Ulead Cool 3d - Buyer Be Forewarned

Ulead Cool 3d and Ulead Cool 3d Production Studio

 If you are like me and tend to scan the internet to see what's new and developing out there in the world of graphic software you will probably run across a few dozen programs that fall into the category of 'over kill, under performance'. The Ulead Cool 3d packages (under the title Ulead Cool 3d or Ulead Cool 3d Production Studio) fall into this category as far as my evaluation goes. Both programs work well and are quite reasonably priced but have a somewhat limited output capability. The program is used to create 3d titles and objects to be used on the web or in Flash presentations and give you the ability to construct 3d objects and/or text, complete with texture and color control, lighting adjustment, path animation and special effects. Sounds pretty sweet, eh? The functional versatility falls a bit short of the imagined possibilities though and you end up compromising a lot of your finished 3d pieces because the software just couldn't allow you to dial in the precise tweaks you wanted. Case in point: most 3d packages allow you to adjust the UV mapping of an object so you don't get an unnatural looking texture stretched across the surface of your object.

interface of Ulead Cool 3d Production Studio

 The GUI supplies a visual preview of the preset animated effects that you can add to text or objects. I have a quad core processor on my machine and the animation previews of the effects still chugged along at a snail's pace leaving you frustrated at wanting to see a better, more real-time representation, of the effect.
 The one plus side to this program is the learning curve. This is a quick to learn, quick to use program that allows most people to just begin noodling around and getting used to all the effects you can do. It doesn't take much time before you are up and creating your own animated Flash or animated GIF files for the web. I checked on Corel's website (Corel has taken over the program from Ulead and is now the distributor of Ulead products) and it looks as if they aren't even promoting these programs anymore which leads me to wonder if they are going to drop the program entirely or maybe come out with an updated version.
In closing I will say that if you run across this program on Cnet or some other downloading site and think 'hey great price and it looks like it can do a lot of cool 3d stuff', be forewarned. My suggestion would be to create the same type effects using Flash and Photoshop and give yourself a much broader range of creativity. You can find trial versions of the program on the web so don't jump in too quick, try it before you buy it.

DP Animation Maker

Here's a fun little program that does a few cute tricks and is fun for kids or adults to play around with and may even come in handy to save you some time on a quick effect for a project. I can't see anyone using it a lot but what little it does, it does pretty well and the price is reasonable at just under $27 for the registered version (evaluation copy free to download). DP Animation maker is a smart little program you can use to create animation gifs for websites, backgrounds and other projects with very little effort. Within minutes you will find yourself tooling around the effects toolbar trying out all the plugin effects to create weather, lighting and object animations within your static picture. It also allows for the import of your own static images into any picture and works good with transparent background images like .pngs or .gifs. Sure, anyone with a few mid to high-end progs could recreate the effect, but for those weekenders who want to create some jazzy little images to email their friend or stick or their webpage, DP Animation Maker takes the pain out of construction. If you want to create your own animated wallpaper or screensaver they also offer cheap programs specifically for making those as well. I would download the free trial and play around with it before purchasing but still feel it's a bargain for the fully registered version.