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Several years ago I was in a large bookstore, mainly used books and software, in Mesa Arizona. While looking around I found an application, brand new hardly touched, that grabbed my attention. After reading the box, I immediately rushed home with it and began to wonder why I had never heard of it before. The program in question was Expression.
Since that time much has transpired in the ever shifting digital divide. Expression was originally part of Fractal Designs’ banner of creative software designed for those that wished to turn the computer into a art studio. When they disappeared from view several of their applications went to Corel and have been updated and continued. This one seemed to linger in a void. Then out of nowhere, I discovered that Expression has been saved, updated and now distributed by its original creators, Creature House.
For some reason Expression never really hit it big with the design world in the way that its sister application Painter did. Perhaps Expression needed a cute package too, or better marketing, who knows. It still remains an interesting enigma that Expression never found a place like in the world of computer design. What makes things even more unusual is that it was, and is, a unique application.
To give you an idea of what Expression is, well in short, Expression is to Adobe Illustrator what Painter 7 by Procreate is to Adobe Photoshop. If illustrator is the graphic end, Expression is the more painterly the more creative end of vector graphics. The effects that Expression allows offers unprecedented freedom, along with the ability to replicate studio effects in an entirely vector format.
What makes Expression 2 such a welcome revision is that it now incorporates the plug-ins used in Photoshop. That is correct, photoshop plug-ins miraculously appear right in your menu without any problems or issues. Also there are nice little controls and features that seem to really expand what was already a good program into being a truly outstanding one.
What is really amazing about Expression is that it can duplicate soft water color effects with vector tools. Trying the same thing without Expression may not even be possible, or very cumbersome and time consuming. In many ways this is a vastly superior creative tool than anything in market place, barring Painter, when thinking in terms of transforming a computer into an art studio.
A real plus for Expression has always been speed. There are no long delays in drawing your brush strokes. This makes the program a real interactive experience. Just playing around with the program is a real joy. But, to master it is another issue entirely.
For all the freedom, power, options and speed that come with it, there is a nearly baffling array of menus and controls that really require deft skill to make the whole thing “poetic.” While everything is swift, obtaining what you want demands a serious learning curve. Not unlike Painter, Expression has its own idiosyncratic tendencies that make mastery a real time consuming up hill process. Plus, the support for other file formats is a bit lacking. Even with this “little” quirks and an odd menu, Expression ranks as a major creative tool that I cannot imagine any designer not wanting to add to his or her arsenal of applications.
Talk to Kurt in Graphics Unleashed Forums
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