MacroSystem Columbus 3 - Manual (Page 17)

17 Columbus 3 manual
5 . Application examples
We recommend you work through the following application
examples in order to familiarize yourself with how Colum-
bus 3 works. The sample exercises only demonstrate a few
of the functions of the program, but they do provide you
with a good starting point, so that you can also easily learn
to use the other functions, with just a little practice. For
details on the functions of individual buttons and controls,
please refer to the previous chapters. The examples have
been specially put together for newcomers to the program
and therefore introduce you slowly to the various controls.
Afterwards, we recommend you try out your own ideas.
5 .1 Creating a route on a map
In this example you will learn how to operate the Columbus
3 program, how to use simple effects and how to create a
simple route through Egypt, traced out on a selected map.
Open the Edit-Special menu, select Columbus 3, set the
mode to Image Pool Ext. and click on Start program. You
will now see a full screen image your last map or the Co-
lumbus 3, and the Columbus 3 toolbar in front of it.
If you have already changed some of the program settings
before, please click on the Default button and answer the
confirmation request with Yes.
You will see a yellow diagonal line that has a starting point
and a finishing point each indicated by a red Pin 2.
You should now select a map. To do this, you should go to
the Global settings. This is button 3 from the menu buttons
at the left. Select the map option in the Global settings
menu. Start the map selection and, in the following menu,
set the product to „Columbus 3“ and the type to Images.
Select the image in the second column of the second row.
It is „Egypt+“ with city names. To confirm your choice, con-
firm this menu with OK.
In order to edit the route, you should click once on the
green starting point (on the left) so that it turns blue. You
can now move it by rolling the trackball. Position the point
anywhere near the left edge of the screen, for example over
the city of Cairo, and then click on the left trackball button
again to confirm the new position.
Next, click twice on the finishing point so that it first turns
green and then blue. You can now move it to a city near the
right edge of the screen (e.g. on Luxor). Afterwards, confirm
the new position by clicking on the left button again. The
Columbus menu may be hiding the map you need. Just
move the menu to the other side of the screen. In order to
do this, you should press the second key at the bottom
right, immediately next the exit Columbus key
Note: If the city of Luxor is not yet visible on your monitor,
or if you would like to change the goal of the line to Assuan,
you can change the map view. To do this, you should go to
the Editor area menu and change the zoom factor to show
more of the map. It becomes possible to locate the goal of
the route on a spot of the map, which was not visible until
now.
Next, position the trackball pointer over any position along
the yellow line and click on the left trackball button. You will
see that a new point has been set. Repeat this procedure a
few more times until you have set several points evenly dis-
tributed along the line. Now click on one of the points that
you have just set. If it is red, click on it twice so that if first
turns green and then blue. If it is already green (i.e. active),
just click on it once. The blue point can now be repositi-
oned in the same way as the starting and finishing points.
Reposition the points one after another on your map so that
you create a few stopovers in other cities (e.g. El-Minya,
Asyut, Sohag, Qena).
You should now open the Global settings menu by clicking
in the left menu. In this menu, set the top selection button
to Head object, activate the Show head object function
and click on Select head object to choose a symbol for the
leading end of the growing line. In the selection window that
then appears, you will see several groups (can be set under
Type) of which some are better suited for use as a key point
and others as the head object. Settle for „Bus, transporter“
and select one. Acknowledge with OK and set the head ob-
ject size to 50%. Make sure that the Auto direction function
has been activated. Click on the Preview button. You will
see the bus move along the line. The toolbar reappears.
Lets us now slightly modify the line that is traced out by the
object. To do so, in the Global settings selection button, set
the Line type path function. This is where you can change
the type, width and color of the line to ensure, for instance,
that the line stands out better against the background.
Now look at the Preview once again, save your examp-
le (e.g. under the name „Cairo“) in the Archive and then
close the program by clicking on the Edit menu icon in the
bottom right corner. Next, close the Special window by
clicking on Ok so that the scene is calculated with a length
of 10 seconds (default value). The setting for the Split video
button in the Special menu is irrelevant in this case, since
you have not set any key points other than the starting and
finishing points. If, on the other hand, you prefer to get a
higher image quality, you should change the Quality setting.
A higher quality image will take longer to calculate.
5 .2 Changing the look of the key points
This example explains another feature: the look setting, i.e.
appearance.
For this, we will use the same map as for the first applica-