It occurs
to me that with all the squawking I've done about the virtues
of Synthetik Studio Artist, I haven't yet done a review of version
1.5 or explained its broad range of features all in one place.
I'll rectify this now.
What
it does
Studio Artist does everything, so it's a difficult application
to pin down. However, it's not too hard to describe the overall
effect of Studio Artist. Since it's only available on the Mac,
I'll describe it this way: It makes you feel the way you felt
the first time you used your Mac. That is, it's the kind of
thing you use and then have dreams about. (Yes, I have dreams
about my Mac and Studio Artist. Further details are unavailable
at the moment.)
Studio Artist
is, in some ways, a painting application. In some ways it's
an animation program. It also happens to do a very nice job
of rotoscoping—actually unique in the world of rotoscoping—as
well as morphing and warping. So, basically, it does everything.
Studio
Artist's interface, showing the Source Image (top left), Presets
(left)
and Paint Action and Layers windows and timelines (the two lower
windows).
The large area is, of course, the canvas. Click here
for larger view.
Studio Artist
does a bit of everything, and it does it incredibly well. (In
this review, I'll just focus on its two primary functions—paint
synthesis and rotoscoping.)
Probably
the first thing you'll notice about Studio Artist when you launch
it is that it doesn't look like anything you've ever used. For
one thing, it uses the concept of a source image and a canvas.
A source image can be either an image you will be tweaking in
the canvas or simply an interactive source of color, meaning
that Studio Artist will grab color from various portions of
your source image corresponding to the points on your canvas
where you're painting.
