To increase or decrease the resolution of your scanned images you use the RESOLUTION function in the SOURCE section of the Import images from scanner tools. The value that you enter in the RESOLUTION box represents the number of fields that you plan on zooming or trucking the camera into your sequence of images. The smaller the value you enter, the higher the resolution of the image being scanned (the DPI number appears below this function). Reduce the resolution field number to improve the resolution of your line.

Activate the FIELD CHART button, which shows a field chart exactly the same size as the output resolution that you defined when you created your scene. For example, the "Villy the Devil" demo scene that comes with CTP is in PAL video format, with a resolution of 768 X 578 pixels, in which a 9-field field guide is placed. As you lower the field number in the RESOLUTION box, you'll notice that the field chart reduces in size as well. That's because the higher the resolution, the bigger the image that is imported into CTP.

In other words, the higher resolution image represents the maximum zoom you will attempt, or the closest you will want to zoom into on your image. Once you import the image and place it into the exposure sheet, you must use the camera to zoom OUT from the drawing to make it fit into the output resolution, essentially reducing the size of the drawing such that it fits into view. Now that when you begin to zoom into the image, the line quality remains smooth, up until you reach the maximum zoom level determined by the resolution of the image you just scanned.

Note: This method only uses field numbers as a reference to determine the proportion of the imported image to the output resolution. The scanner, because it digitizes the image into pixels of varying numbers depending on the resolution you want, does not behave in the same way as a camera, which uses an optical system based on distances measured in field depths. So, for example, if you enter a value of 6 fields, and your scene was created at 9 fields, then the image you scan will really represent a proportional size difference at the maximum resolution needed to get the line quality you need for the shot, not an actual 9-to-6 field zoom in the traditional sense. It is a different system, using different physics, because a scanner can never behave exactly like a camera.

Once you have set your resolution, now it is time to set your filters to make sure the line quality is clear, and that all of the white areas on your drawings become transparent. Click on the Import Setup button to choose the right filter for your line.

The ONLY PREFILTER is the most flexible of all the filters:

To use the Prefilter tools effectively, turn on the Transparency button (the red button with the line through it). When you click on this button, all the pure white areas on the image you are scanning are displayed in red. Wherever you see red, those areas are considered to be 100% transparent by the CTP software. It is these transparent areas that will be painted in later. The red areas provide a visual reference, letting you see exactly which areas of your drawing are truly white, and which ones are gray or off-white. Any part of your drawing that is not pure white will be considered as part of a line or as an opaque area by the software. The image transparency button is very useful in conjunction with the prefilter options, because it lets you see the contrast between the lines and the white areas on the drawing very easily. Now you can keep on clicking on the dark areas with the Black Level selector (the black eyedropper) and the lighter areas with the White Level selector (the clear eyedropper) until all the lines in the image are surrounded in red.

Note: Always leave some white between the black lines and the red surroundings, this adds smoothness to the lines.

Yes, CTP does have very powerful peg hole detection tools. There are two scanning scenarios, depending on what type of scanner you have:

• You have a regular flat-bed scanner. Automatic peg detection is not useful in this scenario. You simply stick a peg bar down on the scanner, so that when you place your drawings on them, they are always in the same place. Activate the FIELD CHART button to and place the center exactly where you want the center of your scanned drawing to be. Then you can activate the AUTO SCAN button to determine the number of scans that will be made, and you can flip through each drawing one at a time, scanning each one individually for as many times as you specified. If you activate the AUDIBLE CONFIRMATION check box, CTP will even make a "swooshing" sound, indicating when you should change the paper between scans.
• You have a scanner with a multi-page automatic feeder, in which case you activate automatic peg bar detection.

Here's how it works:

1. If you have a scanner with a multi-page automatic feeder, preview the first image in the sequence. In the SOURCE menu of the import images from scanner tool, make sure that the AUTO FEEDER and MULTIPLE PAGES check boxes are activated.
2. Activate automatic peg bar detection using the PEGS BAR button in the import image from scanner tool. Please note that you must place a thin strip of black tape on the opposite side of the scanner sensor. The reason you must to this is that the peg holes must be made to stand out against the usually white background. As the paper travels across the sensor, the little strip of black that is behind the paper makes the peg holes stand out enough for CTP to detect them. Otherwise, the peg holes wouldn't appear at all.
3. Since the computer cannot make a judgment as to which pixels in the drawing are important, you must specify where the center of the imported images is by activating the FIELD CHART button and placing the center of the field chart over the center of your artwork. Click on the FIELD CHART button again to make it appear and disappear, it will always remain centered wherever you place it in relation to the position of the peg holes.
4. Click on the FIELD CHART button to make the field chart disappear from view so you can use the filters on your artwork.
5. Adjust your filters on the first image, then choose a destination layer in the storage sheet.
6. Click on the IMPORT button. The first image and all the subsequent images in the auto feeder will be scanned, aligned, filtered, and placed in the storage sheet.
7. Press the CLOSE button once you have finished scanning. You will be prompted to either save your scan settings with the scene file (if you plan to do more scans later), or you may dismiss the scan settings as you see fit.

If you want the lines to be a different color instead of black, you can re-color the line in the exposure sheet:

1. Select a sequence of images.
2. Select the VIEW LINE button in the view controls.
3. Select a color.
4. Select the FILL paint tool.
5. Press the SHIFT key and click on the line. All the lines in the drawing are now colored the same.
6. Press OK. CTP will prompt you and ask if you want to change the line color on all the selected images in the sequence.

Yes, do the following:

1. Back up your scene under a different name to make absolutely sure you don't accidentally delete anything that you might want to keep later.
2. Delete the rough pencil-test images from the storage sheet that correspond to the images in the exposure sheet you want to replace. If you have renamed or unlinked the cells in the exposure sheet, then rename them to match the cell code of the originals.
3. Acquire the higher-resolution images using the scanner, and give them exactly the same cell code as the drawings you just deleted in the storage sheet.
4. Select your images in the exposure sheet that you want to have replaced with the higher resolution images you scanned.
5. Select the "reload from storage" button on the toolbar (it's in the upper right side of your screen). The old images in the exposure sheet will be replaced by the new images in the storage sheet.

This is impossible using video capture, because the video camera used to capture the image has a fixed resolution that cannot be adjusted, period.

A PAL video camera cannot capture an image greater than 768 x 576 pixels, and an NTSC video camera cannot capture an image greater than 720 x 540 pixels. Furthermore, most video I/O boards capture even fewer lines of resolution than that. This is a technological limitation of video formats. To get higher resolution images into your computer, you must use a scanner.

CTP is resolution independent, meaning that can support different resolutions for different projects, whether they be film or video. The most common film image resolutions that people work with are 2K and 4K.

Theoretically, CTP supports images up to 8K in size. The film stock for this resolution would have to be custom made, however, and would require customized cameras and projectors, making it prohibitively expensive to produce such a film.

When you create a new scene in CTP, you define the output resolution you want to work in. If you select OTHER as your resolution, you can pick exactly the pixel size you need, both horizontally and vertically. CTP automatically analyzes your computer system and checks to see if it has enough physical resources to work effectively at that resolution.

Note: Film resolution images are rather large, and require a fairly substantial amount of RAM for your computer to manipulate them in great numbers. If you plan to output to film, it is recommended that you obtain as much RAM as you can for your computer, the more the better.

This table lists some common resolutions used by the film and video industries:

You just have to drag the sequence down the exposure sheet by a few frames to specify the amount of "pre-roll" you need. When you hit the playback button, CTP will render out the first frames as blank images, and will only stop rendering when it reaches the end of the sequence. You can also place a "slate" or "post-roll" image in another layer and place it at the end of your sequence.

For example, assume the drawings in layer A start at frame 1 and finish at frame 100. To create a "post-roll", do the following:

1. Activate layer B.
2. Scroll down layer B and select frame 101, leaving the first 100 frames blank.
3. Select a neutral color in the Paint palette.
4. Select the fill tool.
5. Fill the entire frame with the neutral color, then press OK. The frame is given a number, since CTP thinks you have created a new image using the paint tool.
6. Use the repetition tool to repeat the cell as many frames as you need, or press the plus key (+) on your keypad to add repetitions quickly, and the minus key (-) on your keypad to remove repetitions quickly.

We have discovered an older version of a particular .DLL file that sometimes causes CTP to crash. Once it is replaced, the problem is fixed.

The .DLL files are found in the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\ directory (for Windows NT users, the file is in C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\).

The .DLL in question is the MFC42.DLL file. In C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\ directory (C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\ for Windows NT users), right-click on the MFC42.DLL file and select PROPERTIES. In the dialog box that appears, select the VERSION tab. It must be version 6.* or later, or else it will cause audio conflicts in CTP.

If your MFC42.DLL file is an earlier version than 6.*, then it must be replaced with a current version, which can be found on a newer release/service pack of the Windows NT or Windows 98 CDROM, or directly from Microsoft.

When I output a QuickTime movie from CTP, the audio track doesn't play back properly.

This is an intermittent problem that has nothing to do with CTP, but with how QuickTime is set up on your computer. What follows was reprinted from the Apple website, which can be found at the following link:

http://til.info.apple.com/techinfo.nsf/artnum/n24381