CompuServe Messages

>>Corel vs AniPro… For a 3DS companion, there is no contest: AniPro wins (my opinion of course). AniPro will let you build maps (still and animated), work with 3DS flics (edit, join, title, etc.), and extract and edit palettes for flic rendering. It also comes with a CD-ROM with 100 fonts and a bunch of other stuff. Get both Corel and AniPro eventually, but I'd recommend AniPro first if you're low on money. (You can generally find it for around $500) I've been using Corel for years and it's great for the kind of graphics it's known for. For 3DS use, however, I only occasionally use it to draw a logo or edit some text or something to .AI to the 3DS shaper. (The spline editing tools in Corel are much better then those in the shaper, but you can get by with the Shaper.) More opinions: CorelMOVE is a waste of disk space. Their paint program? – I'd rather use Photostyler or FDPainter. Their Trace program is a nice idea but in practice, you can generally create a new outline quicker than you can trace and fix. The clipart and font collections on the CD are pretty good, but far more useful in desktop publishing than 3DS. I have on occasion used a specific font from the CD to match what someone wanted wanted in a animation or model. AniPro also has an amazing amout of untapped potential, hopefully about to be unleashed by the likes of Ed Kellerman. It's also an easy way to fool with C-programming, with graphics to boot. It's not too hard to do some 2D animation with it either. <g> JKJ PS. My current plans are to Sig from Sat to Sat.