No comments about Adobe Creative Suite 3.3 Design Premium [OLD VERSION].

5 comments about Corel Painter Essentials 4 (Win/Mac).

1. I really loved this product. I'm an Adobe Photoshop man myself but found Corel's Painter Essentials to be excellent when doing a few simple things to pictures. It's very easy to use. Highly recommended!



2. This product is easy to use but it takes about a minute or so for it to do its thing in the auto painting. I recommend playing the video tutorials first as they were very helpful.



3. I haven't had much luck using this. Nothing comes out the way I want it to. I'm not crazy about it and you don't have a lot of personal control with it.



4. I found this Painter Essentials to be a great introduction to painting. A must for those interested in learning the basics of painting using the computer.



5. As a long time Photoshop user I was, admittedly, skeptical about the capabilities of Painter4. I was pleasantly surprised. It certainly is a mid-end product, but has all of the basics you world expect. For the price it really does the job. My kids (13, 15) took to it very well enjoying a very (matter our hours) swift learning curve. For quick picture touch-up's I actually now prefer this over Photoshop (I never thought I'd every say that about another product!).

No comments about Adobe Illustrator CS4.

1 comments about Adobe Creative Suite 3.3 Design Standard [OLD VERSION].

1. The creative suite 3.3 is the latest update in the Adobe suite, and the Design Standard bundle comes with everything a web programmer like me needs to do graphics for websites. Illustrator and Photoshop are recognized as the industry standard tools for the job for good reason, their functionality and features are unparalleled by anything else around. The suite is not for the feint of heart though as these tools are professional grade tools and as such require some introduction to use effectively. The menu styles and access methods for features is a little unusual for most windows users, but a good introduction book will cure that ill very quickly enabling you to get up to speed rapidly. This bundle is a bit more expensive than it used to be, but now includes Acrobat Pro which is a great addition. The one problem is that Adobe has discontinued Image Ready which was the tool used to create image maps. This is a vital tool for most web people and is included as part of Fireworks, which does not come with this suite. The Premium suite does come with Fireworks and it's only around $400 more and Fireworks is a good chunk of that if you buy regular retail, so if anything I would recommend upgrading to Premium if you are planning on doing image maps as that functionality has been removed from Photoshop in CS3.

1 comments about PhotoPlus X2 Digital Studio.

1. As a frequent digital photographer, I'm always on the lookout for new products that can save me time when editing my snaps. I use Photoshop CS2 for my business, but can't justify the expense at home, so I've tried various alternatives over the past couple of years. Of all the different options out there - Photoshop Elements, Paintshop Pro and the like, Serif's PhotoPlus X2 comes closest to replicating both the look and the power of CS2, but at a far more affordable price. I've been using it for several months now, and find many of its features indispensible - I rely on the batch processing feature regularly to resize my images, and the Instant Artist window is capable of some great results, although it does take some practice and can be slow at times.
   
   PhotoPlus isn't the easiest editor out there, but it does have a 'How To' window which can help with more complex tasks. I'd definitely recommend it to most digital camera users, as it will allow them to do just about anything they need to, without costing more than their camera...
   
   Overall I'd rate PhotoPlus X2 like this:
   
   Features: 9/10
   Help/Tutorials: 9/10
   Speed: 8/10
   Value for money: 10/10
   Overall: 9/10

5 comments about Broderbund Print Shop 21 Deluxe.

1. About 10 years ago I got a piece of software from Broderbund and it messed up my computer. I bought this thinking may be they got it together over the years. However, When I put this on my laptop it messed up the registry and made my cd-drive not show up. I didn't realize that it was this software until I tried it on my desktop and the same thing happened. My new boycott of Broderbund will now last til eternity. They are the worst software company in all computing history.



2. I was hoping they had finally caught up with other home publishing and print programs but this is still really slow. I think Printmaster is and was better than Printshop.



3. Product does all described, I found it easy to learn and use. I haven't even come close to pushing the limits what is possible to make, and am enjoying all that I can design.



4. This product is useful for beginners but quite incomplete for advance users. For example, it does not include "Sayings and Quotes" like previous versions. When making greeting cards this is a useful tool.



5. We had been using an older version of Print Shop. This one is very easy to use and has many more graphics than our previous one.

1 comments about Corel Photo Album 7 Deluxe.

1. I have to admit I've used this product for five minutes, but it doesn't appear to have the same features as Photo Album 4 or 6. This looks to be perfectly adequate software if you're starting from scratch with your photo collection, but if you expect it to be an "upgrade" from an earlier version of Photo Album you may be disappointed.
   
   The earlier versions created an Access database of the photos, that you could export and have as a record of the photo file names, captions, keywords, etc. Very useful when transferring large quantities of photos (not in slideshows) to someone else who didn't have Photo Album. While that wasn't an advertised function of the package it was nice, and appears to be missing from this software.
   
   The use of keywords for photos has been changed to using tags. Instead of being able to assign photos to keywords by clicking on the applicable keywords in a list, you now have to either retype the tags for each group of photos, or drag each group of photos to each tag.
   
   I've written to Corel support to see if I just can't find these features, so if I do find they exist I'll edit this review.

3 comments about Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 [Mac] [OLD VERSION].

1. After doing hours of research about which program I should use to create a website, I learned that DREAMWEAVER CS3 is the gold standard of professional web designers. Skeptical that someone like me -- with zero experience and little time -- could make it work, I downloaded a free 30-day trial version of the program from the Adobe website. [...].
   
   Guess what? It worked! And in less than 15 minutes I had a website, albeit a very boring one. Still it was up and with the site wizard's instructions I was able to easily spiff it up in an hour and felt confident enough and excited enough about working with the program that I bought it from amazon (cheaper than the Adobe site!) and asked for over night delivery.
   
   I am thrilled that I did. The program is incredibly easy to use. My site is now far from boring. Search engine optimized, neatly organized and professional in appearance, my site is exactly what I always wanted. I cannot believe I made it in only a few hours.
   
   I recommend that those interested in this program start with the free trial version and the site wizard's easy instructions. If you like the results, buy the full version and the book "Dreamweaver CS3 The Missing Manual," also available on amazon. Though not necessary for seasoned professions and as thick as a phone book, the Missing Manual is a spectacular resource for a non-nerd like me who has BIG website dreams.
   
   -- Regina McMenamin



2. I would NOT recommend this product. Adobe products always seem slow to me for one thing. Besides, having registered it three or more times, It caused my IMAC to crash two times in less than a week! I could not update the so called Hackers Security Issued on FLV videos on their site, so I let it alone. I noticed at the second crash (I could not catch Adobe file 'MM XMLXSL' from the first dying), checked all the LOG files and they all pointed to this 'MM XMLXSL' pathfile in Adobe Dreamweaver around the very hour of the same LOG time, presumably hackers or of some sort (I'm new to Apple), not giving me full access to the Leopard OS to start up 'Windows' like I know I'm supposed to, so I had to press the Eject button in order to get out of that loop, and then poof! Wouldn't you know it? My newly installed dual startup disk of windows is gone! (But the MAC OS was spared.) And I bet the hacker would like me to think I accidently crashed it Myself! (If that what hackers do???) I also noticed I had similar access problems at the first crash in less than two days of installing Adobe DreamWeaver CSS, It would not let me drag desktop items to the Applications Folder and it all ended up gone emptied in the Trash when I deleted it. However, I just got a new Update from Adobe, and probably not too long from now, this buggy Issue will be resolved in no time with their continuous loyal support, which I'm greatfull.



3. very easy to use . no problems / no crashes / needed help setting up FTP - otherwise i barely needed any help. there's a lot of free help on the web because its such a popular program. yes its expensive (how much is the whole CS3 suite? are you a student? check out discount.

5 comments about Adobe Premiere Elements 4 [OLD VERSION].

1. I wished that I had more carefully reviewed other users' comments before purchasing this software. The work space is very dark. Icons for Volume, Soundtrack, etc. do not contrast well with the dark work area, making them difficult to see. Also the selection tool puts a dark blue outline around selected movie clips, which does not contrast well with the dark background, thus making it difficult to see what has been selected. Such decisions by the software developers who designed this software are incomprehensible. Finally, I purchased this software to burn VCDs & SVCDs. This software will not burn VCDs or SVCDs.



2. I bought this for Adobe name and my new desktop with Vista.
   
   This product is difficult to learn.
   
   I went back to Sony Vegas. I could not find the CD but was able to download. They even had saved my registration.
   
   Sony Vegas has excellent tutorial. They walk you through the process interactively.



3. Installing this product breaks Adobe Bridge CS2, and there is no easy work around. In fact, the only workaround is to install Adobe Bridge on a second computer, copy some files, and uninstall. Yuk.
   
   See here:
   http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb402799&sliceId=2
   
   Note that the first of the two solutions probably won't work for you, since that's my experience, as well as the experience of most of the people commenting in forums. So, to fix your computer, you'll need a second computer.
   
   Upshot: if you own Adobe CS2, avoid this program. Actually, given my experience with this steaming pile of code, I'd just avoid this program, period.



4. A good product overall. Exclellent features, especially preview and scanning of clips which can be shaky with similar products. It was not running well to begin with, though. I called tech support and it seems I had a problem with my WinTV card competing for the same codec. But the tech support guided me through the solution quicky and with great expertise. 5 stars for tech support (located in Oregon, not Calcutta or Hong Kong!)
   Now it's working very well. But 4 stars vs. 5 as it's a little weak on menu creation. I am running on a 2.4 GHz computer, 1 GB RAM and 3 hard drives (1 for the OS and product install, 1 small drive reserved for temporary scratch data which makes it run much faster and the other for the imported videos)



5. Awesome, a low-budget version of the professional Adobe Premiere Studio, what could sound better? Warm pancakes? Maybe...but Premiere Elements could have turned into a classic software, great for students, beginners, and inspiring film-makers who can't afford the average $799 price tag for the full blown version. The Adobe Elements series as lasted this long, solely on it's prime series of Adobe Photoshop Elements. I work full-time as a MultiMedia Production Specialist, doing video-editing, graphic designer, and various other MultiMedia duties. I tap into the Adobe group every single day to do various aspects of my job, and I have loved what I have worked with.
   
   Coming from a very big dollar company, we can afford the full blown Creative Suite which is well over $1,000. However, we budget when it comes to our office computers, in which we need Photoshop...so since Photoshop Elements 1, our company has kept updated as the updates roll by. Photoshop Elements is a fantastic program, but for some reason the Premiere Elements series has strongly lacked the potential it could be for an amazing budget software. I read through the reviews and all I saw was bad review, after bad review...but why? I have dealt with Photoshop Elements all this time...how could Premiere Elements be THAT BAD? I took the advice of one reviewer here and downloaded the Trial Version of Premiere Elements 4.
   
   From the get go, the interface is a matching feel for what Photoshop Elements 6 is...dark interface, different navigation than the full blown version, and a semi-beginner friendly atmosphere. I actually love the interface for the software, even though it is totally different than what I typically deal with on a normal basic when we would with the CS2 suite. But I found it interesting and quickly began to try and "prove the reviews wrong", maybe the people didn't know what they were talking about or maybe they didn't have the right system requirements. Well, like most people here, I put it to the test with a top of the line video editing system.
   
   I wrapped myself around the software and explored the slimmed down version left and right. I thought hey, this would be pretty fun for a beginner, or person trying to get a budget software to start them up...I mean hey...it's from Adobe, it can't be bad. Then all my hope crashed, just like the software did...crashed. Not one, not twice, not three times, not...well...I gave up after the fourth time. Like a teenage school girl who just found out that the nerd in the back of the class likes her, I yelled..."Like..OMG!" Yeah, it was THAT BAD. The same THAT BAD that I didn't think was clearly possible, it's ADOBE for pete's sake! But Adobe has dropped the ball....BIG TIME. I do recommend the Photoshop Elements Series, but not this...stay away from it as far as possible.
   
   If you want to test it, download the trial. You can do much reproducing, primarily because of a black bar across everything that you do that states that "This was done by Premiere Elements 4 TRIAL", but you can at least see if it is going to crash on you. Don't get your hopes high, cause it will. In a nutshell, had potential, but failed big-time. One can only hope that Adobe can hear the complaining by us and actually produce a Premiere Elements that is actually GOOD. Elements 7 is coming in October via some sources...maybe there can be hope in that.

5 comments about Anime Studio 5 Win/Mac.

1. Anime studio 5 is a great way to start creating your own animations, but I highly recommend upgrading to the Pro version if you buy this and decide you like it. Like any media application (Photoshop, Final Cut, 3d Studio, etc) there is a lot to learn and producing quality animations takes time.
   
   The only caveats I can think of are that the mac version still has some bugs (though there are various work arounds, and they are expected to be fixed in the upcoming version 6) and the documentation is less than perfect, but there is an active forum full of experienced animators that will be glad to help you.
   
   To conclude, I would fully recommend Anime Studio to anyone wanting to experiment with animation, but not ready to swing for a more expensive tool.



2. Anime Studio 5 is a good beginner software for cartoon animation. However, the tutorial and instructions are deficient. They even describe functions that are not available and you will only find out (and stop searching) if your check their website for the FAQ!



3. Well depending on what you are looking to do with it, it's an okay piece of animation software. However there are a few key things to be aware of. First off there is quite a learning curve to this software, and no printed manual comes with it, so I found it to be difficult to learn-relying on tutorial and web manuals isn't my thing). The provided content is very limited despite how the description above sounds. Most of the characters aren't even anime style but more like real primitive toons. The anime figures that do come with the software aren't even produced inside anime studio but are rather Photoshop type objects that are very limited as to what they can and will do for you. Also these don't serve as good examples as to how to even make your own characters. I found the interface confusing and the vector drawing tools to be very limited and of poor quality. It's fun to play with and to learn about animation but producing anything of quality might be more difficult than with other software, even freeware that's out there and available. In my limited opinion it's just written up better than it delivers.



4. The one thing that is not made clear in most reviews of this anime creator is that first: The animation software is for people that have worked with some kind of animation software before or have worked with such products as PhotoShop. And those folks should understand a bit of the basic premise of animation production. This is a software package that is made to introduce folks to a product of modest price (compared to high-end products) that will allow you to do TV production scale animations, and the proof is in the examples at e-Frontier's website. I upgraded to Anime Studio Pro 5.5 because the Anime Studio which I bought at Target (and got a complete and FREE upgrade on the website (with registration) to the 5.5 version of the intro package) did what it was supposed to do... show me what was possible with the software. It works with a couple of really fine Adobe products as well... PhotoShop, Illustrator and Flash CS3 Pro... all of which I personally own. And it works in scripted form as well! You just have to understand some basic levels of programming. No, not everyone will like the application, granted. In my honest opinion you should grab this software at this very reasonable price and USE IT! You won't be sorry! Unless you have or want to spend 3K for Maya 8.5 (which is for commercial high end render-farm studios,) but really for a small desktop shop that isn't as much fun or as easy to use as Anime Studio! For the money that makes this product worth it. I intend to use this product to teach animation courses to beginners in the near future.



5. Because of the low price of this software, many people probably buy it thinking it is some simple-minded easy way to make cartoons that even a kid could use. No, that isn't what it is.
   
   What this software does is allow you to take a drawing - of a man or a horse or a worm or a machine - and add "bones" to it. You can then manipulate the bones to manipulate the drawing, in effect turning the drawing into a puppet. And because the bones are all connected together, when you move one you move the rest. So if you move the "hand" bone, the arm moves with it. If you move the thigh bone, then the foot follows along. Therefore you can make your puppet man walk just by moving the appropriate bones.
   
   To animate him you could move the bones a little bit for each frame, but this program is more powerful than that. You can create "key frames" where the bones are in extreme positions, for instance full stride in a walk and then perhaps the point where the legs are crossing in the walk, and then the program will "interpolate" the in-between frames for you. You set up 2 or 3 frames of a walk cycle and end up with 12 or 15 thanks to the software. You can define repeating cycles of frames which also saves time.
   
   It is NOT "easy" to use. You have to think about what you are doing. You have to learn how the program works. On-screen tutorials with video clips explain every tool and a complete help manual is always available while the program is running.
   
   Prepare to spend several hours learning how to use it. You will probably find it too difficult to use for any animation longer than a minute or two. You can add sound. You can import your own backgrounds. You can import a video clip and use it as a guide. You can import animations you did previously and build up the complexity. I had a horse pulling a cart across the screen left to right while plants were waving their leaves and a man walking across the screen right to left and it was getting to be too much for me to manage. The more there is on screen then the more complicated it is to manage it all.
   
   One hassle is that you cannot see what some special effects look like until AFTER you render them to a video clip. That's just a limitation of Anime Studio 5 because it's really an introduction to Anime Studio Pro which does render everything in real time. I'm debating now whether to upgrade to Pro, but first I want to investigate Toon Boom and some other programs.
   
   The output of Anime Studio 5 is very clean (because of the vectors) and suitable for animated logos and flash-like cartoon sequences. And it has a lip-synch feature so you could create an animated face for a web page that said "Hello! Come on in!" or whatever. It has a Flash output but I stuck with Quicktime for everything I did. You have complete control over frame rate, image size, and video quality.