Creature House Expression 3 review

So far, the improvements are welcome, but slightly uninspiring. However, Expression 3 has one final trick up its sleeve - effect lines. You set these up by selecting two paths, calling up the new Effect Lines palette and then controlling how many lines to add between the two paths, their clustering, spacing, width and start and end edges. Creature House is pushing the feature for setting up Manga-style comic book action lines, but they're useful for much more than this. In particular, the ability to replace the default straight lines with template paths and apply any skeletal stroke to your effect lines opens up huge creative potential.

Expression 3's effect lines show the advantage of a dedicated vector art package at its best. For maximum control, you'd be better off with a standard drawing package such as Illustrator, while for maximum creativity you should choose a bitmap-based package such as Procreate Painter (see Reviews, issue 85, p180). If you're looking for both control and creativity, however, Expression is out on its own and at a very attractive price.

Author: Tom Arah