Microsoft Expression Graphic Designer

DK · Post by DK » Sun Aug 06, 2006 1:04 am

Anyone seen these three FREE Microsoft apps?

http://www.microsoft.com/products/expre ... fault.mspx

I've looked at Ewpression Graphic designer and it completely blew me away!!! Especially the Bspline drawing tool...makes drawing with the mouse brilliant! Certainly something that i'd love to see implemented into Anime Studio. Also being able to edit Vectors right alongside raster based images makes the workflow really tidy and bucket loads of brushes to boot. Well worth the download!

D.K

jahnocli · Post by **jahnocli** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 9:20 am

I agree it is great. I use it -- wish I knew how to use it better! Another well-kept secret...

Sequent · Post by **Sequent** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 5:58 pm

Before they sold Expression to Microsoft, Creature House had been talking about an animation program and had shown examples on their site. I was looking forward to seeing what they might come up with.

It was interesting because of the natural media look but based on vector technology. (If I understood correctly)

jahnocli · Post by **jahnocli** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 7:25 pm

The animation program was something else; it was called "Living Cels", I believe -- Microsoft threw it away as far as I know...

Sequent · Post by **Sequent** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 3:11 pm

Yep, Living Cels. A shame... because it looked pretty interesting. I remember one of the features they were talking about was inbetweening - and there were some pretty cool examples of work done with the development version.

Oh well.

Post by **Víctor Paredes** » Sun Sep 17, 2006 8:06 pm

thanks so much for the link.
it's an incredible software.

how did you found it?

myles · Post by **myles** » Sun Sep 17, 2006 11:58 pm

Yes, Living Cels looked very promising for better frame-by-frame style animation - you could draw two versions of an object and the software would do its best to interpolate between them - a little like interpolating between vector switch layers but you could completely redraw the object rather than just modifying an existing object.

Note that Expression Graphic Designer is a preview/beta with an expiry date - eventually they'll replace it with a paid version.

An older version of Expressoin (basically the last Creature House version with a couple of bug fixes) is available under the Graphic Designer pages, Previous Versions. Versions are available for both Windows and Mac, it works with pre-XPsp2 versions of Windows, and although it is marked preview/beta, it doesn't expire. It does have one non-working icon in the toolbar (but that icon didn't exist in previous versions, so no great loss), and it doesn't have some of the nifty new features they've been introducing - stroke variation, most of the bitmap manipulation features, etc.

Definitely a program worth keeping an eye on.

Note: if you're exporting .ai files for Anime Studio import, make sure to convert all outlines to simple (PS) strokes, which will considerably reduce the number of points.

Regards, Myles.

Post by **Víctor Paredes** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 2:39 am

myles wrote:you could draw two versions of an object and the software would do its best to interpolate between them - a little like interpolating between vector switch layers but you could completely redraw the object rather than just modifying an existing object.

it's like tweenmaker?
is there a way to download livingcels? i can't find the link.

myles · Post by **myles** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 2:50 am

selgin wrote:it's like tweenmaker?

I don't know - I haven't tried tweenmaker.

It was like Expression with an animation timeline.

selgin wrote:is there a way to download livingcels? i can't find the link.

No, it has disappeared completely since Expression (and Living Cels) was bought by Microsoft. If you were an Expression owner, back when it was owned by Creature House, you got the chance to try a time-limited beta of Living Cels, but that chance has long since gone.

Regards, Myles.

Patmals · Post by **Patmals** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 3:46 am

I have tweenmaker!

Its quite cool and a mac beta version just appeared yesterday (Sunday)

im not sure how i would use it in my workflow (whatever that is!!!

with AS and TBS but its quite cool..i would like to use it..maybe more with TBS as it hasnt got the tweening of drawn objects - frame by frame drawn images)