Cool 3D -- if you're looking to create text animations for web or other publishing use and your
requirements are not too serious, this is the program for you! While this program is limited in
its overall scope, it does what it was meant to do and does it very well.
The program is designed specifically for web-style publishing and fills a very important
niche for individuals that want to add a little flair to their www site or intranet but
are not technically adept at creating animations or manipulating text in 3D. Animations
can only be produced for text or symbols using the True-Type Font (TTF) format. If this
seems extremely limiting, don't be too discouraged, the range of effects that can be applied
are vast.
Program operation is about as easy as it can possibly be. All effects are applied in a
drag-n-drop fashion and include: Animation, 3D style, Light & Color, Texture, Camera, and
Background. A Gallery (another name for presets) is included for quick application of neat
combinations of Style, Lighting, and Texture. The program comes with many interesting
combinations already put together. The user may also add his or her own "presets" to the
gallery. Animation effects initially come in 21 flavours including the standard horizontal
and vertical rotation (and variations) as well as lighting and color cycling styles. Some
combinations of animation can be created and if you come up with one you really like, you
can save it as a preset as well.
If you want to start from scratch, you can enter your text (one line only) and apply the
3D style, lighting and color, texture and animation. There are five different options for
the style, including bevel, border, depth, extrusion, and weight. Again, if you come up with
a new style that you like, add it to the presets. Light and Color have many options as well
(and yes, you can save your favorites as presets). The texture window allows the additional
option of being able to "import" images (in .bmp or .jpg form) from other sources to apply on
your lettering. Again, they can be saved as presets. The camera option allows you to alter
the focal point of the view, represented in common photographic terms such as 35mm, and the
distance from the text to the camera. Last but not least is the background choice. This is
important when you're concerned about matching a theme (you can import images here too), or
you want to ensure that you don't get halo effects on transparent .gif's.
In order to manipulate the text, you have two toolbar buttons that allow you to select the
handling mode of the cursor. The first option enables a positioning mode which simply moves
the text (in it's present perspective) around the window. The second option is the most
creative, allowing the user to rotate the text x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis (right-mouse) by
draging the image with the left mouse button in the corresponding direction. And, it's
AMAZINGLY fast!!! The screen rendering mode can be set independently of the output rendering
level, which affords a more productive environment.
Font size and type, letter spacing, number of animation frames, positioning, and bold/itallic
options are all built into the tool bar and give the user quick access to the most common
functions. Rendering an image, whether it be animation or still, is accomplished via a
drop-down menu. In short, you can produce a very professional animation or still image in
literally seconds. It really can't be an simpler than this.
Quirks: With all this simplicity, there has to be some price to pay. As mentioned earlier,
you can only animate text or symbols from TTF libraries. Said text can only be one line.
Not multiple lines. One line. You can't change the text from the start frame to the last
frame to produce morphing effects, although you can change the text perspective and style
from the start to the finish and allow these to "morph".
Adding animation effects will cancel all other positioning and animation
effects. So, you can't build animation presets with combinations of other animations.
You have to start with one, then alter the position, size, rotation, etc. of the start
frame and then do the same thing or something different to the end to produce something
new. At this point, you can save the animation as a preset.
The frame rate playback is constant. This makes it difficult to see how your 10 frame animation
will look when played at a slower rate. The only way I found to slow down an animation for
viewing inside the program was to increase the number of frames. This, however, gives a
rather unrealistic view of what the animation will look like when played back slower at
lower frame rates (i.e. it's much smoother than it would normally be). Another oversight
is the inability to adjust the frame timing settings either individually or as a whole.
You get what you get and you don't get no more. If you want to fine-tune the frame timings,
you've got to use another program (like Ulead's GifAnimator 2.0 to be reviewed later).
Also, oddly enough, there are no optimization options like those present in most of Ulead's
other programs. I suppose they figure that you need to by Smart Saver or GifAnimator to
handle these sorts of things.
The ability to change-up animations in the middle of an animation would have been nice too,
but I suppose there has to be a line drawn. :)
Overall, this program is superb at what it does--animating text. It's also one of the
easiest programs that I've used for 3D text manipulation and animation. If it were any
simpler, it would have the image created before you ran the program! If you're a hardcore
3D modeler or demand complex animations or options, you'll want something with more power
and will soon outgrow this program. However, if you're looking for a piece of software
that animates text, creates nifty 3D stills, and is extremely easy and fast to use, grab
it imediately!
Interface: 9
Quality: 9
Ease of Use: 10
Longevity: 7
OVERALL: 9
