e-Picture Pro

eZ-Motion

From Beatware
e-Picture Pro $199.99 (on-line price $179.99)
eZ-Motion $99.99

Review by Gary Coyne

The working windows of e-Picture Pro

The working windows of eZ-Motion

As many people know, the two most common graphics formats used on the web are JPEG and GIF. By selecting the wrong format, the image could be deleteriously altered and/or the size of the resulting image could be much larger than necessary. One of the pleasant surprises with these programs is that either one can save any graphic as either an animated GIF, Macromedia Flash, RealVidio, or a QuickTime movie (and many other static graphic formats). And, like many of the graphic programs of today, you can have up to four windows displaying your image showing the quality and size of the result. So, for example, in the very simple bouncing ball image shown above, I was able to test the various save options to see that an animated GIF would be 8801 bytes, a RealVideo format would be 8508 bytes, a QuickTime movie would be 4671 bytes, and the winner was Macromedia Flash at 299 bytes. Knowing the size of each option, the web designer can then choose which format they feel would be best for their site. In this example, the smallest document may not be the best if the animation is going to a site where the viewer is likely to not have the Flash plug-in installed in their computer.

Text is also considered an object and can be moved, altered, and affected using the same techniques as any other object. Text can be typed in straight, along a path, or in 3D. I did my testing on a 350 MHZ B&W Mac and let me warn you, this feature requires some heavy-duty processing power. At no time using this program did I feel as helpless as when typing the data into the 3D text feature--it bogged down tremendously. (I also found that selecting objects to not be as easy as it should be. I found I was doing a lot of extra clicking away at the screen to make an object active.)

Interacting with the program is easy and for those of you who have used Adobe GoLive, both programs have an inspector that changes depending on what is active at the time. Thus the Text Inspector becomes the Ellipse Inspector becomes the Rectangle Inspector, etc. From each inspector you can alter the fills, lines, gradients, font, style, etc. I really appreciated this conservation of palettes. This approach of efficient palette use should be more universally used by all programs.

Both programs provide filters, some similar to Photoshop, although none have the depth or range of control. But, you can sharpen, blur, and other options.

Now for the differences.

Probably the biggest difference between the two programs is that e-Picture Pro has tweening effect capabilities. If you look at the bottom right hand corner of screen shot of e-Picture Pro above, you will see multiple expanded selections in the animation palette. From these, one can alter a movement to account for gravity and provide for curving movement amongst other effects. (eZ-Motion does not have this ability at all.) e-Picture can slice up a graphic and it can also use its frames as components for web rollovers.

Also, in addition to the Effects and Filters mentioned above, e-Pictures Pro has Composite Method. Shown below with a sample tossed in, Composite Method allows you to have interesting transparency effects based on the RGB color palette. There is a table in the manual describing the various effects that can be done with each option. The manual is limited in assistance and suggests that you experiment. While this is not necessarily a bad idea, by placing this option on a menu and not in a floating palette, it becomes an ordeal to experiment because constantly going back to the drop down menu became quickly tedious. Please, for the next version, get this into a palette.

eZ-Motion comes with many many pre-made graphics most of which are already animated in some fashion. These can be dragged into your artwork and combined with whatever effects you choose to create. On the other hand, e-Picture Pro's manual is spiral bound and boy do I wish all manuals were spiral bound.

Both programs suffer from limited drawing capabilities. That is, unless you want a standard rectangle, circle, etc. (see tools palette for both programs above), you are better off to create your object in Freehand, Illustrator, or the like. Then, saving as a GIF or the like, the new object can be imported into either program. Neither program has filters for other drawing programs.

Also, be forewarned, both programs are memory suckers. Both require a default 65.5 MB of RAM. Considering that Flash (v. 4) required a mere 14 MB, these programs are not running all that efficiently. It's a good thing that RAM prices are currently very good.

In short, for basic operations, there is little difference between these two programs. Both allow you to add objects to a graphic window and then move them around frame by frame to create a moving graphic. However, e-Picture Pro provides a nice range of extra effects to work your graphic, to enhance how the graphic functions and how the graphic is displayed. If all you want to do is to get your graphics animated and have numerous pre-made graphics to add to your work, eZ-Motion is probably all you need. However if you want the ability to create subtle tweening effects, you probably should pony up the moneys for the more capable program e-Picture Pro.

And a commentary...

If you want/need animated graphics on your web site, great. I can easily recommend either of these programs (RAM demands notwithstanding). Keep in mind however, I personally have met very few people who enjoy seeing blinking, weaving, and/or jumping up-and-down mailboxes. Likewise, both of these programs are default set to open up to create banner-sized images. It's been already shown that annoying banners are more likely to turn people off to a sales location than attract them. (Kill the monkey!!!)

HOWEVER, there are times where animation is wonderful. For example, demonstrating a process or to create a mood. The problem is that just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do something. I remember when the Mac first came out, I like everyone else was using 10 different fonts on a page. Design-wise, it looked dreadful, but boy was it fun and more interesting than what I could have done with a typewriter or a PC. Those dreadful pages notwithstanding, fonts did not shrivel up and go away. Rather, we have more fonts being created now than ever before.

This is just a little design request/suggestion to use animated graphics wisely. No matter how saved, an animated graphics will be larger than a simple graphic. Thus, what may seem like a cute image that looks wonderful on your computer may be an anchor going through someone's 28 baud modem. If it's necessary and/or enhances your page, go for it. Use either of these programs and create a wonderful image. But, if placing your animation on the page is like adding more than 3 fonts to a wedding invitation, please reconsider.