I am SOOO proud of myself!!!
And before you all think I've completely lost my mind, let me explain.

For the last several months I have been trying to create ARexx scripts
that emulate some of the effects that are done in Photoshop. Mostly to
show people that we (Amiga Fanatics) can do that swell stuff too!
Anyway, everytime someone posts an idea or technique I immediately try
it1out and record my efforts. There were several hurtles that I wanted
to solve before I allowed an unsuspecting public an official "viewing".
One of those problems was solved by Corinna. At the Toaster Expo I
badgered her about the fact that if I used Straw on a brush, the effect
did not extend beyond the original border. If you all go to the
NovaDesign ftp site and get file; cacifx.lha (and cacifx2.lha for that
matter), you will fine "MagicBrush.ifx" within. The boon to the
civilized world. I wrote my script for strawing a text brush
incorporating Corinna's work (Thank you, thank you).

A solution to the next problem was inspired by reading the other day how
Steve Warner wanted to know the "best way to produce a glow or halo
around an object "
Carl Skala responded with the following:
"This works best with text I think. For your final image you need a dark
background. Black gives the best results. Make one buffer black and
make your swap buffer a nice bright color. Select black as a draw color
and generate some text. (try the word 'GLOW') Use CGTriumvarate.font at
100 points. (640 x 480 pixel buffer). On the bright color buffer stamp
down your text brush. Open the draw options panel and set the EDGE:
option to feather out and radius to 10. This adjusts the feathering's
mask size for the next step. Click ok. Double click the Scissors to
activate the MAGIC option and cut out your stamped text on your bright
colored buffer. Swap buffer to the dark/black buffer and stamp your
brush.
Wow! Look at that nifty glow effect.
If you adjust the feather in amount BEFORE you stamp your text on the
bright buffer your get interesting looking 'double glow' (well kinda',
you'll see) effect."

Well, I wrote a script that did most of all that. Then I looked at the
"o" in "glow" and saw that the inside wasn't glowing because when I had
created the Region around the text I hadn't added the interior of the
"o".
Soooo. It wasn't as easy as recording a macro of Adding to a Region. For
some unknown reason sometimes the Recorder doesn't use all the right
commands. To paraphrase Dr. McCoy, "I'm an artist, not a programer" so I
hate it when ImageFX is not cooperative. But, I'm stubborn. When I'm
testing my scripts I've got the ARexx help guide open, and I open a
shell on ImageFX (Esc key). I type in commands (Ugh) until what I want
happens in the buffer. Then I include them in the script. I love
multitasking. So the resulting script was born out of that sort of
playing around. I used the mysterious Wedge thing. It actually waits for
you to click in the location of the "o" to include it with the total
region area. I also discovered the Message command. While the script is
running it talks to you, tells you what to do, makes witty banter. Now
that I know about it I will of course use it to excess.
So, I have left these scripts at the ftp site and after Kermit has
perused and dissected them you may find them available under the
nomenclature, "cecilia.lha"

cecilia@vgn.com          Artist to the Stars