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| 2D Software |
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Simply the best photography and art program available. Image-editing
software for photographers, Web and graphic designers. Visually browse
and retrieve images with enhanced file browser. Simulate painting techniques
with painting engine. Liquify distorting tool and pattern maker plug-ins.
Runs native on Microsoft Windows XP.
I highly recommend this software package. Can't live without it! |
Adobe Illustrator 10
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While Adobe Illustrator has traditionally been reserved for the print
and prepress marketplace, recent versions have targeted a broader audience,
including a growing contingent of new-school Web designers. With the
latest incarnation of Illustrator, Adobe aims to please both print and
prepress designers, as well as cutting-edge Web designer communities.
If you're looking for a greater Web focus from your vector graphics
program, look no further than Illustrator 10.
For those concerned about Illustrator becoming too Web focused, don't
fret. All of Illustrator's previously existing drawing and text tools
remain intact. Version 10 also introduces improved tools for drawing
lines, arcs, and grids. These new drawing tools will maximize your productivity
and provide an easy way to create the shapes you want. |
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PaintShop Pro is one of the original graphics editors, stretching
back over 10 years. This latest version of the program features a new
interface, which is more logically organized. Gone are the cumbersome
floating palettes, so much a feature of earlier iterations. The tool
options palette, for example, is now a context-sensitive ribbon under
the menu bar. Lifting a leaf out of the CorelDraw handbook, the colour
palette and several others have been rearranged as dockers on the right-hand
side of the screen, too. |
QuarkXpress 5.0
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QuarkXPress 5.0's new and enhanced tool suite produces professional
print and electronic media publications more efficiently than ever before.
Design Web pages and entire Websites using the same palettes and tools
you use to publish print documents. And because QuarkXPress 5.0 conforms
to open standards, your Web pages can be opened and edited in standards-based
HTML development tools, such as Dreamweaver. The 5.0 release also boasts
an XML export tool that lets you extract content from QuarkXPress documents
and store it in XML format.
QuarkXPress 5.0 streamlines print, Web, and PDF workflows by importing
and exporting documents in dozens of file formats, including HTML and
PDF, as well as XML format. The software's new tables tool sports typographic
and image controls that create graphically rich tables in no time. QuarkXPress
5.0 also adds a new layers tool that isolates items within documents,
letting you manage hundreds of document variants and making it an ideal
tool for separating multiple design elements within a document. |
| 3D Graphics |
AutoCAD LT 2002
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Autodesk's AutoCAD is without a doubt the industry standard for computer
drafting. Its leaner sibling, AutoCAD LT, offers many of the same features
as the full version at a fraction of the cost. And while LT 2002 does
include a few of the important innovations of AutoCAD 2002, its capabilities
are still strictly limited to 2-D drawing.
Compatibility is one of the key advantages of LT 2002. It is 100 percent
DWG-compatible with AutoCAD 2000-, 2000i-, and 2002-based products,
allowing you to open, edit, and exchange drawing files. The software
features backward-compatibility as well, letting you save files for
use with AutoCAD LT 98 and 97 and AutoCAD 13 and 14. This comes in extremely
handy for people sharing files with others who haven't upgraded recently.
The DWF file format--basically a PDF file for drawings introduced in
the 2000 version--is improved, too, with support for more raster image
formats and higher resolutions. |
Bryce 5
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Version 5 offers numerous new features and improvements. To address
the complaints of the slow rendering engine, Bryce 5 has introduced
network rendering. No longer will one computer have to slave away all
its own on a 10-second scene. Rendering can be distributed across as
many systems as are available on your network. The number of computer
slaves available for use is only limited by your own hardware, as Bryce's
network rendering license is unlimited. However, Bryce still doesn't
take advantage of computers with multiple CPUs--rendering on a system
with two 400 MHz processors takes the same time as rendering on a system
with one. |
Lightwave 6.5
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LightWave 3D 6.5 is a powerful animation-production package for professionals.
It is built upon the fast, accurate 3-D Inverse Kinematics (IK) engine.
It features radiosity, caustics, subdivision surface animation, Skelegons,
and thousands of enhancements. LightWave 6.5 is a robust tool set for
manipulating these surfaces, including interactive modifiers that allow
you to model in multiple "soft" modes. LightWave also allows you to
sculpt "digital clay" by directly manipulating it at the vertex level,
controlling groups of points or polygons with an extreme list of operators.
Real-time subdivision surfaces, extensive texturing tools, character
animation tools, HyperVoxels, and ray tracing are all incorporated into
an extremely powerful animation system.
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Poser 5
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Poser 5 from Curious Labs is an ideal 3-D character design and animation
tool for artists and animators. Create 3-D figures using a diverse collection
of ready-to-use 3-D human and animal models. Poser's innovative interface
makes figure design, posing, and animating fast and easy. Map facial
photos, grow and style dynamic hair, and create dynamic cloth to add
extraordinary realism to your figure.
Quickly output movies and images from your posed figures for content
in Web, print, and video projects. |
Poser Pro Pack
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The Poser Pro Pack is an essential complement to Poser 4. Designed
for 3-D professionals, the Pro Pack from Curious Labs adds high-end
functionality to Poser 4, including motion blur, a Python-scripting
interface, and a new figure setup room that includes easy-to-visualize,
editable bones and improved character-creation tools. The ability to
host animated Poser scenes in 3D Studio Max, LightWave, and Cinema 4D
XL, combined with stunning output to the Macromedia Flash format and
Viewpoint Experience Technology, transform Poser 4 into a character
animation powerhouse. |
Poser 4 Full and Poser Pro Pack
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Poser 4 is a premiere 3-D character animation and design tool for
artists and animators. Create images, movies, and posed 3-D figures
from a diverse collection of fully articulated 3-D human and animal
models. Poser's unique interface makes posing and animating fast and
easy. Pro Pack adds powerful functionality to Poser 4. LightWave 7.0b
and 3D Studio Max 4.2 can host Poser scenes, and you can create custom
PoserPython scripts for even greater control of Poser. Pro Pack also
exports 2D Flash and 3D Viewpoint animations. |
| Animation FX |
Adobe After Effects 5.5 Production Bundle
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Adobe After Effects 5.5 delivers a comprehensive set of tools to efficiently
produce motion graphics and visual effects for film, video, multimedia,
and the Web. This Production Bundle contains all the tools in the Standard
version plus 16-bit color support, vector paint capabilities, network
rendering, and additional keying, motion control, visual effects, 3-D
channel, and audio tools. It also includes the Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator
Classic, a plug-in designed to help easily produce broadcast and film-quality
3-D graphics.
After Effects offers a high level of integration with Adobe Premiere,
Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator to produce professional results.
And with After Effects 5.5, you can get support for Microsoft Windows
XP. |
| Operating Systems |
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
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Windows XP is the operating system release that unifies the Microsoft
range, with all the desktop versions now built on the NT/2000 code base
rather than the shakier foundation of Windows 95, 98, and Me. That makes
XP a great upgrade for users of the now-obsolete 9x and Me line, but
for those already on Windows 2000 Professional it is a closer call.
Despite the similar name, there is no special synergy between Windows
XP and Office XP, which works fine on Windows 2000. |
Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar
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New audio technologies enable your Mac to support high-resolution,
multi-channel audio
AOL-compatible instant messaging
Create an instant network of computers and peripheral devices with
Rendezvous
Sherlock 3 displays custom information in content-specific windows
Works with Windows networks and files |
| Web Design |
Flash 5
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Design beautiful, compact Web animation
Build intuitive interfaces that maintain branding
Produce stand-alone, run-time animation applications
Create engaging rich-media advertisements
Create engaging rich-media advertisements |
