Flash Slide Show and Animation Software from ImageMatics

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Flash Slide Show and Animation Tools from ImageMatics

by Rick Hendershot, Linknet Creative Resource Library

If you are looking for a tool to take a series of digital images and turn them into a flash presentation, then chances are ImageMatics has a product that fits the bill. In fact this company produces three slightly different products, and it is important to understand the differences between the three before making your purchase. In this overview we look at the three different products:

ImageMatics Personal Edition (PE)
ImageMatics Web Designer (WD)
ImageMatics StillMotion Creator (SMC)

ImageMatics Personal Edition (PE), www.imagematics.com, $49.95

The PE and WD lines each have a slightly different feature set and are targeted at slightly different users. PE is the "entry level" multimedia creation tool from ImageMatics, and is for users wanting to create relatively simple, non-interactive flash slide shows. It has all the features of other similar programs, but includes the capability of adding titles (or "labels") to each slide, and a title page to your show. The sound capabilities of this product are more robust than some of the other slide show creation software available as well. The user can add separate sound tracks to each slide, overlay them on top of a "background" sound track, and then mix the relative volumes of the two tracks. This version does not allow you to add navigation buttons or links from individual slides. You will need to buy the "Web Designer" edition to get those features (see below).

When trying this product you may be confused by the different versions (or product names). Some reviews refer to it as "ImageMatics StillMotion Personal Edition" — no doubt a reference to its evolution from StillMotion, the company's core product line. StillMotion is a more powerful version of the program that incorporates pan and zoom techniques borrowed from StageTools. These capabilities are not part of the PE product.

My recommendation: If you need simple titling capability, then you should get this program. But if you want VCR controls, get FlashSlider (previous review). It is less money and easier to use. Here is an excellent review of ImageMatics PE that puts it in the context of other products from ImageMatics (while confusing the two product lines in the review title).

Imagematics Web Designer, www.imagematics.com, $79.95
Take ImageMatics PE and add a series of navigation and web enhancements and you've got ImageMatics Web Designer. These enhancements include links to different URLs from each slide, other actions associated with slides (such as "jump to slide" and "play a swf file"), several styles of VCR controls, preloaders, and navigation menus.

And don't forget to add some serious pan and zoom features (borrowed right from StillMotion Creator), that allow you to turn individual slides into moving pictures (think Ken Burns).

These enhancements turn this product into a "multi-media authoring tool". According to the company, files created in Personal Edition are completely compatible with the WD version, so you can start with PE, and upgrade later without losing your old productions.

This little production includes an imported mp3 soundtrack (Alison Kraus & Union Station), as well as a title slide, captions for each slide, and VCR controls. Notice that the audio is integrated with the slides so that the nav buttons control the audio as well as the video. This is not the case with Flash Slider. The slight "jitter" is caused because the original image is not of high enough resolution to have enough pixels to accommodate all the steps. The fix is to use a higher res original, or a faster zoom.

My recommendation: The differences between PE (Personal Edition) and WD (Web Designer) are quite significant, and make the Web Designer edition well worth the upgrade price. If you want to get beyond basic slide shows, add hyperlinks, interactive buttons, and pan and zoom featurs to your slides, then this is a very good way to do it.

ImageMatics StillMotion Creator, www.imagematics.com, $99.95
This is the entry level version of ImageMatic's "Pan and Zoom" animation product. This version will only create Flash output files. SMC Plus ($149.95) and SMC Pro ($249.95) are capable of higher resolution output — up to HDTV with SMC Pro.

The claim to fame of this line of products is that they can create professional looking Ken Burns style pan and zoom effects from simple digital images. The rudimentary pan and zoom tools available in Imagematics WD are just a taste of what StillMotion Creator can do. This product, developed in cooperation with Stage Tools, can create complex simulated camera movements such as rotation, curved camera paths, variable rate zooming, simulated perspective shifts, motion panoramas, continuous loops, and "holds" of specific duration, plus transitions.

Particularly important for the web content creator, adding effects with StillMotion Creator does not significantly increase the original file size. For instance, ImageMatics claims that a full minute's animation requires only about 600 bytes more than if you were just using the still image.

There is a more extensive overview of this product at myzips.com.

Another review at the Web Developer's Virtual Library says,"StillMotion Creator is not a difficult program to use, nor is it a large program. It is, however, very good at doing what it promises. Its interface is very clean and easy to use, and the learning curve is little more than a slight bend in the road... It may be too expensive to just play with it, but if you have a need for this type of program it is probably a bargain and well worth it.

Rick Hendershot is the publisher of The Linknet Marketing Resource Library, and has been dabbling in online video and audio for a number of years.

The Linknet Network is a library of resource materials spread across more than 20 websites and a number of blogs. You can place your link text on 15 pages spread out over at least 15 different sites for one small annual fee. Sites that focus on Trade Show and Event Marketing include Vinyl Banners from America-Banners.com, Vinyl Banners from Banners-Canada.com, Low Cost PopUp Displays, Trade Show and Display Graphics.