Vectoraster 8
Create Animated Vector Raster Images
Review by Erik VlietinckCompany: Lost MindsPrice: $45Rating:Hot: Complex effects possible;
user-friendly interface; animation
allows for spectacular effectsNot:Vectoraster is a graphics utility for Mac OS 10.3 or later that allows
you to create custom vector halftones and line rasters. The dark
areas of an image become points, while the light areas become
white space.
The Vectoraster app lets you change the halftone patterns and
point shapes, and vary them across the pattern to produce many
different styles. The results can be exported as vector images or
bitmaps like JPEG, PNG, or TIFF. Vectoraster 8 also lets you animate
all these effects to create transitions, video backgrounds, or other
effects. The animated results can be exported as MOV or MPEG4
video files or as a sequence of frame files, which allows for many
creative effects.
You can create a raster for a photo, text, gradient, or a noise
source. These sources can be used together in one project, each
on their own layer, allowing for intricate designs. The raster itself
can be a circle, a box, polygon, star, alphanumeric character, and
more. All of these have their own settings, including the ability to
vary parameters, which is often essential to render the raster as a
recognizable variant of the source.
It’s easy to experiment with Vectoraster 8 until you find the
desired outcome, as you can even adjust the raster pattern itself,
while raster distortions and utilities let you further fine-tune
the results.
For animation purposes, which is the big new feature in Vec-
toraster 8, you can change every parameter over time using
keyframes in a simple user interface that gives you access to even
advanced settings such as animation ease-in/ease-out curves.
To obtain just the right effect here, however, may require more trial
and error than with static raster art. nREVIEWS › ›> PHOTOSHOP USER>^ OCTOBER 2020[ 116 ]