Product Reviews

ImpactPlus is one of a number of programs aimed at producing 3D graphics and animations without spending a fortune or needing advanced skills.

The most obvious uses for it are Web banners and spinning logos, which you can export as animated GIFs, and film titles, which you can save as .AVI files to combine with your own footage in a video editing program. This is a great way of adding a bit of pizazz to home movies, and other projects, that might otherwise look a bit flat. If you're feeling even more ambitious, you can direct quite complex mini-movies for standalone viewing. If all that sounds a bit ambitious, though, you could just design a flashy 3D logo for your letterheads, if that's what's takes your fancy.

To get you started, there's a selection of Design Wizards, mostly based on animated text. Alternatively, you can choose from a larger number of ready-made sample files. Whether you take one of these routes or bravely start from scratch, you're dropped into a control screen that looks remarkably similar to Serif's other software, such as the DTP program PagePlus: toolbars at the top and left, plus a stack of tabbed palettes at the right.

ImpactPlus is pretty ambitious. Advanced features include control over lighting properties such as highlights and glows, as well as particle effects, which can generate effects such

The program's most important features are in the core areas of modelling and animation. In the 3D Workshop, you can put together models by extending 2D shapes and combining the results. There's a large choice of bevel options and textures, so even if you start with a simple object or lettering, you can quickly give it a detailed 3D appearance. Animation is controlled by a timeline and keyframes, and rather than only being able to spin or flip objects, you can make them change properties and move along a path. This also applies to your lights and camera. So, like a movie director, you can control exactly what goes on in your animation, and how it looks on screen.

To help you get to grips with all of this, Serif provides a well-written 100-page manual (although an index would have been useful), and a set of onscreen visual tutorials. It's a shame this effort isn't entirely reflected in the program itself, which often leaves you wondering exactly what you're looking at and how to change it.

Unlike rivals Xara3D 5 and Cool 3D 3.5, ImpactPlus can't create Flash movies. In actual fact, Flash isn't normally a great format for 3D rendering, so this won't be a problem for less experienced users. It's a limitation that could annoy more advanced users who want to create complex multimedia content for their Web site, or just for fun.

If you want an affordable 3D package that goes further than just generating logos, ImpactPlus 5 is decent and gets the job done. Unfortunately for Serif, though, it's just a bit too expensive. If all you want to do is create a fancy 3D logo for your Web site, go for either Xara3D 5 or Ulead's Cool3D 3.5. Both cost less than 30 quid, and can handle Macromedia's Flash format too.