TUTORIAL
Mask Function in Amorphium Pro
Using masking to paint, create effects and increase polygons
Last week I reviewed Amorphium Pro 1.1 from Electric Image. Amorphium Pro is a 3D modeling and animation package targeted toward designers, with a particular bent toward Flash designers. Its features have been implemented in a way that 2D artists can understand very easily, and these features are quite robust. So I thought we'd take a more in depth look at one of these today—namely masking—and see how it fits into the overall workflow of Amorphium Pro.

For this tutorial, we're going to be working with 3D text to create a dripping effect.

REVIEW
Creature House Expression 2
Vector illustration and painting software
Over the course of just the last couple years, vector-based illustration programs have begun making their first serious strides into the territory of bitmap painting tools. That is, programs have introduced vector tools that behave in many ways like bitmap tools but retain the editability of vectors. These include Macromedia Fireworks and Freehand, which retain most of the functionality of traditional vector (formerly known as EPS) applications, and Synthetik Studio Artist, which you would never identify as a vector tool unless you were to engage in some research to discover this fact. Right in the middle is Expression 2 from Creature House, an almost brand-spanking new application resurrected from the ashes of Fractal Design Expression from the company formerly known as MetaCreations.

OPINION
Talkin' Smack: It Works!
The new age of Mac computing begins
Well, Mac OS X 10.0 saw its official debut this weekend, and I was there on Day 1 to buy it in a regular old retail store just like the common man. I even have my OS X Hanes Beefy-T to show for it. I think sales might have been a bit more brisk if it hadn't lacked CD-R and DVD support, but I don't care how many people bought it. You know why? I've been waiting for Apple's "modern OS" since the first hints of Rhapsody, and now, after years of waiting, the promise has finally been fulfilled. And now I, a mere mortal from the central badlands of Orange County, Calif., have it in my possession. Even better, I have it, and it works.