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FEBRUARY 19, 2004 Synthetik Studio Artist 3.0
Workflow, performance, support One of the things new users invariably ask me about when they try Studio Artist on my recommendation is, "Where is everything?" Like many of the higher-end tools on the market, Studio Artist adopts its own workflow, rather than cloning the old Aldus/Adobe standard that so many Mac users are familiar with and that so many developers fall back on. Personally, I love the Adobe interface. But if a tool is as amazing as Studio Artist, it's worth learning a new way to do things.[an error occurred while processing this directive]In terms of the interface, what will strike you immediately is the lack of little button icons that you're used to in graphics programs--paint brush, lasso, eraser, etc. Studio Artist is menu- and palette-driven. It takes a little while to figure out where things are, but you'll find them. Most of the tools can be accessed redundantly--through keyboard shortcuts, the main menu, the sidebar or the palette menus.  Common functions--like erasing the canvas, zooming, setting the background, switching layers, moving through frames, setting masks or choosing the base brush type--are located up above the canvas. And commands, preferences and various general options are accessible through the main menu. Very little has changed in version 3.0 with regard to the interface, though several functions have been rearranged into a more logical order, and many keyboard shortcuts have been added. For workflow, Studio Artist 3.0 gains some major enhancements. The primary one for me is the new Export Session function. Previously, you were able to save out images or movies, but there was really no way to save an entire project properly without doing some serious manual work. In version 3.0, however, you can now export your session and retain everything in the project. Whether you're in the middle of a cel animation project or producing a complex, multi-layer composition, you can now just save it out and recall it at your convenience. For me, this is what truly brings Studio Artist 3.0 into the Must Buy category for professional creative tools. Previously, I could recommend the program highly, but I could never tell people honestly, "You have to have this program," because, simply, a realistic workflow wasn't there. Studio Artist is an incredibly deep program, and it was just too difficult to close it up and get back into a project before. Sometimes I'd just leave my computer on for weeks while I was working on a project. Now that's behind me, and I and my computer can get some rest once in a while (whenever I can tear myself away from it). As I mentioned before, the new version just flows better than the previous versions. For me, the refinements are a bit difficult to pinpoint. Since I've been using all of the versions in between 2.0 and 3.0, the changes have been gradual for me. Yet, when on those rare occasions when I do load up version 2.0, I'm struck by the relative clunkiness of the old compared with the new. If you're a user of the previous versions, you will appreciate many of the general workflow changes. Especially, of course, the Export Session option. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the program, there are also some nice workflow features that carry over from previous releases. These include the ability to record everything to a session history and save it out. Individual history items can be turned on or off and rearranged at will, and they can be played back to recreate your work from scratch. When doing this, it's also important to note that you can choose to work at a low resolution to save time, then rerender your project at a higher resolution through the History palette. All effects and brushes will be scaled up to match the new resolution to the old. Virtually everything else you can do in Studio Artist can also be exported out for later use, including Paint Action Sequences, brushes that you create, filters you create, layers, color palettes, paths, etc. Performance also gains several improvements in the new version. It's difficult to quantify changes in the speed of the application. It does a whole lot more, with roughly double the number of brush parameters, along with tons of new features in other areas. Brushes are, for the most part, zippier in version 3.0. I compared several cross-compatible brushes and found that in version 3.0, they tended to follow the cursor better, while in version 2.0 they'd lag behind a bit. Running combinations of multiple brushes in sequence was also faster in version 3.0. Other comparable functions operated at about the same speed on a dual 1 GHz G4. Synthetik has also built in some optimizations for the G5, and the company says more will be made available through incremental updates. (Note also that version 3.0 is available in separate applications for Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X, each with optimizations specific to its operating system.) As for support and documentation, version 3.0 is excellent. First off, the PDF documentation is more than 500 pages long and includes, for the first time, explanations for all of the parameters in the Paint Synthesizer, something that was sorely lacking before. And like the previous release, it also includes more than eight hours of video training in QuickTime format. The lessons are organized well and indexed for quick reference. Finally, for support, I'd be hard-pressed to think of a company that so directly addresses the needs of its users. Ask a question, you get an answer. Request a feature, and there's a decent chance it will show up in the next release. Disappointments In case you couldn't tell, I'm something of a fan of Studio Artist 3.0. It's a deep and broad application whose core functionality can't be matched by anything else out there. Nevertheless, there's always room for improvement. First off, if ever there were a program that needed multiple levels of undo, this is it. If you draw a dozen or so quick strokes and change your mind, you're out of luck. I enjoy working without a net as much as the next guy, but there are times, especially when I'm working on an animation, when a few extra levels of undo would make all the difference. Customizable keyboard shortcuts should also be on the short list of new features for the next release. There are just too many functions to make cycling through menus a good method for accessing them. AppleScript support would also be a decent improvement. Obviously within the application automation is available for everything. But it would be nice to be able to communicate with the outside world as well. Rendering sequences in Studio Artist can take quite a bit of time, if you're using complex combinations of effects and brushes. So being able to batch process files overnight or over the weekend would be quite helpful. Other than these, I have some minor issues, but they're not really worth mentioning. Studio Artist is a solid graphics application that has matured tremendously in the last few years. It's been my favorite creative tool for quite some time, and now it's all come together into a comprehensive, professional-level suite for paint, animation and rotoscoping that can't be matched. The bottom line What you get when you own Studio Artist is a complete toolchest for visual arts production along with the equivalent of an unlimited gift certificate for any kind of painting tool you might require in the future. You can paint, animate, rotoscope, warp, morph, vectorize and apply effects to your images or video in ways that no other program can approach. It's a Must Buy for anybody involved with still or motion graphics. To date, Studio Artist is the ninth piece of software to which we've awarded our "Must Buy" rating. To review the qualifications for this rating, the software must be a core application for creative production; it must be the best in its class; it must, in its own right and without regard to what else is on the market, be an indispensable tool; and it must stand out for technical excellence and achievement. It should also be priced reasonably for what the tool offers for professionals given the potential for return on investment. Studio Artist easily qualifies for this. In fact, Studio Artist 3.0 is just such an immense program that it's difficult to view its modest price point ($379) as anything but charity. If you don't have it, buy it. If you don't have a Mac to run it on, buy a Mac to run it on. This is one of those rare programs (like Apple's Final Cut Pro) that justifies a platform switch. If you're a user of a previous version of Studio Artist, I also encourage you to bring yourself up to the latest release. I can't see how anyone would fail to appreciate all the refinements that have gone in to version 3.0. Synthetik Studio Artist 3.0 is available now for Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X for $379 for the full version, $179 for upgrades. For more information, visit http://www.synthetik.com. Contact the author: Dave Nagel is the editor and producer of Creative Mac and Digital Media Designer; host of several World Wide User Groups, including Synthetik Studio Artist, Adobe Photoshop, Apple DVD Studio Pro, Mac OS, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Corel Painter, Creative Mac and Digital Media Designer; and executive producer of the Digital Media Net family of publications. You can reach him at dnagel@digitalmedianet.com. 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