Mac

Windows

Uleadís Cool 3D is a powerful program that creates 3D still and animated images. Easily adjust to such text bevels, light sources, texture, colour and motion. Thereís also the 'EasyPalette' which contains preset 3D styles that you apply by dragging onto your images. The resulting images can be saved in AVI, BMP, GIF or JPG format. Ulead also bundles in the award winning Gif Animator 3.

Web link: www.webutilities.com

Winamp is a MP3, WAV, MIDI, MOD, and CD audio player. The stylish interface gives you a ten-band graphic equalizer, user-definable presets, shuffle and playlist editor. Winamp's plug-in architecture lets you choose from a varity of 'designer' interfaces. You'll need a powerful PC and a decent Internet connection to get the best streaming audio quality.

Web link: www.winamp.com

With Macromedia's Flash you can create interactive multimedia content that will liven up your Web pages and make navigation more pleasurable. Animations and graphics are scalable, thus providing high-quality viewing on any screen size.

Flash files are very small, which means impressively little time is spent waiting for such sophisticated pages – 'streaming' allows Flash files to play while downloading.

Web link: Macromedia

ShockwaveFlash Player
v3
(W3.x)

Macromedia's free ShockwaveFlash plug-in now plays Director and Flash media in your Web browser (for pre-v4.5 Netscape and pre-v4 Internet Explorer – Flash is included in these as well as Windows 98).

GIF Movie Gear makes building GIF animations easy and intuitive. The graphical interface of this animator uses a filmstrip metaphor to show all the frames at once (not just their numbers). Powerful palette reduction with before-and-after views combines with inter-frame optimization to keep the file size down, and a real-time previewer helps get the timing just right. You can pick transparency, read AVI and BMP files, export compressed AVI or GIF filmstrips and even generate HTML code for putting the GIF animation on the Web.

Web link: www.moviegear.com

Upgrade to the new final release version of RealPlayer G2, the latest incarnation of the well-known 'real-time' live audio and video player for the Web.

Go to the RealNetworks Web site to download an appropriate version of their Basic Server 5 software if you need to enable your system to serve Real Audio.

There's a Java applet in the software\windows\multimed\real5 folder that allows you to control the appearance and function of the RealPlayer. You may need the RA Classes there too – copy the RAClasses.zip file to your browser's plugins folder and unzip it there.

Try this new Web audio format from Gloucestershire-based Insigma Technologies – you can listen to what it does without any effort as there's no plug-in needed (though you must be using a Java-enabled browser); just visit one of the Hyperceive playing Web sites. Although not a streaming audio technology, Hyperceive can download and playback simultaneously.

The demo software included here will let you experiment with creating Hyperceive audio, but you will not be able to save any musical arrangements nor create Web pages with the embeded music.

(See below for CoolEdit sound editing software...)

Web link: Cleopatra

Web link: Anna Friel

Web link: Insigma

This is a major upgrade to the old Win95 Media Player, handling more file types and rebuilt for the Internet.

Apple QuickTime
(Win3.x)

Latest version of the QuickTime multimedia software, including browser plug-in for viewing QuickTime content on Web pages. Upgrading to the commercial 'Pro' version gives you more powerful tools for content creation.

A great benefit of using QuickTime is its vastly improved midi music sounds compared to the standard squeaks of basic sound cards.

Cool Edit is a powerful sound file editing application with loads of effects and tools plus support for many file formats, making it useful to just about anyone working with sound on the PC.

Mac OS

NOTE: The Mac programs on this CD are mostly in archived 'HQX' (BinHex) files – they can be extracted with several applications, including Stuffit Expander (which is on the CD...). Clicking on the links below should set the process in motion. You may receive a message that the file cannot be loaded into Simple Text — if so, start Stuffit and then open the HQX file you want from within Stuffit.

Use this tool for creating fast-downloading, interactive Web multimedia. It lets you create Web multimedia using all manner of content – vector and bitmap animation, digitised audio, MIDI music, video, 3D, VR and more than 150 special effects, such as fades, transitions, fire and ripples.

Easily create complex animations with hot spots and instantly preview and edit your work without exporting. Flexible compression lets you produce streaming multimedia, which plays as it downloads.

Create effective multimedia Web pages with Macromedia's great Flash authoring application. Use a timeline to synchronise various media and events as you create interactive pages that will deliver your message in style. You can even use Flash to create simple games – let your imagination loose...

Animations and graphics are scalable, thus providing high-quality viewing on any screen size. Flash files are very small, which means impressively little time is spent waiting for such sophisticated pages – 'streaming' allows Flash files to play while downloading.

Web link: Macromedia

ShockWave Flash Plugin
v6
(68k)

Shockwave Flash uses a very compact vector-based format to deliver interactive buttons, drawings, and animations on the Web. This latest version of the free plug-in allows Netscape users to view Director and Flash media.

Latest version of the QuickTime multimedia software, including browser plug-ins. Upgrading to the commercial 'Pro' version will give you more powerful creation tools.

QuickEditor is a QuickTime video editor designed to perform common editing operations in the quickest and easiest way. It is not meant for handling big projects, with full-screen, full-motion video, but is a great for creating small, eye-catching movies that you can publish on your Web pages.

There are plenty of Web animation applications around now — why not give them all a try until you decide which suits you best.

Here's another animator for you to test run, this one from those natty image tweakers at HVS.

Maczilla is a versatile plug-in that lets you view QuickTime movies, as well as AVI- and MPEG-formatted files, directly from your browser. In many cases you can view the movie as it downloads, rather than having to wait for the entire file to come through. In addition, the plug-in will let you listen to AU, WAV, MIDI, AIFF, and MP2 sound files directly from within your browser. MacZilla can also download multimedia files at top speed in the background while you go on using your browser for other things. This version is compatabile with most Web browsers.

RealPlayer 5

RealNetworks' encoder software for Power PC allows you to put 'streaming' Real Audio on your Web pages. RealPlayer lets you and others listen to it.

Final release of RealPlayer G2 for Mac coming soon...

Recording, editing and conversion software.