Autodesk Mudbox 2010 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I have not really used this product it came as part of the Autodesk Suite. I am studying for a bachelors degree in Media Art and Animation and we are using Autodesk Maya and 3D Studion Max. The school is geared toward using zBrush as the texture editing/sculpting software as this is what is currently being used in the industry. This may change in the future as it is much easier to work within the different applications when they are controlled by on product group.

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Autodesk Mudbox 2010 digital sculpting and painting software gives artists the freedom to create 3D digital artwork as if they were working with clay and paint. Designed by professional artists in the film, game, and design industries, Mudbox combines a highly intuitive interface with a powerful toolset of stencils and brushes for creating ultra realistic models and environments.

Whether you're a seasoned 3D professional, an artist who works with traditional media, an amateur enthusiast, or a 2D graphic designer or illustrator looking to add 3D to your workflow, Mudbox is what you need to add a whole new dimension to your creativity.
"Mudbox has always been a part of my workflow since I started to use it on King Kong. I really liked the real-time shading and rendering features that were added in the recent versions, and as a Maya user, I love Mudbox's working environment."-- Pascal Raimbault, 3D Modeler
Hit the road to freedom Mudbox gives artists the ability to create without worrying about the technical details. Sculpt and paint as fast as you think. With its friendly user interface, Mudbox can be easily used by both traditional and digital artists.
Welcome to the age of digital sculpting and 3D painting There was a day when design ideas were visualized through a physical model fabricated or sculpted from materials such as metal, paper, wood, or clay. There was a day when digital artists worked in 2D. That time is over. Meet Mudbox.
Brush based digital sculpting With Mudbox you can digitally sculpt ultra realistic 3D models with incredible detail--down to the pores on a character's skin--with easy-to-use, high-quality sculpting tools, stamps, and stencils. Choose from an extensive list of brushes, or quickly tailor them to fit your project's particular needs.
If you are new to 3D, you can use one of the simple built-in primitive shapes, such as a sphere, as a starting point for creating organic forms. Artists already familiar with 3D software may want to begin their designs in a 3D application like Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max, or Autodesk Softimage, and then bring them into Mudbox to refine the shape and add depth and texture. The Mudbox interface will be familiar to artists who already know these tools.
Texture painting Rotate your model to apply paint precisely where you want, no matter how complex the surface. Quickly and easily paint multiple diffuse, specular, reflection, and bump textures across multiple high-resolution maps on your 3D models. 3D painting is integrated with the familiar stamps and stencils workflow.
What you visualize is what they'll see The real-time rendering effects in Mudbox enable you to see your work in progress from any angle. When you're done, use Mudbox to show it off to clients, co-workers, or friends.
"Mudbox is a joy to use and is always surprising me with new possibilities for creativity. This software gets an A in my book and is a must-have for the serious CG artist." -- Tom Cushwa
From 2D to 3D It's never been easier to add a whole new dimension to your creativity. Adding Mudbox to your current 2D workflow frees you from the creative limitations associated with traditional photography, 2D software, hand illustration, and other traditional graphic design methods.
While the tools themselves will feel familiar to those who sculpt with clay, the Mudbox workflow offers the advantages of digital creative tools, such as Adobe Photoshop software, including the ability to organize your work using layers, mirror or flip them, and nondestructively edit your 3D models.
Let your inner child come out and play When was the last time you played with Play-Doh? It's time to try it again (minus the funny smell)! Mudbox guarantees hours of guilt-free fun--you're on a computer, so you must be working, right? After all, Mudbox is a work tool used by major film, TV, and games studios to create 3D characters and environments.
Ideal for:
3D artists
2D artists
Fine artists
Web and multimedia professionals
Traditional sculptors
Students

Applications:
Web and multimedia content
Film
Games
Television products
Design--automotive, consumer goods, industrial, architectural
Advertising
Product packaging
Illustration (classic, medical, or scientific)


Features
What's Included
Documentation and Learning:
Learning movies --Watch these movies to learn the essential skills to work in Mudbox.
QuickStart tutorial--Learn the basics of sculpting and painting in this step-by-step lesson.
Online documentation--The fully searchable online HTML-based help system includes user guides, tool references, and best practices.

Community: The AREA, a community for Autodesk Media & Entertainment products. Access free tutorials, downloads or interact with fellow users in discussion forums and see the multitude of talent from around the globe. Directly connect with industry professionals through blogs--more at area.autodesk.com.

Detailed Features IMPORTANT: Please read the System Requirements. As new hardware is added on an on-going basis, please also visit Autodesk's updated requirements.
User Interface Become productive in hours, rather than weeks, with the intuitive Mudbox user interface.
For traditional artists with no previous 3D experience, tools that closely mimic the behavior of their real-world counterparts are quickly understood and easily adopted.
Work with tools such as brushes, stamps, and stencils to quickly sculpt and create lifelike textures.
Use the Layer Editor to organize your work.
Maximize your workspace by hiding UI elements and using standard hotkeys to manipulate the camera.

Cameras Mudbox features innovative, accelerated camera manipulation, for excellent interactive performance with even the densest meshes.
Use multiple real-time cameras within a scene, including true perspective and orthographic cameras.
Bookmark your camera positions.
Model using reference images: each camera has its own image plane.
Use Smart Focus to position the camera based on the cursor position and brush size.
Manipulate your camera with trackball-style controls.
Use the same keyboard shortcuts for Mudbox cameras as those that are used for cameras in Autodesk Maya software.

Display Work interactively in an environment in which high-res 3D models retain their subtlety, realism, and detail.
Apply one or more image maps to any object, independent of the other objects in the scene.
Use smooth shading mode to get a display more representative of the limit surface.
Interactively view multiple texture channels (including bump and reflection) at the same time.
Interactively view multiple maps and multiple materials in the scene.
Work in real time with models that properly display advanced lighting (including HDRI-based lighting) and shadows.
Incorporate advanced display options into your presentation, including ambient occlusion, depth of field, and tone mapping.

Sculpt Layers Store different detail passes, design directions, libraries of morph targets, and more on multiple layers.
Mirror or flip the detail stored in one or more layers.
Edit nondestructively: Mudbox delivers paintable masks.
Quickly duplicate, merge, flatten, and reorder layers.
Precisely blend layers using interactive multiplier sliders and layer masks.
Use layers to store libraries of morph targets.

Advanced Digital Sculpting High-quality brushes, stencils, and curves let you quickly "sculpt" your geometry into the 3D model you envision.
3D Brushes
Use intelligently designed default brushes or quickly tailor them for custom behavior and performance.
Choose from a number of base brush types, including
Dry brush--enables you to create an effect similar to what can be achieved by painting only on the raised details of a model
Clone brush--enables you to quickly and easily copy existing paint on a model from one area to another, for your retouching needs
Sculpt brush--enables you to create complex forms with great control
Flatten brush--enables you to quickly create planes and wipe away detail
Wax brush--enables you to easily fill in area

Accurately shape your brush tips with falloff curves and stamps. A sharp falloff curve will cut an accurate, sharp stroke into the geometry with no soft stroke profiles.

Workflow
Sculpt both sides of topologically symmetrical models simultaneously--even when they are in an asymmetrical pose--with the powerful tangent space mirroring functionality.
Use curves as guides for brush strokes.
Use image stamps to quickly brush (in 3D) a detailed texture directly into your mesh.
Quickly add high-quality detail through mesh displacement. Use 8-, 16-, or 32-bit images to displace your mesh; Mudbox even supports displacement using multiple maps at one time.

Texture Painting and Assignment Quickly and easily paint multiple diffuse, specular, reflection, and bump textures across multiple high-resolution maps on your 3D models.
Apply detail precisely where required, regardless of UV distortion or surface complexity. In the Mudbox 3D Paint mode, the brush position relative to the model is calculated in true world space; paint is projected tangent to the model. 3D painting is integrated with the familiar stamps and stencils workflow.
Selectively paint reference images onto the model from a particular viewpoint. Using the new Projection brush, you can project paint onto the model from screen space.
Paint hero characters with ease: Mudbox supports the painting of multiple maps on multiple meshes.
Paint both sides of your model simultaneously with the familiar symmetry workflow.
Paint and display a different texture for each UV square unit tile.
Use the intuitive layer editor to easily manage multiple paint layers. You can select, blend, and organize several images for each texture channel.

Texture Baking With its robust texture baking capabilities, Mudbox solves one of the most common bottlenecks in production pipelines: baking of normal and displacement maps.
Bake high-quality normal and displacement maps between multiple arbitrary meshes. Detail can be baked into 8-, 16-, and 32-bit maps.
Generate smooth, high-quality maps using extraction options designed to address issues related to poly faceting by extracting between the limit surfaces of the given meshes.
Displace your meshes using multiple floating point maps.
Bake normal maps that are compatible with Autodesk Maya and Autodesk 3ds Max software.

General Workflow Mudbox performance is renowned, with tools organized in a familiar, intuitive manner.
Work in real time even on 3D models that are fully subdivided into tens of millions of high-quality polygons.
Manipulate the camera using conventional camera controls--to maximize your workspace and reduce "back and forth" workflows.
Streamline your workflow through tools such as the Hover Pick functionality and hotkeys.
Use asymmetrical mirroring to streamline the process of working on posed or asymmetrical models.
Work on one mesh in the context of others: Mudbox supports multiple meshes within the scene.
Use the built-in image browser--with full support for 8-, 16-, and 32-bit images--to view reference images and quickly assign them to stamps, stencils, or camera image planes.

Connectivity and Integration Mudbox works well with Autodesk Maya and Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Softimage, as well as with other 3D software applications, making it a natural choice for experienced artists.
Simpler interoperability with Maya, 3ds Max and Softimage Mudbox has support for Autodesk FBX file transfer technology, allowing artists to import and export scene data containing more information than the usual OBJ file format. Important data can be retained, including painted texture maps, cameras and image planes. This results in higher fidelity transfers; saving artists time.

PSD File Support Round-tripping of Mudbox paint layers (converting to and from Adobe Photoshop) is now possible through added support for PSD import and export.
Software Developer Kit (SDK) The addition to Mudbox of a software developer kit (SDK) opens up the software as never before, giving developers the ability to customize Mudbox and integrate it with their production pipeline. This is the launch of the Mudbox SDK and it is anticipated to be expanded with future releases.

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Autodesk Mudbox 2011 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)if youre a student with a student email you could get this for free! After i bought this i was sent to the web site for auto desk student site. it's says get all auto desk for students for three years. if youre not a student i suppose it's worth it, but for me i just paid $53 for some thing i could easily have gotten for free.

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Autodesk Mudbox 2011 software helps accelerate design, sculpting, and approval phases with powerful new tools for deforming and posing models, and the new ability to help create high-quality turntables for presentations. Moreover, the texture painting toolset is significantly extended with image adjustment brushes and blend modes for paint layers, while a Vector Displacement map extraction method offers new possibilities for creating and rendering complex details. And, with single-click file transfer with Autodesk Maya 2011 software; multi-layer PSD exchange with Adobe Photoshop software; and added support for Windows 7, and Mac OS X 64-bit operating systems, Mudbox 2011 integrates more easily into existing pipelines.



Key Features and Benefits
Posing Toolset Quickly and easily deform and pose models to change their design, access occluded regions, present them for approval, or prepare them for map extraction. With tools for quickly creating and editing joints, and the ability to import weighted skeletons from Maya 2011, Autodesk 3ds Max 2011, or Autodesk Softimage 2011 software, the new toolset enables modelers to create and manipulate poses as part of the design, sculpting, painting, or approval process.
Image Adjustment Brushes Selectively edit and manipulate existing paint and photo-based layers with new image adjustment brushes: Blur, Dodge, Burn, Contrast, Sponge, Hue, Hue Shift, and Invert. These brushes enable existing image data under the brush to be altered or enhanced—for example, color-corrected, brightened, or softened.
Vector Displacements Extract maps using a new Vector Displacement method and represent displacements that do not simply follow the normal: for example, forms with appendages, undercuts, folds, and bulges, such as a human ear. Once extracted, maps can be used to help recreate detail at render time in supported renderers, or as brush stamps or stencils in Mudbox to sculpt complex detail onto meshes in a single stroke. Artists can build up a library of commonly-used forms and reuse them on models.
Paint in UV Space in the 3D View While painting in 3D space helps with precise placement of detail on the model, in some cases it is easier to paint textures in a 2D format. An innovative new feature in Mudbox unfolds a 3D model into a 2D representation, based on its UVs, but retains the benefits of working in a true 3D environment such as the ability to analyze lighting and material qualities. Beyond painting, sculpting on the unfolded mesh with tools such as Grab and Smooth enables basic editing of the 3D model's UVs.
Enhanced Interoperability with Maya, 3ds Max, and Softimage No need to navigate through multiple file browsers and remember path and filenames: now models and scene information transfer between Mudbox 2011 and Maya 2011 with a single click. In addition, Displacement and Normal maps extracted in Mudbox are now associated with models when an Autodesk FBX 2011 file is exported, helping to eliminate the need to manually reassemble the asset when brought into in another program. Meanwhile, using Mudbox in concert with a favorite content creation application is easier than ever with a choice of familiar hotkey setups for common actions.
Blend Modes for Paint Layers Control how paint layers composite together to help create a final image by selecting from one of the new blend modes: Multiply, Screen, Add, or Overlay. These non-destructive settings help artists to experiment freely when constructing complex multi-layered textures by offering the flexibility to change the blend mode.
Multi-Layer PSD File Exchange with Photoshop Import and export multiple layers in PSD files to leverage the Adobe Photoshop toolset on more demanding scenes and projects. Now artists can edit layers in the context of the final composite, helping preserve continuity in look and workflow when moving between Mudbox and Photoshop.
High-Quality Turntables Quickly and easily create high-quality 360 degree turntable movie files directly in Mudbox. Common file formats enable movies to be more easily accessed for remote review or approval via email or on a website; turntables are also useful for showcasing artists' work.
Session Recording Record a sculpting and painting session in Mudbox and export the recording to a movie. Recorded sessions can be used to share workflows, teach techniques, and showcase talent.
Superior Performance Work with assets of greater complexity through significant performance increases for scenes with multiple objects.
Enhanced Color Chooser Store and recall recently-used colors and user-defined palettes, and work in a choice of color spaces using the same new color chooser as Maya 2011.
64-bit Support for Mac OS X and Windows 7 Mudbox 2011 has new 64-bit executables on Mac OS X and Windows 7 operating systems providing more addressable memory to more easily handle the increasingly detailed models required by today's challenging productions.
Mudbox In-product Community Get more out of your Mudbox experience with online community resources accessible directly from the Mudbox application. Artists can select from hundreds of stamps, stencils, base meshes, and tutorials in the Mudbox Library, and share their work with other users for valuable peer review without ever having to leave their work environment.
Separate Normal Map ChannelView and edit Bump and Normal maps simultaneously, using the new Normal Map channel in the default material to display normal maps.
New Incandescence ChannelCreate glows and other self-lit effects with a new Incandescence channel in the default material.
Subdivision-Based Map ExtractionA new subdivision-based map extraction method helps produce higher quality maps more quickly and easily than the traditional Raycast method.
Extended SDKWrite custom brushes for painting and sculpting, with an extended SDK (software development kit) that offers additional examples.
Enhanced User Interface LookAn updated user interface features a dark-gray color scheme that helps reduce eyestrain and makes it easier to evaluate materials and lighting.
What's New in Mudbox 2011 Autodesk Mudbox 2011 digital sculpting and texture painting software includes the following new and enhanced features:
Deform and pose models quickly and easily to change their design, access occluded regions, present them for approval, or prepare them for map extraction.
Selectively edit and manipulate existing paint and photo-based layers with new image adjustment brushes.
Transfer models and scene information between Mudbox 2011 and Maya 2011with a single click.
Extract maps using a new Vector Displacement method and represent displacements that do not simply follow the normal: for example, forms with appendages, undercuts, folds and bulges.
Import and export multiple layers in PSD files to leverage the Adobe PhotoShop toolset on more demanding projects.

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Corel Painter 11 Education Edition Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Corel Painter is in a category all its own. While photo manipulation software comes in all sorts and layout programs abound for every skill set, Painter is a unique program that allows real art to be made directly in a digital format.
This could easily be quite a cheesy goal and a sub-par result meant more for play than serious work. Could be, but Painter does the task so well it is really astounding.
I could have said the exact same words, and have, about Painter IX, a program I have owned since it was released.
I've found that program unsurpassed in all kinds of creative goals for both web and print use, for both serious work and for creative exploration.
I was familiar with Painter IX, and yet I'm still a bit blown away by Painter 11.
It's an easy transition. Everything looks the same and so there's no major transition from the older to the newer. The main difference is in feel. Painter 11 just feels more natural. It has better response, better control, better overall simulation of the various media. Even on the Intuos3, I could always feel a strong bit of distance, and artificiality, on Painter IX. In Painter 11 I just feel so much more connected to the canvas on the screen.
Some have noted some issues with their graphics pad. I've not seen any problems at all. Perfect and easy use, even better than Painter IX in every respect.
Often, new programs try to add so much they become slower, or more complicated, or otherwise a step down in performance for the steps up in function. Painter 11 adds a whole list of new brushes and capabilities, all functioning perfect as I try them out. It does this while speeding up all the various interactions. Everything just seem so smooth. So not only are the brushes and pens feeling so much more natural, the whole experience is sharpened and quick.
The integration with the Adobe products is likewise quite good. One thing I've appreciated about the various Corel products is their ability to 'play well with others'. Instead of trying to mark out its territory by ignoring the major players, Corel enables functions that takes seriously the probable software use of real designers and artists.
Painter has always been a program in its own class, and that sometimes means a company doesn't continue to innovate with it. Corel keeps pushing the edge, making a five star product much better, by making better what it already did great and adding quite useful capabilities on top of this.
Extremely pleased with Painter 11. Well worth the cost, and if you have an older version it is indeed worth an upgrade.
Some reviewers have noted this version seems slower. I just can't see what they mean. Indeed, not only does this program feel quite a bit faster it also seems to work well on a variety of systems. My main computer is a XPS710 with a quad core processor, a nice video card. Of course Painter flies on that one. But, surprisingly, it also works quite smoothly on my laptop, a Dell e1405, that has no separate video processor, is one of earliest dual-core, and only has 1gb of memory. If I do particularly processor intensive tasks it does lag a bit, but significantly less than my Adobe programs. It works better than Painter IX did on the same computer.
As far as operating systems, I've run this on Vista premium (my main computer), XP media edition (my laptop), and Vista home (my wife's laptop). Runs great on each.
As far as the difference between academic and regular editions. There isn't any. Just the price. Like with a lot of software, Corel offers a discount for those who can verify they are in school or work at an academic institution. One great education benefit of this software is a great, and cheap way, to learn art skills. All the paint and art supplies are free! Not exactly the same as physically doing art, but a really, really great way to learn the basics and explore techniques.
If you're worried about how well it works, Corel has a full-featured 30 day demo you can download.
So no worries. Try it then buy it. It's an amazing product!

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Please note: Proof of eligibility required to purchase Corel Painter 11 Education Edition--only accredited schools, faculties, full- or part-time matriculated students, and academic supervisory organizations are eligible to purchase Corel Education software. Expand your creativity with Painter 11, the most inventive digital painting software on the market. By adding Painter to your workflow, you gain a full art studio that gives you the tools to create unprecedented artwork. Digital art tools let you experiment with color theory, composition and brush strokes, without the toxins, mess and expenses associated with traditional art. Support for the entire Wacom product line, including industry-leading Cintiq interactive pen displays and Intuos drawing tablets, gives you the most responsive digital painting experience so your hand and brush work fluidly as one. Customizable paper textures give your art added artistic undertones, plus a level of texture and detail that no other digital painting or photo-painting tools can produce. Painter is changing what's possible in art. Now it's your turn.

The World's Most Powerful Natural-Media Software
Enhance the Creative Process
Enhanced Artistic Media reproduce the texture of their real-life counterparts and intensify color with each stroke
Pen and drawing tablet (recommended), combined with Painter's RealBristle brushes, recreate the natural interaction between hand and canvas
New Hard Media Controls let you create your own hard media variants, or choose from new hard media variants in the Brush Library

Go Beyond the Digital Darkroom
Improved color recognition for files imported from Adobe Photoshop, and individual color profiles per document, make your colors more precise
Photo-painting tools with SmartStroke technology let you creatively transform reality
Customizable surface texturing gives your art a level of fantasy and detail that other photo and painting software can't deliver

Learn from Unlimited Experimentation
Digital art tools let you experiment with color theory, composition and brush strokes without the toxins, mess and expenses associated with traditional art
New Hard Media controls give you the flexibility to play around to find the exact look you desire
Smart composition tools, such as Divine Proportion and the Rule of Thirds and Fifths, help you visually arrange your canvas to create perfect compositions

Features
What's Included
Content Libraries of unique textures, gradients, nozzles, patterns, stock photos and brushes, including the new RealBristle dry media brush category
Documentation
Getting Started Guide
HTML User Guide and Getting Started Guide
HTML Help files

Training
Online tutorials and testimonials

Enhance the Creative Process
New--Hard Media Controls Create your own hard media variants, or choose from new hard media variants in the Brush Library, so you have more creative control over your media. Customizable profiles, dab sizes, transitions and stroke width previews let you play around to create the exact look you want.
New--RealBristle Dry Media Marker, pen, pencil and chalk media reproduce the look and feel of their real-life counterparts in a way that no other software can!
Marker--intensify color with each new marker stroke so you can color in one continuous shade or create a buildup of color
Pen--choose to create fine pen strokes, or thick strokes and ink deposits, by changing the velocity of your stroke. The faster you go, the thinner the line; the slower you go, the thicker the line
Pencil & Chalk--control shading by changing the angle of your stylus on the drawing tablet. Choose whether to draw with the tip or shade with the side of the nib-just like in real life

Enhanced--Selection Tools A new Polygonal mode for the Lasso tool, plus overall improvements to marquee tools and the Magic Wand, let you make more nimble selections the first time around.
Enhanced--Wacom Support Support for the entire Wacom product line, including Cintiq interactive pen displays and Intuos pen tablets, gives you most responsive digital painting software and the best digital art experience.
RealBristle Painting System Replicate the sensation and interaction between traditional paint and canvas with your pen and tablet. This represents a major milestone for digital painting by making brushes totally responsive to your hand and canvas, creating the most realistic painting experience.
Customizable Brushes Create your own brushes in the type, size or pattern of your choice, so you can make custom brush strokes and create artwork that is truly unique.
Go Beyond the Digital Darkroom
New--Color Management Create better color matches with new individual color profiles for every document and improved color recognition for files imported from Adobe Photoshop. This enhances your workflow because you save time by having fewer color corrections to make.
Enhanced--Adobe Photoshop Support Maintain colors and layers when transferring files between Photoshop and Painter. This saves time when importing and exporting artwork between the two programs, because corrections are less necessary.
Photo-painting Tools Transform photos into paintings by hand, or let SmartStroke brush technology in the Auto-Painting Palette paint a photo for you. It follows the lines and contours in the picture just like a real artist would. This lets you take the best of both worlds--photography and painting--to create new forms of art.
Customizable Surface Texturing Give your art added artistic undertones, plus a level of texture and detail that no other digital painting software and photo-painting tools can produce. You can choose paper textures for your canvas, or create and customize your own textures to produce really unique artwork.
Learn from Unlimited Experimentation
Enhanced--Mixer Palette & Swatches Extra mixer swatches appear when you enlarge the newly resizable Mixer Palette. Increase the size of the Palette to put more colors at your disposal and have a clearer view of your chosen color. Reduce the size when you no longer need to mix colors so the Palette takes up less space on screen.
Smart Composition Tools Divine Proportion and the Rule of Thirds and Fifths help you visually arrange your canvas before sketching or painting to create perfect compositions.
Flexible Digital Art Tools Experiment with color theory, composition and brush strokes to your heart's content, and produce exciting results-without the toxins, mess and expenses associated with traditional art.
Universal Mixer Palette For multicolor selection, this palette gives you better control over color blending between the Mixer palette and the canvas, so your colors are more precise.
Underpainting Palette This palette includes color schemes based on various artistic styles, such as Impressionist, Classical, Modern, Watercolor, Sketchbook and Chalk Drawing, so you can create art like your favorite muses. You can also match your Underpainting Palette to that of any open image for consistency.
Match Palette Effect Match the color and intensity between 2 images. Just open an image that features your desired color scheme and use the Match Palette effect to bring that color to the image you want to change.
Increase Speed & Stability
Enhanced--Performance Painter 11 is optimized to provide artists with the fastest version of Painter ever. Depending on system hardware, brushes perform up to 30% faster, creating a more true-to-life painting speed.
New--Transformation Capabilities Switch between different Transform modes from one centralized tool, and choose whether to transform the complete contents of a layer, or selected content, for greater speed, flexibility and precision.
New--Resizable Color Palette Adjust colors manually with sliders on the Color Palette. Enlarge the Color Palette up to 800 pixels for a clearer view of your selected color. You can now also fine-tune the color wheel with your arrow keys so it takes less time to find the perfect color.
New--Color Management Interface The fresh and simplified interface makes it easier to control color profiles when creating new files, or when opening Painter and other file types.
Windows Vista Support Painter 11 supports the latest operating system from Microsoft.
Mac OS Support Painter 11 supports the latest operating system 10.5 from Apple.
Multiple Platform Support Painter 11 includes both Mac OS and Windows versions on the same CD.

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AutoDesk Inventor Video Tutorial - Training DVD / Download - Inventor 2009, 2010, 2011 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I didn't know about this company before, but they issue really good video tutorials for a great price. This is about 30 hours of material on Inventor, with all the updates included for free, and since I bought my copy they issued about 10 hours of updates. The layout is good; videos and narration are high quality. If you are new to Inventor you will be able to function in the software after even just a couple hours. Highly recommended; I'm going to use it for my students.

Click Here to see more reviews about: AutoDesk Inventor Video Tutorial - Training DVD / Download - Inventor 2009, 2010, 2011

Click here for more information about AutoDesk Inventor Video Tutorial - Training DVD / Download - Inventor 2009, 2010, 2011

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Corel Painter 12 Upgrade Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I've been using Painter since it was sold in a paint can. This program does what others only attempt. I frequently use Photoshop, and other graphics programs, but painter stands alone. My only beef is the occasional crash, I can't remember ever having a crash in Photoshop, but painter does maybe once a week... I couldn't see giving it 5 stars with the crashing. But still this program does some pretty cool stuff.
I also want to mention the new watercolor brushes. I use to do water color with brush and paint. Painter 12 has revamped their watercolor brushes, on previous releases I haven't bothered with them because they never seemed to work realistically. However in Painter 12, It's looking very realistic. The "light Fringe Real Watercolor" Brush lays down color great. It has a "drying" effect that pushes pigment to the edges and also into the deep spots on the texture of the paper. Very cool! You have to wait a moment to allow the strokes to dry, but in the old days I worked with a hair dryer, and had to wait a couple minuets to dry areas, so waiting 10 seconds isn't really that big of deal (it would be nice if it was instantaneous though).
Another great feature is cloning now puts the source picture into the project picture file, so if you like to work on a piece on multiple sessions, you wont have to go hunt down the source file again.
All in all, a great program. some real nice refinements on this release. But please Corel stabilize this program. The price is a premium, the program should be able to stand without stumbling all the time.


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Corel Painter 12 Education Edition Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Like others posting here, the serial number that shipped with my education version did not work. I contacted Corel and they emailed me a new serial number. After I received that the installation went smoothly and Painter 12 works on my Windows 7 64-bit machine. It hasn't crashed, yet but it does take longer to load than Painter 11.
They have changed several things in Painter 12 so it will take a while to get used to the new interface. I've had to run several searches to find out simple thing like:
1. How to add a brush to a custom palette? In Painter 11, you clicked and dragged. In Painter 12, you have to hold down the shift key while you click and drag! You won't believe how long it took me to find that out!
2. How to turn the tracing paper off and on? In Painter 11 there was a button near the upper right corner of the image. Now the toggle is on the new navigation menu but you have to first click on the settings button located near the bottom left corner of the navigation window. (Update 9/1/2011: A recent Painter 12 update put the tracing paper option in the Clone Source window. Thank you, Corel!)
3. How to I set the clone image source? It's not in the dropbox menu anymore--it has a window all to itself.
While it is tempting to go back to Painter 11, I will stick with Painter 12 because I use this software in a course I teach and it is important that I keep up to date.
I do believe that in the long run I will like the new interface. It reminds me a lot of Photoshop. I like the new navigation window--but who would have thought the tracing paper function would be hidden in a setting there? The brush controls have also been improved. The brushes are a lot faster (at least on my machine), and that in itself makes it worth upgrading.
Overall, I'm happy!

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Autodesk SketchBook Designer 2012 Review

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(More customer reviews)Based on the list price of this software, you might think that it would be a powerful, efficient, BUG-FREE application that would rival Adobe Creative Suite for ease and power of vector and paint content creation. Or at least it would be as easy to use and as well-polished as its sister product, Sketchbook Pro 2011, which does pixel painting only, no vector art.
You would be wrong.
Despite being their 2.0 product (2012 release), this feels like a rough beta in many ways on my system. This may not be fair, because I also use Sketchbook Pro, which is so well-polished, that my expectations for Sketchbook Designer were high, especially given that for little more than the addition of vector tools, Autodesk is charging TEN TIMES the price of Sketchbook Pro 2011. After using it SBD 2012, I consider this price to be utterly ridiculous.
BUGS!!
I am using this on a system that absolutely sings with Sketchbook PRO 2011, so I did have the expectation that SBD 2012 would work at least moderately well. Instead, there are random lock-ups of many seconds, during which mouse actions are captured, and then result in a mess of unintended operations once the SBD GUI wakes up again.
Occasionally, SBD will out-right crash to the desktop, losing all your unsaved work.
This behavior is with light usage, NOT loading multi-megabyte image resources, using dozens of vector and paint layers, etc. Just doing a circle and trying to fill it with something was pretty crashy.
Layer blending is buggy _sometimes_. I was trying out several blend modes, it will show a mode, appear to accept the change, and then as soon as I selected a different layer, it switched itself back to the previous mode. At one point I did get it to accept a mode change, but not the mode I wanted, so it kept reverting back to screen when I actually wanted overlay. I couldn't even get it back to normal blend mode. At one point, I went on with my work, created and edited a vector layer, and came back to the blend layer, and retried it. This time it worked, staying as an overlay blend after I set it to overlay and selected a different layer.UI bugs and 'issues' are collected in the following section.
UI ISSUES
Unfortunately, SBD appears to have been written by a completely different team who decided that certain aspects of the look and feel of SBP were simply not acceptable for their product, which does not speak well for their intelligence. SB PRO has to be the most remarkable software that I currently use, both for ease of use, and cleanness and useability of the UI. The result is a new interface to learn in SBD, even for tools and operations that are supposed to be identical to their SB Pro sister-product. More than half the shortcuts are missing, there is virtually no customization of the UI, and the Marking Menu now requires the use of a keyboard (Control key on Windows). (Well, some marking menus require the CONTROL key modifier, and depending on context, some don't. Inconsistent UI.)
One reason that complex software is forced to use a modifier key is that there are multiple functions that are activated by different mouse buttons, but SBD is NOT complex software. THERE ARE NO OTHER FUNCTIONS. There is just click to draw, and control-click to bring up the marking menu. It is as if the programmers have never seen or heard of a system with a two or three button mouse, or used a Wacom stylus with dual side switches, or even a single side-switch, for that matter, since that is the equivalent of a two-button mouse. Is that you, Steve Jobs, moonlighting as an Autodesk programmer? This is infuriating on my system, since I have a mobile tablet with a two-button Wacom stylus. With SB PRO, I can use both buttons freely, and map them to whatever I like, including a custom pop-up menu (which allows me to map key-board shortcuts to a custom pop-up marking menu mapped to a middle-mouse button click, obviating any need for a keyboard, in addition to the mildly customizable marking menu within SB PRO). In SBD, the marking menu is not customizable AT ALL, and it wouldn't matter if it were, since I usually use my tablet in very mobile situations for which it was created, and I don't have the required keyboard to enable holding the Control key, so that I can actually use the marking menu. I have a two-button stylus, equivalent to a three-button mouse, and since pressing the stylus to the screen is the equivalent of a left-mouse click and drag on a mouse, I have two completely useless buttons on my stylus. I mapped one of these buttons to act as a Control-key press. Testing in Chrome and other software, this works perfectly as a Control key replacement. But in SBD, it works NOT AT ALL. Instead, it appears that any stylus button press acts just like using the stylus tip, and indeed, using a three-button mouse, the behavior is identical. Press ANY button on the mouse, whether it is a 3-button, 4-button, or 5-button mouse, and it acts the same as pressing the Left mouse button. This behavior interferes with the display and operation of the custom pop-up marking menu I mapped to one of my stylus buttons. So for example, if I try to perform an undo with my custom pop-up, the stylus, not in contact with the screen, is nonetheless creating a mark on the drawing while I am bringing up the custom pop-up, and this operation becomes the operation that gets undone, resulting in the inability to actually undo a previous operation.
The only supplied toolbar is a very long, floating toolbar, longer than my screen in landscape mode. By default, the tool icons cannot be seen or used, and nowhere else can the functionality of these tools be accessed. Normal WINDOWS programs place all program functionality in pull-down menus, and the toolbars are just customizable shortcuts to this functionality. Apparently, SBD programmers (and SBP programmers for that matter) are completely unaware of this concept, not bothering to place all functions in the pull-down menus. Oh, sure, screen space is wasted by an always-visible menu bar, even in 'UI-hidden' mode, but various tools and operations, somewhat at random, are missing from the menu bar, and are only accessible on the tool-bar, or in marking menus from various panels. So, there is hidden functionality on the right side of the bar that normally can't be used at all. Another bug actually allows me to get to those buttons: The tool bar, if clicking in just the right spot, jumps to a right-justification, showing the missing functionality, but hiding critical, toolbar-only functionality on the left side of the bar. I'd say this was a feature, but unfortunately, there is no way to get the bar to jump back to left-justification. It's stuck until the 'return to Default UI' function is invoked. Then, randomly, it may or may not return to left-justification. This would at least be an acceptable work-around, but the default arrangement of panels is somewhat buggy itself, putting panels in the middle of the screen and on top of other panels, requiring another step of resorting every thing to your ideal arrangement.
Regarding the UI layout, maybe this is another bug: When I checked the Help on customizing the screen (SBD Help on my Windows system is labeled 'for Mac', so maybe this feature only exists on Mac) the laughable 'Customizing' page lists only the ability to move toolbars and panels around the screen as the only customization possible! LOLZ! It also lists a function, accessed in the Window menu or by Alt-3 on Windows (^3 Mac) to restore a custom layout (panel position). It doesn't explain how a custom layout is stored or saved. In a separate short-cut help PDF, accessible from the Help menu, it explains that Alt-4 will save a custom layout. Unfortunately, neither the menu buttons, nor the short-cut key functionality for these two functions, Save and Restore a custom layout, are included in the actual application. So when restoring the Default UI, which you have to do if you have the toolbar issue on a small screen like I do, OR if you like to switch between a GUI-less fullscreen mode and then necessarily back to GUI so you can access the many functions that exist only in panels and toolbars (no keyboard shortcuts for them either, remember), you are stuck redoing any custom moving around of palettes, panels, or toolbars you need to do.
These bugs and UI issues are what has cropped up with about 24 man-hours of usage, including a new one just as I'm experimenting with it while writing this review, so I doubt I've encountered all the bugs there are to find. (P.S. Correct. A new issue is that the "Sample all layers" check box in the Fill tool on a paint layer became unselectable.)THE GOOD
Since SB DESIGNER is supposed to be SB PRO with added vector drawing capability, the expectation is that it should be at least as good as SB PRO at painting and sketching, and should have some joyful experiences in store for vector-art creation, much as SB PRO has made sketching, drawing, and painting more fun for the user than its predecessors and competitors.
It meets these expectations.
As much as I love using SB PRO and SB Mobile on my mobile Pen-Tablet PC, Desktop PC with Intuos tablet, and my Android DroidX, the pixel sketching and painting in SBD actually feels even better. While SB PRO on my pen-tablet finally makes me feel like I truly have something as good as pencil on paper, SBD feels like something BETTER than paper. I can't put my finger on it, but it is smooth, responsive, easy to shade delicately, and make truer lines to what you intended. All SB PRO functionality, with the obvious exception of the above bugs and UI issues, is present in SBD. Dodge and Burn tools have been added, and I think that the one major addition to...Read more›

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Hybrid paint & vector environment for flexibility and precision. View larger.

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ArtRage Deluxe 2.5 Review

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(More customer reviews)ArtRage is a natural media digital art software with several very nice features, some challenging those of Painter and Photoshop. The first thing that I liked was the software's graphic user interface or workspace. Given the number of features and the amount of controls to customize the tools, you would expect a complicated and intimidating GUI similar to that of Painter or Photoshop. Instead, you have an uncluttered workspace with only six panels bordering the edges. Also, as you are working, these few panels automatically disappear out of the way as your brush approaches and reappear again as you move your brush away. Other nice features are a rotating canvas and pen tablet support. ArtRage can import and export several image formats including JPEG, BMP, PNG and PSD.
Those artists who begin their artwork by blocking out the major shapes and colors in their painting will appreciate ArtRage's Tracing Image feature. This feature allows you to import a photo or sketch as a starting point for your painting. ArtRage projects the imported tracing image onto the canvas and you can control the scale and opacity of the image. For example, while tracing the outline of a rose with the Pencil tool, I set the opacity to around 80% which allowed me to see the details clearly. Later when I began to add color, I lowered to opacity to about 30% to create an "onion skin" of the trace image. For artists who like to paint from a reference image, ArtRage allows you to "pin" a reference image or images directly on to the canvas. Once the reference image is pinned to the workspace, you can reposition the image next to the area you are working on.
ArtRage has two ways to work with color; Trace Color and Normal Color. Trace Color is a feature which takes all the hard work out of choosing colors. As you paint with any of the tools, the software chooses the colors for you, based on the trace image. If you prefer to choose the colors, you can switch to the Normal Color mode and ArtRage has several color pickers including a Numeric Color Picker and the basic RGB and HSL color pickers.
With the Custom Color Picker feature, you can narrow your color choices in the color picker panel to a smaller group of colors such as complements, warm colors or cool colors. Finally, ArtRage comes with several preset Color Samples. You can even create and save your own custom color sets and color samples.
Now that we have our digital colors, we are ready to paint or draw. Each of the natural media art tools in ArtRage can simulate traditional art media including oil, pencil, palette knife, airbrush, chalk, glitter, paint roller, paint tube, felt pen, crayon and eraser. The realism and amount of custom control over the tool's properties such as wetness, pressure, hardness and angle, are surprising for the price. The natural media tools can also be used with the Metallic Paint option which gives a metallic characteristic to the media and to the canvas. In the Papers Settings Panel, you can choose a preset paper type and control several aspects of the canvas such as grain, roughness, color and opacity.
Another feature that one would expect in only high end software is layers. ArtRage's Layers panel rivals its competitors'. You can work on individual areas of your painting on separate layers. You can also copy, group and merge layers. Each layer has its own properties, such as opacity and blend modes, and can be moved, scaled and rotated. You can control the characteristics of the paper or canvas for each layer. ArtRage also supports transparency for layers, Photoshop's blending modes and has the ability to retain layer information when you import or export your artwork in PDS format.
The Stencil Picker is a very nice feature that can have many applications. The stencils and rulers work in three modes. In the Stencil mode, you can use the stencil or ruler as a mask to prevent paint from touching the canvas. In the Ruler mode, the stencils and rulers act as a combination straight edge and snap to function. As you move your paint brush along the edge of the stencil, your brush will automatically snap to the edge of the stencil giving you a nice clean edge. The Guide mode works like the Ruler mode but allows paint to spread under the stencil or ruler, giving a softer edge. ArtRage comes with a nice selection of preset stencils and rulers. You can also create and store you own.
Besides the built-in resources such as color samples, preset paper types, trace images, stencils and rulers, ArtRage comes with several video and pdf tutorials, sample paintings, quick start guide and a nice user manual.
I almost feel embarrassed to suggest additional features. But if I had a "wish list" for ArtRage it would include just a few things. For art media tools, I would like to see a watercolor brush and a drawing pen with a really fine point. As for new features, I would like to see selection tools and tooltips. Although ArtRage does have a multiple undo feature, it would be nice to have a history panel.

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Paint blend sketch and draw on your computer!Easy-to-use ToolsArtRage Deluxe gives you realistic art tools in a simple and stylish environment. Start creating your own works of art right away just pick up the mouse and start painting!Tutorials and MoreArtRage Deluxe includes tutorials and videos to learn from reference images for tracing and stencils for painting precise shapes. You ll have the artwork and guidance you need to create amazing art!Tools of the TradePaint and draw with oils brushes pencils rollers pens and more. Blend and smear paint on the canvas and use the bristle texture of your stroke to add depth to the image. The Metallic Paint option gives you spreadable blendable gold and silver oil paints sparkling glitter silver leaf sprays and other incredible effects!ArtRage Deluxe makes creating art easier than ever!Start creating from the moment you open ArtRage!Creating your artwork has never been easier. Start a new painting using the tracing paper function. Loading your owntracing image gives you an image to use as a reference and creates a canvas for you to work on.Customize tools and colorsPick colors zoom in and out and trace your image as loosely or tightly as you see fit. Use layers to isolate colors effects and lines. Mix them at will! Choose areas and layers of your work for a variety of color and effects line quality blending paint thinners canvas roughness paper textures and more! Draw strokes using varying pressure with a wide variety of tools.Finish your work with fine detailing airbrushing distortions or varying backgrounds. The creative possibilities are endless!System Requirements:Windows:Vista XP 2000 or Tablet PC800MHz processor or faster256MB of RAMMacintosh:OS X 10.3.9 or laterG4 processor or faster256MB of RAMFormat: WIN 2000XPVISTA/MAC 10.3.9 OR LATER Genre:ENTERTAINMENT UPC:717103856488 Manufacturer No:ARDHBX2

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Punch ViaCAD 2D/3D Review

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(More customer reviews)If you are looking for a great CAD program for a very low price, you have found it. There is not a better value in CAD anywhere. Other consumer CAD programs such as DesignCAD and TurboCAD Deluxe do not even come close to the capability and ease of use that ViaCAD provides.
Don't be fooled by the sub-$100 price, ViaCAD 2D/3D Version 7 offers professional grade functionality with expert level capability. On top of that, it is the easiest to learn and use CAD program available. Much of the functionality mimics that of much more expensive programs such as SolidWorks and Inventor. The user interface, however, is so simple that your designs will come to life very quickly.
Where ViaCAD separates itself from other consumer grade CAD applications is that it is fully capable of doing more complex design work such as boat hulls and car bodies, which, for example, are not normally possible in TurboCAD Deluxe. It provides true solid modeling by utilizing the ACIS kernel and can import and export an amazing variety of file types.
Version 7 of ViaCAD has even more modeling functionality and rendering features than previous versions. Now, for example, you can render your model with very realistic textures that make your design look more like a photograph than a CAD drawing. There are also other numerous improvements to overall functionality that make the program even more capable and easy to use.
ViaCAD is not a perfect program, as none are. It does have occasional bugs, but there is a very good support network on the web and service packs are updated regularly.
I have been a CAD hobbyist for 15 years using a variety of programs such as AutoCAD, IntelliCAD, DesignCAD, TurboCAD, and SolidWorks. I also previously worked as a Sales Representative for SolidWorks. I've been a user of ViaCAD since Version 5.

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With over 100 new features, ViaCAD 2D/3D v7 continues to provide intuitive 2D drafting and 3D modeling tools perfect for all types of design projects. For both Windows and MAC users, version 7 delivers enormous Punch! at a tremendous value.

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Corel Painter 12 Review

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(More customer reviews)I have to preface that I was a beta tester for this release and I cannot discuss anything during that time. My review is for the final product. So please do not ask about the betas, I will disclose.
This may be a lengthy review so the tl;dr (Too Long Didn't Read Version) is up top - more thorough after.
Edit- August 18th 2011: - Corel released their first patch and it also helps with multicore and performance improvements. It also seems that they're listening to customers where they'd like to see more releases and updates to the program.
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Painter gets an overhaul with its new release. While there are bugs that were present in past versions, along with new ones !boo! - The good does seem to outweigh the bad compared to past Painter releases that seemed more like patches to previous versions.
The Real Watercolors is a definite seller for me - to finally see watercolors that behave like watercolors for the most part. However, there is issues with lag.
The new interface and navigator window are definitely great. I also like the Brush category cleanup with some reservations. Like what happened with the Artist Oils?
The zooming has improved a lot in this version, and despite the bugs, thinking it over - I'd recommend this version because it's finally more of an update than a patch.
The New:
Overhauled GUI
Customization of your workspace including custom icons/jpegs for your entire workspace including brushes
Navigator Window
Windows 64 bit multicore support
Mirror Mode
Kaleidoscope Mode
Real Watercolor Brushes
Real Oil Brushes
Online Help with Video Tutorials
The longer review is below
------------------------------------------------------------------The last two Painter releases had left me a bit frustrated with the bugs, and I'll be honest this release is definitely not bug free. I will get into this later in the review. However, after thinking about how to review this product I felt it best to look at what this release does for Painter especially since the last two versions. I've been a long time Painter user and I also wanted to think if it helps newer users that are afraid of Painter's interface.
I am happy to see Corel finally working at listening to many complaints Painter users had.
Painter gets a brand new interface. I have to admit, I'm not completely warm to the icons - some of them seem silly or kiddie to me, but the new look is a welcome. The biggest reason is the vast amount of customization I can make to the workspace. Gone is the old Windows 2000 look. Now I have panels where I can group what I need together. I'll provide some screenshots to help users too (unless Corel updates product info and it's not necessary). Panels are collapsible and detachable. You can change the order of what panel you want up front.
Want a custom icon for a shortcut or brush you use because previous versions of Painter just used the same category icon? Now it's possible!
You can dock your panels on the top or bottom of the screen. You can even change the toolbox into a horizontal layout if you don't like the Photoshop vertical one. Double Row? Sure!
Brush Library gets an overhaul too, it's a lot easier to read instead of the previous scroll of doom. No more buggy thumbnails on how a stroke is supposed to look. The new interface puts that right down at the bottom of the Brush Selector. Have a brush category you like going into you can now drag it up to the top of your brush list. Want to hide ones you don't use without opening cumbersome dialog windows? That's also possible.
Another better feature. Finally a separate dynamic re-sizable Navigator Window. This makes workflow so much easier.
Remember that nasty jaggy zooming? That has also improved. Zooming is much more smoother - but you may need to update your graphics card.
Help Topics are now online along with a PDF file, so this means possibly better updates to topics when things aren't clear. Believe me, even in this release Painter does need it. There's still parts of the manual that need fleshing out. This now makes it easier to correct. Corel even has video tutorials for the uninitiated!
So, any new brushes? Yes, and in fact as the brush selector got an overhaul, so did the crazy amount of brushes. Gone are the Oils 30, 10 and other sizes. Categories got cleaned up. With the exception of how the Artist's Oils category was handled - it was a much needed revamp. Without the "Artist's Oil's" prefix, it's hard to know it was an artist Oil without looking at the Brush customization panels. You can however switch between the new library and Painter 11 to get it. Windows users will also have multicore support - sorry Mac users not this round.
So we have Brushes that now respond to blending modes just like Photoshop - a much requested feature. In addition we have the Real Oils and Watercolor brushes. If a brush seems slow - open up the Brush Panels and uncheck the multicore option.
I have to say, the Real Watercolors are a major seller for me along with the other goods Painter put into this product. However, after a while they tend to lag.
There are some complaints though. Painter needs to get with the program and make brush customization import and placement easier. Often times users are messing with hidden system files of their user data to import new brushes. Painter needs to make it easier for users and not have them go into those files.
Copy and Paste is still a pain. I don't understand why this is easy with other image editing programs (illustration ones are included) and this function is such hit and miss for Painter.
Painter is a bit slow to launch at times and is fussy. This program is not crash free. I was hoping for more stability this time but alas not so. Hopefully Corel will work faster at getting patches out for the bugs.
I also don't know why the color tools are somewhat broken. The color wheel no longer slides to a perfect white or black. Just look at the HSV/RGB sliders when moving to Black or White to see what I mean.
Mixer Palette seems to have taken a step back with lack of hotkeys and more confusing buttons. It wasn't that broken (other than a lack of undo/redo) so this "fix" made it more harder to work with.
Dual Monitor settings don't seem to set in as well and there are bugs with that setup.
There is an issue of getting random strokes. This is not limited to the intuos lines of tablets.
Transformation tools can still use some work. Although it is nice that Painter plays with well with Photoshop - I'd really like to be able to transform items with much more ease so that Photoshop is my image optimizer and final touchup program - than having to work between programs in the middle of a painting.
Some decisions are just bizarre. Why, for example does the Welcome Screen links launch in Internet Explorer instead of your default browser? The Online Help Topics launch in your default browser just fine - but slow for XP users.
While I was hand-wringing over the bugs. I do have to concede to this being a big overhaul that's worth an upgrade or purchase.
The new features are actually NEW features than "here's some minor update but let's throw in a bunch of new brushes you won't use to keep you distracted".
I do hope the bugs get fixed and I give a nod to Corel and its team for this release.
If you have any questions or need help with Painter feel free to leave a comment and I'll reply with more information on how to work certain features of Painter.

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The redesigned Corel Painter 12 user interface. View larger.

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Mac Logo Design Studio Pro V. 2.0 Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this program hoping to make a logo for my new business. The best thing about is the amount of different stock logo types you can choose from. Besides that the program isn't really user friendly and I've had problems with it crashing frequently. After working with it for a few weeks I realized I could accomplish more in PowerPoint in a shorter amount of time. The only way I would recommend this program is if you don't have Microsoft Powerpoint or you have very little experience working with Microsoft Powerpoint

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Pro Scores - Cinematic Music Design Tools Review

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(More customer reviews)This "cinematic design tool" is exactly what it says it is. Powerful, professional-sounding music that is preset for those who don't have the time (or budget) to compose their own. If you are creating a movie trailer, short film, or even a full-blown hollywood box-office hit, and you dont have the time or money to create your own full-blown composition, Pro-Scores will do it for you. This is a very simple, cheap (when you're paying $25 a song to use royalty-free tracks) and helpful tool for any movie creator. Yes they are all presets, however, you are able to mix and match alot of the sounds and create your very own masterpiece to fit your needs. Its been very fun, fast and easy to use with Adobe Priemere Pro (and I'm sure any other video editing software). I would recommend it 10 times over.

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Art Explosion Publisher Pro Silver Review

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(More customer reviews)If you're looking for easy to use desktop publishing software at an affordable price... this is the one to buy! I am extremely pleased with Publisher Pro. There are numerous professional-like templates and the application is very easy to use. Of all the various "print programs" and dtp applications I have, this one ranks right at the top of the list. I especially like the newsletter templates and ease of use. Highly recommended.

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Logo Design Studio Pro Vector Review

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(More customer reviews)This product will be well suited to a small business person who wanted to set themselves up with a basic company logo. The Wrap-Around Text feature only lets you use one font. The drawing porton of the program is OK at best. I recommend using a little extra money and get a full publishing suite.

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Autodesk Sketchbook Pro 2011 Review

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(More customer reviews)The Autodesk Sketchbook Pro 2011 is the best digital sketchpad I've ever used! I majored in art in high school and have always used art, crafts or designs in many of my jobs. I've designed t-shirts, done miniatures, sewn clothes for antique dolls, silkscreens for cloth patterns and general art work and photography. Once I owned a computer, I found many great photo programs over the years, but up until now, I really never found a great sketch or art program. I own Corel's Painter, which is not only time consuming to learn the media applications, but it's slow, misses strokes and has several bugs in it's applications. Corel keeps giving me patches, but it has become tiresome to keep downloading patches all the time! I actually would rather do my art by hand than deal with all of Painter's issues.
I've been using this Autodesk Sketchbook Pro 2011 every day, to see how smoothly it runs, and it not only runs smoothly, it's unbelievably fast! I have a Windows XP, and it took only a few minutes to download this great program. Once downloaded, I skipped the directions, as I wanted to see how quickly and easily I could learn to use this program on my own. Talk about easy to learn- anyone from 5 to 95 could use this without reading a direction! I am truly amazed that I could draw a sketch, a complicated geometric design for a piece of dress fabric and a dress pattern all in one sitting! The sketchpad itself is uncluttered with a small corner interface control, that allows you to bring up the nicely small tools window, brushes window or colors window. There is a brush property circle that allows you to choose both the brush size and flow for coverage. You can place these windows anywhere out of your drawing area or keep them off the screen completely.
The Brushes window includes a nice array of media types: pencil, airbrush, marker, chisel tip pen, ballpoint pen, paintbrush, felt tip pen, smear, blur, sharpen (does a great outline), hard eraser, soft eraser, flood fill and flood fill for all visible layers. The Tools Bar window has undo, redo, select, lasso, crop, zoom, rotate, ruler, elipse, symmetry X (top and bottom), symmetry Y (side to side), free hand, line, rectangle, polyline, oval and layers. Those symmetry features made my geometrical fabric design take only minutes to complete! What a great feature! The colors window features a color wheel, where you can create any color imaginable, then save it in the blocks below it. For your image, it has image size or canvas size, crop, adjust, rotate, mirror canvas, flip canvas vertically, mirror layer, flip layer vertically and both symmetry X and Y. Your finished art will work on the standard image formats- TIF, BMP, JPG, PNG and PSD.
I wish I had this program years ago, before I wasted so much time, money and constant patching on Corel's Painter! I'm just happy to have this Autodesk's super fast and easy Sketchbook now! For anyone who just sketches or draws, the inexpensive price of this program will pay for itself on the money you'll save on paper, pen, paints and inks! It's a wonderful, fast and easy money saving way to do story boarding, concept sketches, illustrations, fabric designs, pattern designs and anything that you would normally use a sketchpad and your choice of media for! Artists, designers and crafters will love the professional results they'll get with this BEST digital Sketchbook that I've ever used!
(With my review, I've included 3 images. If you don't see them on the top of this page in Images, you can find them by clicking on my name, then going to My Profile-Customer Images. The first image is of my computer screen, so you can see the corner interface control called the lagoon, which can be moved side to side or removed completely when sketching. You will also see the great moveable tool bar, brush window and color window- which you can move these three anywhere on the screen or remove, when sketching. It's simplistic screen design needs no directions! I made a City Skyline In Fall sketch in 5 minutes using the paintbrush and air brush along with the freehand, line and rectangle tools and spent another 5 minutes coloring it.
The second image I made in 20 minutes for a fabric print design using the symmetry tools. I used both symmetry tools X and Y along with flood fill, airbrush and paintbrush. The third image took me the longest time to create- 35 minutes, due to more detailed floral designs I wanted to create for a scarf print. I again used both symmetry tools X and Y along with flood fill, airbrush, paintbrush and the felt tip pen.
The fabric designs that used to take me endless hours by hand to create, now takes me a mere 20 to 40 minutes with these great symmetry tools! For fast painting, the airbrush and flood fill take seconds to use! The flood fill, which is a paint bucket, can be used to cover an entire area, or you will quickly learn like I did that you can also use this little paint bucket to splash a little color on for a beautiful effect! I did all three of these using only my mouse.
For more professional art, you will want to use a pen and tablet connected to your computer port. Wacom makes the best pen and tablets in all sizes and prices. For a beginner, try the inexpensive Wacom Bamboo or Bamboo Fun tablets and pens. For professional use, the more expensive Wacom Intuos4 Larger sized Pen and Tablets give you the ability to draw, design and paint anything with total pen control for hairline detail! I couldn't believe how easy and fast this program is to use- now everyone can be an artist!)

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Relied on by professionals, adored by everyone who loves to draw... SketchBook Pro translates sophisticated technology and professional functionality into a natural drawing experience; use it anywhere you would traditionally use paper and pen!

A Natural Sketching Experience A dynamic and streamlined UI that is easy to learn and fun to use.View larger.

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