1 comments about Adobe After Effects 4.1 Production Bundle.

1. The amount of thought that has gone into After-Effects is astounding. It is, at once, both easily grasped and deeply potent--a difficult poise to achieve with any invention.

   The user-model is thorough and obviously has been arrived at through meticulous research and user-testing amongst professionals engaged in real-world post-production situations. The feature set is balanced and the user-interface metaphors finely tailored to the art of multi-layered, concurrent, motion-image production. Be it expressive motion graphics for a corporate video, undetectable compositing for broadcast, or sublime title sequences for feature films, in caring hands there is little in the video arts that cannot be achieved with After-Effects.

   Alas, there are some shortcomings, one is that the color-space model is limited to 8-bit color (rather than the 16-bit that feature film work often demands). Another is the really unfortunate lack of 3D space (which means that objects can not be translated, or "moved," along the Z-axis but instead must be scaled to simulate this important element of composition--a poor substitute). Finally, some sort of, even rudimentary, content-management system would be very welcome, especially in work where many files are involved. I would pay another $1000 extra for the addition of these three things (heck, I might pay that just for the addition of 3D space alone).

   These few deficiencies aside, After-Effects really stands out there on its own, and anyone engaged in serious desktop video owes it to themselves to add it to their bag of tricks.

5 comments about Hallmark Card Studio 3.0.

1. The only reason I bought this program was because the American Greetings CreataCard Gold CD that I've have been using was so impossible to use with kiddy layout that I gave up using it. So, I bought the Hallmark CardStudio3 thinking it would be better ... but would you know it has the same kiddy layout that's even worse yet. They had to use the software developers for this program!



2. I love my hallmark cards. I like to use them and add personal things of my own but i'm having trouble with going to import a photo from my own collection it won't let me go to my desktop and pick it up. I can't go to any of my personal folders. I click on C and then on C but can't get there. HELP PLEASE>
   I love the hallmark studio delux cards 3.0
   Inez Myers



3. Who said this was so hard??? I absolutely love this software. I love the fact that every time my son has a birthday party to go to I don't have to run out and get a card. I can just have him pick one out at home and write whatever he wants on it. It's a big hit with the Grandparents too. They all love the personlized greetings they get from us. This is so easy to use.I even make my own Christmas cards. My Mom loved the cards we sent her so much she went out and bought the software too. I'm buying this today for my best friend. I'll be upgrading to the new 2003 edition as well..



4. Overall a very nice program, easy to use but is a lot like some of the childrens programs in simplicity but that should not deter you. I like to import my own photos and art work and it is simple with this program. I had Microsoft Picture It and Microsoft Greetings both of which refused to work on my Windows 98 SE computer but worked well on my computer with ME installed, why can't Microsoft design programs that work on all their platforms?? I think the average computer user would be very satisfied with this program. Please contact me with any questions.



5. I purchased this item from the Amazon description saying that it would run on Windows 95. When it arrived the product was listed as Windows 98 and upwards. I had to return it. Not good!

No comments about Visio Standard 5.0 Old Version.

No comments about Macromedia Flash Pro 8 Upgrade (Win/Mac) [Old Version].

No comments about Logo Design Studio Add-on Pack.

1 comments about Instant Cad Symbols.

1. If you're seriously looking for high quality CAD symbols, don't waste your money on this. I was very disappointed with the quality. Some of the "Symbols" consist of only two lines.

No comments about UPG QUARKXPRESS WIN 6.5 FROM V3 V4 OR V5 NO RETURNS ( 119854 ).

1 comments about Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 [LB].

1. I love the program but it has a serious flaw. It has a memory leak. Each time you open a document it uses more memory and does not release it even after the document is closed. The only choice is to close the program. I own several graphic editing programs and Photoshop takes the longest to load. Because of this I oftain load and work on an image then close it and load another. After about 3 or for editing sessions I need to close down the program and start over. I have 2 gigs of memory so if you have less you will have memory problems sooner.
   
   Adobe says it is not a memory leak. They call it memory fragmentation. What ever you call it, its bad. Like I said no other edit software has these kinds of issues.
   
   I was thinking about upgrading the photshop CS3 but now Im not. Adobe does not seem to want to address the issues with memory so I will probably move over to Corel Painter X.
   
   I purchased Elements because it has one of the best interfaces for proccessing Raw images from my D80. Its now time to start looking elsewhere.

5 comments about Adobe Premiere 6.5.

1. I started editing video several years ago using Ulead Mediastudio Pro, which is pretty good. Then I moved on to Premiere, and it's much better. You can find many more plug-ins and there's lots more support on the web from users. I strongly recommend this for advanced and beginners. It is not difficult to use, and always gets met the output I expect. Just need to put in time to get to know its functions, like any other software. I use it to create MPG2 for DVDs and occassionally realvideo or quicktime. Also, it's the only software that allows me to easily and extremely quickly convert a sound file into 48khz sampling rate. All other software, even sound software, only gives 44khz option, which is not compatible with DVD.

   Ernesto
   ...




2. Most people reviewing this product are reviewing it from an expert's viewpoint. I will review this product from someone with a little digital editing experience on lesser featured products, however a "newbie" to Adobe Premiere 6.5

   First of all, this program is quite complex, and it is not intuitively obvious how to use this product or how to find a productive workflow. I tried using the supplied 6.0 userguide however I got frustrated pretty quickly.

   I also ordered a SAMS Teach Yourself book for 6.5, and again became frustrated. It was obvious to me that the "drag and drop" interface can hardly be described by a book.

   Luckily the product came with a video DVD called "Introduction to Adobe Premiere 6.5" by Total Training. I watched this video for an hour or two and shadowed some of the instruction on my own footage. I was able to produce a passable editing job on a five minute production after two hours (excluding time to capture footage), interleaving watching the Total Training video and trying some of the moves shown on the video on my own footage.

   I bought the follow-up 16 hours of Total Training instruction for another $131 (including postage). If I get through this video instruction, I will have a pretty good handle on the product, but by no means an expert.

   Premiere 6.5 is chock full of features, which means there's still plenty to learn six months or a year down the road. What is a little disconcerting about this product is all the "new features" that came with 6.5, however some of these features have already been available for some time in much cheaper software packages.

   For example, I did not buy the bundle including DVDit, and Premiere 6.5 itself can't burn to DVD without having DVDit installed. Instead, I create the MPEG video and audio files using Premiere, then import files into a much cheaper video editing package that came with my DVD burner to complete the DVD burn. Hmmm. And now I'm supposed to fork out $300 for DVDit on top of paying for Premiere - I don't think so.

   The bottom line is you can produce fairly professional results with Premiere 6.5. The big question is do you want to invest the 20 hours effort to learn the not so intuitive interface and working methods?

   Well, I bought Premiere 6.5 with a firewire card for $200 so I'd say it's well worth it. And if another $130 worth of video training by Total Training and 20 hours effort to get me up to reasonable speed on most of the features I would ever use in Premiere, then $330 for software and training is a pretty good deal.

   By the way, Adobe customer service seems to be pretty good. You can call them for up to 30 days after buying the product. After that, you have to pay for support. I never did like this pay for support idea, since basically your paying them because their manuals aren't so good or their software is not easy to use. And sometimes your paying them to report a bug in their software.




3. Adobe Premiere 6.5 is far from the most advanced non-linear video editing package you can get however let me make this one comment.

   - Editing is all about cutting and not fancy effects. The strength of the project is what is in front of and behind the camera not fancy effects.

   I would never recommend using any of the effects on any of the non-linear video editing packages anyway. Get dedicated effects packages if you really want to do your special effects well.

   In short Adobe Premiere is the BEST cutting software and the EASIEST to use. The learning curve is slightly steep but you will be cutting your footage within a day or two with this one.

   An editors cuts and arranges media. Adobe Premiere does that perfectly. I recommend this like no other but if you are looking for pro packages then go elsewhere and be prepared to pay five figures.




4. Oh man, was I relieved when I found Premier 6.5 (after using Crapinnacle Studio 8). You'll find almost all of Final Cut's and after effects's pros here. The whole package, the great effects, includig Adobe's well known and fabulous color distortion and everything. I reccommend this. Totally.



5. I'm not an expert in the field of editing, but I plan to be, and I did have the opportunity to use Adobe Premiere 6.5 (in conjunction with Adobe After Effects, version 5.5, I believe) in a video editing class at my college. I think it's a fantastic program with a lot of possibilities.
   
   While I can't say that I knew what to do with the program when I first sat down with it, I did get a lot of time to experiment. By the end of semester, I was quite deeply in love with the program. I found the A/B editing mode to be very useful - not only for simplicity's sake, but also because of the use of transitions. All the projects I handed in had a simple "fade to the next video bloc" transition in it.
   
   Another thing I really liked about Premiere was that it played my video in real time. In After Effects, the computer system got a bit bogged down and wouldn't play video at 29.97 fps. But in Premiere, if I wanted film to play a certain speed, by George it went.
   
   Capturing the film from camera was also very simple. Hook up the Firewire, tell it to capture, and with one exception (being a college network failure), it captured every time.
   
   If you plan to buy this product, please:
   
   -Have a Firewire connection. (Quite key.)
   -Have a large hard drive. I filled a thirty gigabyte hard drive in five months, with four projects' worth of film.
   -Have a lot of RAM. "At least a gig!" all the geeks in class declared. I worked with 500-some megabytes of RAM, and was told that I was operating at the bottom threshold of memory. More is better.
   -Have a good camera. (Oh really, d'ya think?!)
   -Have a lot of fun with it. I wish to pete I'd had more than just a semester to work with this program. While not intended to do all the special effects of After Effects or other S.E. programs, it fulfills every expectation I had of it.
   
   Highly recommended! Good Stuff!!

3 comments about Amazing Designs Embroidery Solutions.

1. This software is demos only. You can't save anything or do anything with the designs. You're basically just paying for a sales pitch. The seller I bought if from didn't seem to know this and offered me a full refund, including shipping, so my poor rating is for the software, not the seller.



2. Just a crummy sales pitch not even worth a postage stamp to send it out, vender sent full refund, they did not know. I hung the cd in my fruit tree to scare off the birds, only use I could think off for it. Don't be fooled by the picture with the pretty butterfly!



3. I recived a very thin design cd -as I took it out of container it cracked all over-very thin cd- I have written seller twice and no answer-Poor ethic !!!!