MetaCreations has announced a new product called Headline Studio. Headline Studio is designed for creating GIF banner ads. According to MetaCreations:
"Headline Studio 1.0 will deliver all the necessary tools for creating compelling, animated Web banners in one streamlined application. With video effects such as walk-ins, dissolves and fades for images and text (either lines, words or individual letters), Web authors will have newfound design freedom while decreasing the time it takes to produce an ad. Headline Studio 1.0 includes customizable, Web-safe color palettes, unlimited undo, and the ability to determine GIF animation size and frame rate after the animation has been designed.
Additional Features in Headline Studio
- Split text: Divide text into individual lines, words or characters for complete control over animation possibilities.
- Instant preview of GIF animations: Streamline creation time with the ability to view animations on the fly.
- Dozens of animation parameters: Whether you want text and images to flow smoothly into your banner, "fade" in from a motion blur, or even bounce like a ball, Headline Studio speeds animation by providing dozens of parameters that can be applied to any object for instant action.
- Color palettes: Users can choose from preset "Web-safe" color palettes, create custom palettes within Headline Studio, or import palettes from MetaCreations' Painter 5.5 Web Edition, or Adobe Photoshop."
MetaCreations will be delivering the product via the Internet in February, a policy that marks a first for MetaCreations. A retail package will be available in March for store shelves. The product is expected to retail for US$199.
The Mac Observer Spin: MetaCreations isn't touting Headline Studio for anything other than banner ads at the moment, but the product seems ideal for creating any kind of GIF animation for the web. With the customizable features and ability to tweak size and palette, GIF animators may find this product to be ideal for spicing up a web page.
When we covered Clearway Technologies AdScreen product, we received lots of mail from lots of people with lots of emotions on the banner ad business. Banner advertising being a contentious issue, it is good to see a product that may help designers make more appealing and (above all) smaller banner ads. It remains to be seen of course whether or not that will happen with users of Headline Studio or any other product.
What we want to see come out is a new paradigm for Internet advertising that delivers a message better than a banner ad but is more palatable to consumers who resent download times imposed by banner ads.
With this in mind, it is interesting that MetaCreations limited the output of this product to GIF. The ability to save as a JAVA applet or QuickTime movie would be very beneficial. Perhaps a future version will.
Headline Studio - MetaCreations
|