|
|
|
|
||||
Review of Caligari iSpace 1.5
Caligari iSpace 1.5
Caligari Corporation Software Requirements for PC
· Pentium-class processor, 166Mhz or higher Price: $99 |
If you've explored the various 3D design programs, you've no doubt heard of Caligari's TrueSpace program. While it is capable of designing graphics for the Web, it is really overkill for most Web designers. So Caligari took the technology of TrueSpace and added the ability to create a complete Web page with the result being iSpace.
Caligari supplies you with a number of 3D elements for your Web pages including complete templates. Whether you create from scratch or edit a template, you simply drag and drop elements where you want them to go on screen. Once everything is designed, render the graphics and export everything to a fully functional Web page. Sounds simple enough, right?
So that I could get a grasp of the application, I turned to the manual. It is supplied as a linked series of Web pages. I hate this kind of documentation so I immediately turned to Adobe Acrobat and created a PDF from it. I got my PDF, but things were in a somewhat random order. So I'll make it real clear to the folks at Caligari. If you don't supply a manual we can follow, the product will suffer. I truly think this is a cool application but the supplied manual made it harder than normal to learn. Give us a nice printable PDF manual complete with a table of contents and a linked index.
That isn't to say the program would be as simple as it is described. Caligari uses a non-standard interface from most Windows software. So it took a while to figure things out. Eventually I could get things working, but I never knew if it was the right-click or the left-click that actually brought up the controls. If you've read my review of the initial release, you'll know I had trouble getting things to even work as described. Well I'll make it clear that this version is improved, but it is far from fully functional.
At left is the main interface with one of the supplied templates loaded in the design window. On the far left are the various elements that you can add to your design. They include templates, buttons, objects, animated objects, primitives, 3D fonts, borders, lights, materials, 2D backgrounds, 3D backgrounds and animated effects. Clicking on any of the elements will open a library of icons for each of the objects in that category. So if you click on buttons, you will see a library of buttons in the window between the element list and the design window.
The design window is created as an HTML table. You can adjust the rows and columns to your liking. Then you drag elements, like buttons, onto the table. If you Ctrl-click a series of cells, the element selected will go into all the selected cells.
Most of the buttons include three states; normal, highlighted and pushed. By first left-clicking on a button and then right-clicking, you can get a mini toolbar that lets you edit buttons. Clicking on the appropriate icon for each state, you'll see the appearance of the button. You can also add text to the buttons using this toolbar. It was never obvious to me whether the text would appear in all three button states or if I would have to add it on all three buttons. Admittedly I was new to the program, but this seemed way too difficult. I found ways to apply a texture to my button text and ways to bevel, but I couldn't find something as simple as applying a solid color. Sure I found a setting called plain color. But all it did was change the color of the texture. With all the bells and whistles, I guess they just forgot about the basics. Below you will see a button being edited with various toolbars and palettes used for making changes.
Once you've finished your design, you'll need to render it to see the optimal quality. When designing, you are only looking at a low-quality proxy image. Note that the quality can be changed, but higher quality previews require lots of processing power. I tested on a 500 MHz Pentium III and the final render took about two minutes. The final renders were awesome, as I expected from a 3D program.
When you've checked the final render and decided that you are ready to export to HTML, iSpace will create all the graphics in GIF, JPEG or PNG along with the HTML and JavaScript code necessary for the entire Web page. A new option will save everything in SWF (Flash) format. But you have to pay $99 extra for this one feature. When you export to HTML, information is stored within the HTML file so that it can be reopened and edited within iSpace. I was pleasantly surprised that the HTML code was relatively clean, unlike output I've seen from programs like NetObjects Fusion. The image at right shows a page in Internet Explorer. The total size of all files was 219K when the images were rendered as JPG. The same file was rendered as Flash files and it was only 35K, but the results weren't nearly as impressive as shown below left. Since the SWF format doesn't retain the cool 3D look of the bitmap versions, I really think paying extra for it is a complete waste of money.
iSpace runs on all versions of 32-bit Windows. It lists a Pentium class processor of 166 MHz or higher as a requirement. While that may be the technical minimum, it would be cruel and unusual punishment for users with that speed of system to run iSpace.
While iSpace looks like an interesting product, it just doesn't seem practical to me. I'm sure that I've been harsh in certain areas only because I could never figure out how to do something. Users of other Caligari products might find the interface intuitive, but I found it absolutely baffling for a product that claims ease of use as one of its selling points. The only reason I could recommend iSpace would be to use the nifty supplied elements to make files that can be later edited in your favorite image editor and HTML editor to get a finished page.
Do you have a product you would like to have reviewed? Send press releases to reviews@unleash.com.
Foster D. Coburn III has written six best-selling books on graphics software and is currently the Webmaster of the Graphics Unleashed Web site.
|
|
CorelDRAW X6 Font List · CorelDRAW X5 Font List · CorelDRAW X4 Font List · The Terms of Adobe Photoshop and Corel PHOTO-PAINT · CorelDRAW X3 Font List · Cropping and Rotating Files in Corel PHOTO-PAINT · The Magic of Color Styles · CorelDRAW's Find and Replace Wizard · Shorten Your Design Time with Templates · CorelDRAW's Multi-Faceted Eyedropper Tool · CorelDRAW and Special Characters · The Easy Way to Create Calendars in CorelDRAW · The Wide World of Labels in CorelDRAW · Including Variable Data with Print Merge · Resaving, Resizing & Resampling Files in Corel PHOTO-PAINT · Creating Your Own Fonts in CorelDRAW · The Evils of Using JPEG Files · Speeding Up CorelDRAW 11 and Windows XP · Symbols and Imposition · The Easiest Way to Recreate Logos · A Few Guidelines to Follow · Square Corners Can Be Sticky -- Rounding Corners in CorelDRAW · Creating Complex Shapes Easily with CorelDRAW · Identifying the Mystery Font · Two Ways to Create a Split Front Design · Last Word in Font Management · Calibrating Your Printed Colors with a Color Chart · Graphics Computing in 2001 · Hottest R.A.V.E. In Town · Get the Red Out of Eyes · Secrets of Color Management · Dressing Up Your PDF Files · How Adobe Acrobat Can Make Life Simpler · Why You Want PDF in Your Workflow · Converting a Scanned Logo to Vector in CorelDRAW · Designing 360 Degrees · Customizing Your Interface in CorelDRAW 8.0 · Fitting Text to a Path · Creating Cool Graphs Without a Spreadsheet · From CorelDRAW to Macromedia Flash, A Simple Example · Getting Rid of That Darned White Box · Converting a Bitmap Logo to Vector in CorelDRAW · Finding Clipart with ROMCAT
Xara Xtreme Pro 5.0
Serif WebPlus X2
Xara Web Designer 5.0
Xara Xtreme Pro 4.1
Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Professional
Fuji FinePix 2800 Zoom Digital Camera
Procreate KnockOut 2
Hemera Photo Objects Volume I and II
Wildform SWfx
Macromedia Fontographer 4.1 and FontLab 4
Caligari iSpace v1.5
Xara X
Macromedia Fireworks 4
Web Site Design Made Easy
Alien Skin Eye Candy 4000
Swish 1.51
Macromedia Flash 5
Corel KPT 6
Dreamweaver Ultradev
1st Page 2000
Adobe Illustrator 9
Corel KnockOut v1.5
Xara 3D 4
Cool 3D 3
|
|
|
|
Copyright © 1995-2007 Unleashed Productions, Inc., All Rights Reserved. |
||
