There is
nothing more entertaining than a well presented
slideshow, that can incorporate video and include
some effects with music and perhaps narration as
well text insertions to add pizzaz to the whole
project. I have enjoyed evaluating many
applications over the years however I must admit
one software developing company has escaped my
notice and that is Aquafadas, I have already
enjoyed using another one of their products
BannerZest Pro. With exceptional ease I could
create beautiful eye catching banners for my
website. However now with PulpMotion Advanced I can
create incredible slideshow presentations to.
First of all concentrating on the positives the timeline presented is a great way to import your audio and control the length of your file to the time of the image or movie that has been inserted although this operation can be a bit clumsy. One of the standout features for me are definitely the templates included, they are as good as the iMovie 06 and iDVD 08 templates by Apple, The graphic user interface is very professional presented which makes it easy to follow and within a very short space of time you can be creating slideshows in not time at all, second nature! It also inserts your video clips nicely integrating with the images in the slideshow, Export options and other customisations are easy to make thanks to the settings palette situated to the top right of the main timeline. I found this to be a satisfactory piece of software for the Apple Mac, but more so for those that do not want to spend too much time on a project.
However there were some minor niggles, I found it surprising that I could not click on the text to edit it and type what I wanted, instead you either had to click on the part of the storyboard in the timeline to bring up text editing mode, and the “Introductory text” for the template selected could not be easily edited either, it took me ten minutes to work out that the settings panel to the right hand side had to be clicked on in order to adjust these titles. Also if you select another template you had to re-type your titles and text, a major inconvenience! however if you clicked back to the theme it retained your original text edit. Whilst the templates are brilliant there just isn’t enough of them in the “Advanced” version, believe it or not you cannot use multiple templates in one project, to achieve this you would need to join each project in iMovie project. Also if you are going to call something “Advanced” it needs to take into consideration that experienced slideshow creators will be using the application, and they need a template free workspace, it would be helpful if Aquafadas would provide a timeline that would accomodate multiple tracks for photo and video for picture in picture and background overlays etc. If they had a welcome screen that provided the option for a template based project or a blank project and they implemented these suggestions then I feel they would attract even more users.
Their website is very nicely presented and when exploring the pages they seem to have a dedicated team that want to iron out any wrinkles in their applications, and they are very quick to respond to users enquiries, which is always a good sign.
A Balanced Conclusion
In conclusion AquaFadas Pulp Motion Advanced is a one excellent application that gives impressive results each time of using it, however it does have it weak points and needs some more attention in its design and features if they are to attract a wider audience especially more experienced computer users. Personally I would still recommend purchasing a copy because it does do an impressive job and it is relatively easy to use, the templates look quite stunning, and for most family users it will serve their needs very well. I have enjoyed experimenting with those templates. this is one application we will keep our eyes on, and look forward to seeing how the development team progress with this fine product.
First of all concentrating on the positives the timeline presented is a great way to import your audio and control the length of your file to the time of the image or movie that has been inserted although this operation can be a bit clumsy. One of the standout features for me are definitely the templates included, they are as good as the iMovie 06 and iDVD 08 templates by Apple, The graphic user interface is very professional presented which makes it easy to follow and within a very short space of time you can be creating slideshows in not time at all, second nature! It also inserts your video clips nicely integrating with the images in the slideshow, Export options and other customisations are easy to make thanks to the settings palette situated to the top right of the main timeline. I found this to be a satisfactory piece of software for the Apple Mac, but more so for those that do not want to spend too much time on a project.
However there were some minor niggles, I found it surprising that I could not click on the text to edit it and type what I wanted, instead you either had to click on the part of the storyboard in the timeline to bring up text editing mode, and the “Introductory text” for the template selected could not be easily edited either, it took me ten minutes to work out that the settings panel to the right hand side had to be clicked on in order to adjust these titles. Also if you select another template you had to re-type your titles and text, a major inconvenience! however if you clicked back to the theme it retained your original text edit. Whilst the templates are brilliant there just isn’t enough of them in the “Advanced” version, believe it or not you cannot use multiple templates in one project, to achieve this you would need to join each project in iMovie project. Also if you are going to call something “Advanced” it needs to take into consideration that experienced slideshow creators will be using the application, and they need a template free workspace, it would be helpful if Aquafadas would provide a timeline that would accomodate multiple tracks for photo and video for picture in picture and background overlays etc. If they had a welcome screen that provided the option for a template based project or a blank project and they implemented these suggestions then I feel they would attract even more users.
Their website is very nicely presented and when exploring the pages they seem to have a dedicated team that want to iron out any wrinkles in their applications, and they are very quick to respond to users enquiries, which is always a good sign.
A Balanced Conclusion
In conclusion AquaFadas Pulp Motion Advanced is a one excellent application that gives impressive results each time of using it, however it does have it weak points and needs some more attention in its design and features if they are to attract a wider audience especially more experienced computer users. Personally I would still recommend purchasing a copy because it does do an impressive job and it is relatively easy to use, the templates look quite stunning, and for most family users it will serve their needs very well. I have enjoyed experimenting with those templates. this is one application we will keep our eyes on, and look forward to seeing how the development team progress with this fine product.
AquaFadas PulpMotion Advanced Review