Real-DRAW Pro - WOW!!!

[dk_art]

gee i dont know what I was thinking but I totally neglected the page 2 number up there and I thought my post had an error and wasn' posted (explains the second post)

David K
www.dkingdesign.com

[caraman1]

I've been using Photo-Brush & Compact-Draw (2 other programs from Mediachance)since discovering them last fall. Oscar does some great work with programming. Try his free Digital camera tools too. You can find it through the RealDraw site

I just noticed that Oscar is a member of this forum now, welcome aboard Oscar! Very happy to see you here!

Dennis

<a href=http://www.djart.com>DJArt & Design</a>

[This message was edited by Dennis Cox on April 23, 2001 at 09:13 AM.]

[jclements]

Die Gummi Bearen geschmicht sehr good. Ya!?

[Oscar]

Dennis you have really some nice caricatures on your page!

[Klaus Nordby]

Yes, Oscar, I join Dennis in greeting you welcome aboard!


K

[sgiff]

I have been an avid fan of Mediachance and the associated product on that site. Especially Multimedia Builder which can do just about anything you want in Multimedia including embedding flash and html windows (you can even embed an executable in any size window)that look seamless with the project background. Xara works great with it and you don't have to have a degree in Rocket Science to use it. It is one of those programs I am totally impressed with like Xara it shows you don't have to be a huge corporation like Macromedia to produce a very powerful multimedia program, and the really cool thing is that one guy programmed all the software on the Mediachance site and he is very active on the forums there so you can post your requests for new features and usually get an answer. They also have a huge group of loyal fans that will help you with any scripting or other issues you may have on creating a project.

s.g. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[GooseKirk]

Usually, I absolutely despise the multiple floating palettes look... but Real-DRAW Pro's are actually pretty smartly designed. I merely dislike these, and that's mostly just on principle.

What I think is really nifty so far in my tinkering with Real-DRAW, though, is the light effects. Very cool. And all the textures, bevels, brushes and effects are wonderful. This is a fun piece of software, and really an amazing piece of work for one guy.

I do feel a little guilty playing with it, though - it feels like I'm cheating on Xara! These programs do seem to have no small overlap in intended functionality. Graphics software is a religious choice, though... and Xara X fits me like Levi's 501s. I'm sure there's plenty of great pairs of jeans out there, but 501s and me are married, and that's how I feel about Xara. No offense to Oscar, his program is quite an accomplishment, but I'm hoping Xara borrows a few ideas from him in the next version -- especially that cool lights feature!

[Oscar]

I don't think the 2 software have that much overlaping usage. XaraX is a powerful vector editor and such you can use it to create posters or cover art - with thousands of vector object and as big as anybody ego is. And frankly for the price it cost you can't have anything better for that job. (CorelDraw cost 2x more).
RD is more on the bitmap+vector side with object oriented approach and targets mostly web graphics. You can produce also large image but it is done differently and as an addition, not a prime goal.
So I don't think there is much overlap here.
While Xara may go after CorelDraw or Adobe Illustartor, RD doesn't go after any of these Xara included.
Did you try Macromedia Fireworks? - that would be probably the closest software to RD yet still not the same.

I wrote before that Xara was one of the very few software back 5-6 years ago I was totally impressed with. Things like Antialiazed rendering, named color or transparency were at that time revolutionary. After using Corel 3, I couldn't believe the huge step forward Xara 1.0 brought (and Corel embedded in the Draw 5). I remeber the car on the cover box - we couldn't believe that it was a vector drawing.

Time passed by and now anybody could do such things (even me - education in material engineering and working experience in film) but it isn't that easy to impress people.
5 years ago what was selling was "What the software can do", now it is "What the user can do". This is important to remember if you don't want to be fired as a software product manager. - this comes free of charge from me [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Cheers!

[dk_art]

I agree with Oscar. I see the two programs as being sufficiently unique to warrent owning and using both (ok, maybe I'll buy it soon but my 30 day demo has 29 days left)... that is if you like how Real Draw does things.

I don't really see how they are in a real competition and are both useful in pretty different ways (in my opinion anyway)

David K
www.dkingdesign.com

[caraman1]

Glad you like my stuff! As far as RealDraw goes, it won't replace Xara for me but it sure will be a valued sidekick to it! Xara remains my workhorse with which I do 90% of all my work but what I can do as far as illustration has taken another leap forward with my discovery of Oscar's programs, from PhotoBrush and CompactDraw to the new RealDraw Pro. I wouldn't be without any of them.

It looks like Xara should consider another forum on here for RealDraw?

Dennis

<a href=http://www.djart.com>DJArt & Design</a>