy protection scheme was later dropped. Deluxe Paint was first in a series of products from the Electronic Arts Tools group—then later moved to the ICE (for Interactivity, Creativity, and Education) group—which included such Amiga programs asDeluxe Music Construction Set (preceded byMusic Construction Set for theApple II),Deluxe Video, and theStudio series of paint programs for theMac.[citation needed]
With the development of Deluxe Paint, EA introduced theILBM andANIM file format standards for graphics. While widely used on the Amiga, these formats never gained widespread end user acceptance on other platforms, but were heavily used by game development companies. Deluxe Paint was used byLucasArts to make graphics for their adventure games such asThe Secret of Monkey Island, and the name of a particular filename used to store the main protagonistGuybrush Threepwood[2] was probably at the origin of his peculiar name. One of the main artist developer of the game, Mark Ferrari, in an interview forThe Making of Monkey Island 30th Anniversary Documentary[3] remembers that "there was a pulldown menu in DPaint called brushes, so charactersprites were referred to as brushes", and the male protagonist was simply "the guy.brush" until the artist Steve Purcell suggested to take the very name "Guybrush". The author Ron Gilbert remembers that thePC DOS version of the file was named "guybrush.bbm".[4]
Deluxe Paint I was released in 1985.[5] A major feature wasanimation by usingcolor cycling.[6] The Amiga natively supportsindexed color, where apixel's color value does not carry anyRGB hue information but instead is an index to acolor palette (a collection of unique color values). By adjusting the color value in the palette, all pixels with that palette value change simultaneously in the image or animation, creating cyclic movement in the image. In the Christmas demo files on the Deluxe Paint I disk, this kind of animation (which is toggled by pressing thetab key) is used to depict falling snowflakes, a blinking Christmas tree, and a roaring fire in the fireplace.
In 1986, Deluxe Paint II was introduced, which added many convenient features such as pattern and gradient fill, which could be selected byright-clicking on a fill tool. An effects menu with e.g. perspective transformation was also added. The screen format could now be changed from a dedicated selection page.[7]
Deluxe Paint III appeared in 1989 and added support forExtra Halfbrite. New editing modes allowed one tostencil certain colors to protect them, so it is possible to e.g. paint a landscape from front to back, with the foreground protected by a stencil. A major new feature of Deluxe Paint III was the ability to createcel-like animation, and animbrushes (1MB of RAM is needed for animation[8]). These let the user pick up a section of an animation as an "animbrush", which can then be placed onto the canvas while it animates. Deluxe Paint III was one of the first paint programs to support animbrushes. This is similar to copy and paste, except one can pick up more than one image.[9]
Deluxe Paint IV (introduced in 1991), which did not include Silva as the lead programmer, offered significant new features like non-bitplane-indexedHold-and-Modify support for creating images with up to4,096 colors. Animation support was improved by adding a light table, i.e.onion skinning, and AnimBrush morphing. The color mixer was now a HAM region at the bottom of the screen (instead of a floating window as before) and allowed mixing adjacent colors similar to a realpalette.[10]
Deluxe Paint 4.5AGA appeared the following year, addressing the stability issues and providing support for the newA1200 andA4000AGA machines and a revamped screen mode interface. It appeared in both standalone and Commodore-bundled versions.
The final release, Deluxe Paint V, in 1995,[11] supported true24-bit RGB images. However, using only theAGA native chipset, the 24-bit RGB color was only held in computer memory, the on-screen image was displayed in HAM8 (18-bit colour).
DeluxePaint II for theApple IIGS was developed by Brent Iverson and released in 1987.[12]
Deluxe Paint II for PC came out in 1988, requiringMS-DOS 2.0 and 640 kB of RAM.[13] It supportedCGA,EGA,MCGA,VGA,Hercules andTandy IBM-compatible PC graphic cards.[14]
Deluxe Paint II Enhanced was released in 1989, requiringMS-DOS 2.11 and 640 kB of RAM, and supporting resolutions up to 800x600 pixels with 256 colours.[15]
Deluxe Paint II Enhanced 2.0, released in 1994, was the most successful PC version, and was compatible withZSoft'sPC PaintbrushPCX image format file. The MS-DOS conversion was carried out byBrent Iverson and its enhanced features were by Steve Shaw. It supported the CGA, EGA,MCGA andVGA IBM-compatible PC graphic cards, theHercules,Tandy andAmstrad proprietary video cards and the main of the firstSuper VGA video cards (manufacturer dependent) modes, enabling it to support up to 800×600 pixel screen resolution with 256 (from 262,144) colors and 1024×768 pixels with 16 colors.[16]
The sister productDeluxe Paint Animation (only for 320×200 pixels and 256 colors) was widely used, especially in the videogame industry.[citation needed]
Deluxe Paint ST was developed by ArtisTech Development, published by Electronic Arts, and was released in 1990, supporting features such as theSTE 4096-color palette and animated graphics.[17]
Features advertised for the Atari ST version includes 3D perspective, design your own fonts, mirror symmetry, multi-color airbrushing & animations, printing up to poster size, split-screen magnification with variable zoom, and working on animations (including multiple animations).[18][19]
"[" and "]" hotkeys could step through the indexed palette, turning indexed-pixel-painting into a fast two-handed mouse+keys process, and the right mouse button would paint with the background colour (instead of bringing up a context sensitive menu as is common in modern packages)
For example, transparency was obtained as simply as selecting abackground colour index (a single right click on the paletteGUI to change). Colours could be locked from editing by use of a stencil (a list of colour indexes whose pixels should not be altered in the image data). And simplecolour-cycling animations could be created using contiguous entries in the palette. It was easy to change the hue and tone of a section of the image by altering the corresponding colours in the palette. (The specific section needed to use a dedicated part of the palette for this technique to work.)
Brushes can be cut from the background by using the box, freehand, or polygon selection tools. They can then be used in the same manner as any other brush or pen. This functionality is simpler to use than the "stamp" tool of Photoshop orAlpha Channels as provided in later programs. Brushes can be rotated and scaled, even in 3D. After a brush is selected, it appears attached to the mouse cursor, providing an exact preview of what will be drawn. This allows precise pixel positioning of brushes, unlike brushes in Photoshop CS3 and lower, which only show an outline.
Animations stored inIFF ANIM format weredelta compressed (only the differences between current and previous frames are stored), making animations smaller and faster on playback.
Compute! criticized the documentation of the first release ofDeluxePaint as inadequate, but stated that "DeluxePaint is a visual arts program of immense scope and flexibility".[20] In later versions the documentation was much improved; for instanceDeluxePaint IV came with a 300-page manual.[10]
Deluxe Paint was a hit for EA.[21] The main line of the series, particularly installments one to three, has won a total of at least nine awards from independent publications and organizations,[22][23][24][25] including three Amiga-specific awards.[26][27]Deluxe Paint III also won Commodore International's Enterprise and Vision award in 1990, becoming the first software to win the award, for what the company's judges believed to be best utilizing the Amiga's graphical capabilities.[28]
Deluxe Paint for Atari ST won multiple awards from the publication:ST Format[29] for "Best Application Software Of 1990" and "Best Art/Graphics Package."[30]
ST Format's Andrew Hutchinson writes, "It (Deluxe Paint) first appeared in November 1985 and soon more than 50 percent of all Amiga owners had a copy of the package. Since then it's undergone two revisions, but the current version available for the ST far outstrips all earlier incarnations. It's the best version there is!"[31]
ST Review writes, "Amiga owners have been sniggering for years at basic packages likeNeochrome (NEOchrome) and even the mightyDegas (DEGAS (software)), as they tinkered with the enormously successfulDeluxe Paint series. Now ST owners have their day."[32]
Atari ST User's Simon Lawson gave Deluxe Paint the magazine's highest rating of "Excellent" for both "Features" and "Ease Of Use."[33]
Deluxe Paint was frequently used for making graphics for home computer games from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, and was used for games such asAnother World,[34]Dark Seed,[35]Eye of the Beholder,[36]The Secret of Monkey Island,[37]Sim City 2000,[38]Wolfenstein 3D,[39][40]DOOM,[41] andQuake.[42]
The music video for the 2003 single "Move Your Feet" by Danishalternative dance duoJunior Senior was created entirely using the Amiga version of Deluxe Paint by the art collectiveShynola.[43]
Thewebcomic "Unicorn Jelly" byJennifer Diane Reitz was completed over the course of three years using Deluxe Paint 2, one panel posted every night at midnight.[44]
British author and artist Molly Cutpurse used Deluxe Paint to create the video graphics for the 1989 filmMurder on the Moon, starringBrigitte Nielsen.
After leaving EA in 1989, Silva went on to join theYost Group, which developedAutodesk's3D Studio.[45][46]
In 2015,Electronic Arts released thesource code of "Deluxe Paint I" under a non-commercial license via theComputer History Museum for historical reasons.[47]
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| Proprietary |
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