Opinions on Serifs "Impact Plus", please

B.Verlik wrote on 5/13/2006, 12:31 PM
A couple of years ago, I downloaded a freebie called 3DPlus 2.0 by Serif. This was my introduction to 3D Text, but as I still consider myself a newbie on a computer, it was hard to figure out at that time. It had some built in glitches, so you couldn't do anything too impressive for free. I did manage to create some pretty cool looking stuff with it anyway, but it was limited.
SInce then, they've been sending me about 2 or 3 emails a week of their products, so a couple of months ago, I replied to one and sort of implied that I couldn't really use any of their products except maybe 3DPlus 3.0, if still available, and that it would have to be cheap because I'd hardly use it.
Maybe a coincidence or maybe my reply worked, I don't know, but they sent me an e-mail offering me "Impact Plus" with a resource CD for $5.95 plus shipping. 2 CDs for $9.90 all the way from England.
I've just barely installed everything and it looks like it'll be sort of easy for me to figure out, since it looks very much like 3DPlus, but it is jam-packed with stuff compared to the freebie I tried.
It will take me a while to navigate through the program, so I was hoping to get some early opinions of this software, as it may be a few days before I get a real feel for it.
This is not the most current version, but about 2-3 yrs old, version 4.01
TIA
PS: I don't think I could go wrong for the price and I'm sure it's not as good as some current programs, but I would like some experienced opinions, if possible.
Thanks again..........

Comments

Opampman wrote on 5/13/2006, 3:39 PM
Steve - I have been using Serif products since 1996 and they have some great offerings for ridiculous prices. Their real forte is desktop publishing and their offering runs rings around Quark and similar programs. They just released their Movie Plus 5 which is very much like Vegas (even the desktop looks much the same). But, I wouldn't use any Impact but the latest version 5. I'm not even sure that the version 4 can export in AVI, but I might be wrong. Impact Plus 5 is a great title program and I use it all the time doing 3D titles for local clients. Also, their Draw Plus 8 is great for titles and simple 2D animations. Also, they have a great forum (even better than this if you can believe it!) where the programmers activately participate. I once had a problem with an install and they wrote a special program to solve my problem.
B.Verlik wrote on 5/13/2006, 4:31 PM
Thank you. I've been toying around, for the last couple of hours.
I can make uncompressed .AVI's using 24 bit color. I can make Gifs, I can make anaglyph Stereo 3D pics, I can build 3D objects, lots of built in animations to use as templates, lots of ways to bevel and light text (with templates too). (haven't actually tried completing anything yet, just giving you info from the "Help" section)
I won't get too detailed until I actually finish something but It looks like it may work out pretty good once I unscramble all the information.

EDIT and Update: Just made a very quick, 4 second AVI. (88.9 MB). I won't comment on the looks yet, as it was very quickly made and I just went for speed.
Okay, my export options are
STILLS: .GIF, . JPG, .JP2, .PCX, .TIF, .WMF, PNG
ANIMATION: GIF, AVI (full framed, uncompressed the default), But you can also choose almost any codec from other programs on your computer (although I don't see any Sony/SonicFoundry options), so I also have these options: VDOnet VDOWave (I don't even know what that is), Cinepak codec by Radius, Intel indeo (R) video R3.2, Microsoft video 1, Microsoft RLE, Microsoft H263, Microsoft H261, Indio video 5.06, Intel 4:2:0 video V2.50, Sunplus 32 bit compressor(no options on this one), Microsoft MPEG-4, YMPEG MPEG codec, Debugmode FSVFWC (no options, probably unusable), Panasonic DV codec. (most of these had a lot of options on how you could save)
But for text, uncompressed is probably what I'll use.
There was even a setting for 32 bit color, but it wasn't mentioned in the instructions.
Opampman wrote on 5/13/2006, 8:23 PM
Glad you can do AVI's... I didn't remember that because IP4 was a quickly lived option. Hope it works OK...I know IP5 works great!