#Buy Altamira Composer?
12 messages in this thread
Hi.
As a 3D Studio owner, I received a "special offer" to get Altamira Composer for
the promotional price of $399. Has anyone got it, and would you recommend it?
After a call to the company, the promotional price of $399 will probably expire
after August…
Decisions, decisions…
Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
–Lisa
Lisa
I use Composer quite often and find it very useful. One thing to bear in mind,
it is not a "paint" program. It's possible to paint with it, but the methods
are unconventional. It's advantages are that everything is an object
indepentant of other objects, so you can compose an image easily.
Other paint packages now have objects but Composer does everything in 32bit so
the images are very crisp. The 32bit feature also make it possible to create
very nice masks for 3DS.
I recommend it for use with 3DS.
TedB
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I worked on Composer, so I'm not biased. I'll just mention its main advantage
in relation to 3D Studio: In Composer, you can create very high-quality 32-bit
graphics (with alpha) that can be used effectively in Video Post. In the
opposite direction, you can render 32-bit images from 3D Studio that can be
brought in to Composer — transparency intact — and arranged with other
images.
– Jack
FWIW, the new Photoshop 3.0 now has separate object layers, just like
Composer, and each layer will have its own 8 bit alpha channel also. I think
within the next year, this feature will be standard fare among paint and
retouching packages (it's about time). 🙂
David
Does it have the various Texture commands that let you use the values of the
pixels in one image to affect those in an overlapping image?
– Jack
I dunno, it's not supposed to be out for a few weeks yet. I'm not sure
what you mean by "texture commands", but the present release (2.5) has various
commands that let you specify an image and another to change the first based on
the values in the second, whith a choice as to what channels will be affected
in either image, including alpha. What 2.5 is sorely missing is a way to
preview these effects before applying them… hopefully 3.0 will take care of
that.
David
The Texture commands let you use values in one image to affect a second. The
"Texture" command itself copies pixels from one image to another, while
commands like Xparency Texture use the luminance values in one image to affect
the transparency of another. Since Composer was built from the ground up with
Alpha in mind, the entire program works as a 32-bit app. Since it came on the
scene, I've been watching other programs add alpha to their existing
interfaces, but they always seem pasted together with band-aids. I'll be
curious to see how PhotoShop upgrades to multiple-imagery.
– J
>>I'll be curious to see how PhotoShop upgrades to multiple-imagery
Me too. We shall see.
David
Lisa:
>> "special offer" to get Altamira Composer for the promotional price of $399
Get it!
Greg Pyros
No matter what kind of work you're doing with 3DS, Composer is a valuable tool
to have around.
I rarely have a project that I don't use it on, from 4k images for book covers
to adding special effects to a sequence of video frames.
Like others have pointed out, this is not a paint package, more like a bit-map
touch-up and assembly tool. You'll still need a good paint package (like
Painter or PShop).
J-me
PMJI…can someone pls post the phone number for altamira?
Bill
Altamira is at 415-332-5801
TedB
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