The Bottom Line
SWiSH is a brilliant program, and should be included in most animator's toolboxes. It is a vastly cheaper alternative to the high-end professional progams, but with enough features to keep even experienced Flash or LiveMotion users interested. It makes it possible to do things instantly that take time and knowledge when using scripting.
Pros
- Powerful, easy to use.
- Many animation effects, all easily configurable.
- Timeline for control of animations.
Cons
- No printed manual, PDF only.
- No version for Mac yet.
- No boxed copy.
Description
- Not just another GIF animator, but a full featured animation program.
- SWiSH actions can be triggered by buttons that include rollovers and other effects.
- Many great text animations built in.
- Timeline based animation enabled.
- The Events panel enables effects to be created without needing to learn scripting.
- Instances, or clones, of objects can be saved and reused.
- Making masks is extremely easy.
- Gradient fills can be applied to text once it has been converted to shapes.
- SWiSH is WYSIWYG and this makes editing a breeze.
- Online PDF manual at http://www.swishzone.com/
Guide Review - SWiSH Web Animation Software
If you or your kids are interested in animation, then you should really have a look at this program and make your own decisions about whether you need another. Create incredible text effects instantly, and animations with a bit more work, and combine the two. SWiSH v2 is a much more advanced version than its predecessor. This is because instead of being just a text manipulator and advanced GIF animator, it is now a very useful cut down version of Macromedia's Flash. As an introductory program to the world of animation and Web building using .swf special effects, SWiSH v2 is a great start. It's well priced for such a potentially useful and fun program. Adding a printed manual and boxed version would greatly enhance a terrific program. -- By Tim Skyrme
