MS Expression Graphic Designer Review

by M.Arief

At last, Microsoft is going to battle in graphic design application market. Their new product, MS Expression Graphic Designer, will compete against Adobe Photoshop and Corel Draw. Currently, it’s still in RC1 (Release Candidate 1) version. Let’s have a look at the box art..

Operating System :

• Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or later.

Minimum System :

• 733 Mhz processor with MMX or equivalent.
• 256 MB RAM.
• 400MB available hard disk space.
• 800 x 600 monitor resolution with 24-bit color.
• Mouse or digitizer tablet.

Recommended System :

• Intel Pentium 4 processor with MMX or equivalent.
• 512 MB RAM.
• 600 MB available hard disk space.
• 1024 x 768 or greater monitor resolution with 24-bit color.

Now, let’s have a look at the main interface..

As we can see above, the main interface is quite different with the other graphic softwares making it quite difficult for the first time. I’ve some difficulties with the tool bar. It was so small to click making it quite hard for fast tool-swapping. As you can see in the screenshot, it’s in 1024×768 screen resolution. I haven’t tried it in 1280×1024–my favourite resolution for drawing–yet, but it could be harder to click. The Paint Style toolbar also acting as properties bar. When you select an object, it will change into props bar which I don’t really like. The color palette also didn’t touch good.

Another annoying thing that I’ve found is the layer panel. It’s so small in the upper-right side of the drawing area (pictured in the upper screenshot). Probably it’ll cause more annuisance if you have more than 10 layers in that panel because you can’t see the label without hovering the cursor above them. Personally I’d prefer Firework’s-like layer panel (see below).

Let’s talk about it’s ability. As far as I can see, I couldn’t find any special/unique feature other than XAML export ability in this software. I mean, all it have is just a standard features in many other graphic design apps like color corrections, blurs, drop shadows, filterings, etc. Worst of all, I can’t see any plugin feature to extends its ability. I think MS still have to fix these problems before the final release.

But, despite of its lack of special abilities and bad GUI, I also found that this programs is a resources savy which means it could be used by many older computers. You can see it in my Task Manager screenshot below.

As you can see above, I have 4 vector-based image (as seen in the first screenshot) and it cost only 11MB of RAM and 57MB of VRAM. This is different (in comparison) with Macromedia Fireworks 8 which I only open 1 vector-based image with approximately the same level with the Expression has but it cost more around 37MB of RAM and 92MB of VRAM. I think with this resources savy, Expression will run in the old computer with 256 MB of RAM smoothly.

The other thing that we should note that Expression Graphic Designer came with a lot of Help and Tutorials.

 

As far as I can see, the Help are well-explained and the Tutorials are very helping in learning how to use Expression Graphic Designer. This could be another plus for Expression.

Conclusion

This is the first time Microsoft get into professional graphic design application market, and I think the Expression Graphic Designer is a fine program altough many pro-level designer wouldn’t be satisfied with. Probably, it’ll fit best with some starter graphic designers.

Pros :

• Well-explained Help and Tutorials.
• Resources savy.
• XAML*, PDF exportable.

Cons :

• Bad designed GUI.
• No plugins supported.

*) To be able to export design into XAML you’ll need .NET Framework 3.0 RC1.

Download Links

• Microsoft Expression Graphic Designer RC1.
• Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 RC1.

Busy.. Busy.. Busy..

Last week is the most busiest week I’ve ever had. There’re so much work that I must do on campus. Mini Projects, homeworks, damn.. I can’t go for rendering at all, even I can only play games for about 2 hours long per 2 days. That sucks, really sucks for a gamer like me . Preddicting that this week will be better, thank God, I was wrong. Damn it, so much work to do. I’m so tired going crazy like this. Oh yeah, BTW I was working on my own GIS tutorial of my own. It seems like it’ll be parted ‘coz I don’t have much time to complete it now. Maybe tomorrow I’ll finished the Part I.. time to go for sleep.

Here Comes The Sun

Another old art, I was inspired by the Alpen mountains. So I use the Washington Pass DEM (if I was correct) to make Alpen-like scene. Part that I love the most is the sky, it’s so fascinating. Unfortunately I forgot to save the .atm file. Damn it, I should be more careful next time. BTW, here is the 1024×768 render..

And here is the 1280×800 render..

The Star Nebula Tutorial by Frank Basinski

I was searching for a new Nebula technique tutorial for Terragen rendering yesterday. And I found out that Frank’s tutorial is very well-explained.

Here’s a brief short :

“As you might have discovered already, Terragen is capable of doing many things, which I bet its creator Matt Fairclough wouldn’t have thought about at all. One can build not only landscapes, but also structures like buildings and planets and …. star nebulae.

As for a contest entry, with the cover theme “Lost in Space” (the November 2001 Terraworlds contest), I came across the fact, that if I would try to render a planet, I would “end up” among dozens of other planets which were sent into the contest. Shortly before the contest, Peter Kleiner released his “Planet Tutorial”, so I expected to see many planets in the contest. But – what else could I do which fits the contest theme? I decided to go for a star nebula.

The basic idea is to use the glow effect. To explain this very briefly: The glow effect is nothing else but high density atmospheric blue (mostly, artists use another color but blue for this). Also the half-height of the atmospheric blue must be rather low. Like it should fit into the valleys or holes of the terrain you use.”

You can read the complete tutorial here

Mt. Rainier’s Bright Sun

I’m quite bored of my terragen creation style.. I love realistic pictures, but really, sometimes I wanna make something different. For 4 hours rendering pictures, I have nothing. Yes, nothing! The renders I’ve got are not very pleasing.. They were.. too typical. So I take a different approach, yes, it’s mythical/fantasy landscape stuff. Here’s the 1024×768 render..

And this is the Wide-Screen version, 1280×800..

I’ve tried to make it a silouhuette, but it looks crap. Then I changed it into some kind of “semi-silouhuette” type — my fave –and it seems better.

Just open..

I’ve open an account at deviantART. It’s so much fun to see and interact with another digital artists from around the world. So, if you’re also a digital artist and currently don’t have an account there, it’s really worth it.

My account, tarraxss.deviantart.com. Please do visit sometimes

Glacier of the Enlightment

I was backup-ing my PC data when I found this old render. It was made in early 2006 maybe, I don’t remember. It’s heavily inspired from The Ice Age 2: The Meltdown as you can tell.

Err.. There’s something wrong with WordPress’ “Send to Editor” button. It didn’t work as it supposed to be. So I have to manually create the thumb! WTH!

Anyway, this is the Wide-Screen version.

 

I don’t remember how long it takes to render and post-work these pics, but I estimate it around 2 hour or less because of the simple textures.

Why?

Now, Mother Earth, its time to disclose
in verses instead of plain prose
with question galore
you sure know the score
you’re special, i know, cause it shows

If minds that inquire you are bright
you’re certainly doing all right
you poke, probe, and pry
and keep asking “why?“
until you’ve the answer in sight

Now I know it is not your time to retire
you’ve done quite a lot to admire
most of change could be said to the entire
but there’s still so much more to desire

-Encephalon

Seashore at Dusk

This evening I saw the most beautiful sky in the past 6 years of my life! It has a purple-pink sky with dark clouds around it. It was dusk so it’s pretty dark and I can’t see the sunset, but the sky looks pretty awesome. Unfortunately I didn’t have my cellphone beside me so I can’t take any photo of it. So I decided to “draw” it with Terragen.

              

It tooks me around 2 hours to render and postwork it. At first I was planning for a total silouhuette for aesthetics cause. But then I’ve changed it into some kind of “semi-silouhuette” to make it more realistic. I know maybe the sky isn’t really look like the real ones, but it’s quite good I think.

Softwares used :

• Planetside Terragen 0.9
• Macromedia Fireworks 8
• Microsoft Office Picture Manager

Raison d’Terrestre

Raison d’Terrestre..

C’est simplement incertain..

Is this life is real? What’s the purpose of our life? Is God truly exist? Yes, it’s just simply questionable. Well, don’t ask me coz I’m no God. I was just wandering and mumbling around when it comes to my mind. Shortly, I open up Terragen software, decide to start digitalizing these questions. After a couple hours–3 hours Terragen-ing and a couple minutes post-working–I have the renders. I think it’s quite pleasing and worth the time.

                       

As you can see above, I imagine a terrestrial paradise of my own. Green corals, along with a blue-green water, a green valley with it’s tropical trees.. Ah, it’s just my imaginary place.