A new gladiator has strutted into the web animation arena now dominated by Adobe Image Ready and Macromedia Fireworks. While these renowned graphic warriors have vanquished other challengers, Beatware's e-Picture Pro might have the muscle and skill to not only survive, but also flourish. First available for the Mac where it garnered praise and awards, e-Picture Pro is finally available for the PC.

Where can you find a program that empowers designers to quickly create animated banners, JavaScript Rollovers, Flash animations, Real Video files, Quicktime and more?

e-Picture makes the animation process simple due to its single layer approach (although you can create using multiple layers). Most animation programs use a multi-layer approach to creating animations. e-Picture does this with independent objects. This is a great time saver which allows you make minute and time-consuming changes to your animation without having to recreate the other layers of your project. (im-epicscreen)

Creating an Animation
A designer starts by importing or creating objects, images or sequences of images. e-Picture imports a broad array of image file types inculding native Photoshop and Illustrator files, Quicktime, AVI, MS Media, and the usual bitmap types: JPEG, GIF, etc. Another first for a web animation program is the capability of importing 3D models from Lightwave and 3D Studio Max. If you do not possess these high-end 3D programs you should try the many Web sites offering free models. e-Picture also comes armed with drawing tools that are adequate but no replacement for more powerful ones found in robust programs like Macromedia Flash or Adobe Illustrator.

Once you've imported your objects you begin the process of animating. Like Flash, e-Picture uses "tweening" to manipulate objects. Select a frame, say frame 20. Now pick any object and move it around. Immediately, you will see a path flow from the object back to its origin. If you play the animation, the chosen object will move smoothly across the screen. You can now select other frames and move the object again to alter the path of the animation. Each time you do this you create a keyframe. You can also adjust the velocity of the animation by shifting the keyframes within the 'Animation Panel.'

Overall, e-Picture is a better program. Compared to most web animation tools, e-Picture goes well beyond simple motion animation. Additionally, you can also animate an object's size, shape, opacity and color as effortlessly as you create motion. e-Picture is also loaded with powerful filters and effects that can be applied to objects, either singularly, or within an animation. An inventory of filters includes the ability to distort objects, apply motion blur, affect color balance, apply mosaic effects and more. Objects or text can also be manipulated within the 'Inspector' panel with tools for beveling, shadowing, glowing and embossing.

3D Enters the Web Graphics Arena
e-Picture's most unique feature is the ability to import and animate 3D objects. All you have to do is import a model, a chair for example, and activate the 'Tweening Wizard Tool' to rotate the chair 360 degrees. This powerful tool is a natural for creating online product catalogs.

Another great feature is the text manipulation toolset. e-Picture gives you the power to create and animate 3D text in a number of incredible ways. First you select the 3D text tool and enter your text somewhere on the canvas. Once created you can edit the text font, style, size, line type, fill, extrusion (depth), etc. Animating 3D text with e-Picture is no more difficult than working with standard 2D text. Try that with Image Ready or Fireworks!

Finally, once you've created your animation and previewed it you can export it. e-Picture generates the necessary HTML coding to insert your file into any web page and smoothly integrates with the leading web creation programs: Adobe Go-Live, Macromedia Director, MS Frontpage and NetObjects Fusion. The 'Export File Size Wizard' is a nifty utility that enables you to determine an optimum file size, color palettes, compression types and more.

Other cool features in e-Picture include mapping multiple image areas, and adding onMouseOver, onMouseOut, onClick and onLoad object behaviors for generating JavaScript effects.

Recommendations
So, where does e-Picture fall in the plethora of web graphic programs? Somewhere in between. It more than holds its own against proven graphic programs like Image Ready and Fireworks but it's not as powerful as Macromedia Flash with its superior tool set, strong audio capability and extensive programming power. Price wise its very affordable at $199. Give it a test drive. There is a 30 day trial version available at their website, www.beatware.com. Once you kick the tires and settle behind the wheel of e-Picture you may not look back at the competition.