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• DECEMBER 18, 2000 • page
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State
of the Art Awards
Best
Art & Design Products of the Year
Best Graphics Program
This year also saw the long-awaited 1.5 release of the single-greatest art tool
available today: Synthetik Studio Artist. This tool is so shockingly amazing and
has become such an essential component in my design mix that I couldn't imagine
passing it by for any design award. The program is billed as a "graphics
synthesizer," taking its approach to interface design and functionality from
the world of digital audio. The translation of this phrase is a bit complicated.
It can do natural media emulation. It can do things you'd never be able to do
with natural media. It can warp. It can morph. It can even rotoscope video in
a way no other program can, automatically applying your recorded paint actions
to the individual frames of a QuickTime movie.
 Most
important of all, though, this program lets you create art and visual effects
like you've never seen. And it gives you complete control over every parameter
of your work. I love this program in a way I love few other programs. Every time
I work in it, I get that giddy feeling I used to get when I first started working
in art in the digital medium back in the old black and white days of the Macintosh
SE (my first computer). Anything that can bring back that feeling is worth its
RAM partition in gold!
Studio Artist's
Paint Synthesizer is, by far, the most sophisticated paint module I've ever seen.
From the first time I put cursor to canvas (back in version 1.0), I was sold on
the power of this program. Believe me: You will never, ever be able to use all
of the features this program offers. I mean, the thing even records stylus pressure
on Bezier curves! (Even the programmer, the miraculous John Dalton, who was also
the author of Deck II, admits he doesn't know everything the program can do.)
This next year
will mark the release of the latest version, which will bring this incredible
tool to the PC platform as well. We look forward to whatever John has in store
for us.
Company Web
Site: http://www.synthetik.com
The
categories:
Best
Overall Design Product
Best Graphics Program
Best Web Graphics Editor
Best Web Page Layout Program
Best Web Animation Tool
Plugins of the Year
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• 2000
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