Dec 8 2004
Swift 3D v4
I approached this review thinking this was going to be a minor, incremental improvement to a decent vector 3D solution, but come to find out, I was wrong.
Version 4 brings the 3D tools up a notch, introduces animation paths and imports 3ds files with textures. Improvements in this version make Swift a full-featured 3D suite at a great price.
The quality of the vector renderings are great. Simple logo-type renderings look as detailed in vector as they do rendered in raster. And with the .swft export format, and the complementary Flash import plugin you can bring in 3D renderings completely edible, with layering.
Shading and highlights bring more 3D to vector that you might thing was possible. I’d have to say that I was very impressed with the quality of the end product. Vector renderings, scaled beautifully, were easy to move into Flash and looked great. Raster renderings were very impressive too. Rendering speed was quick, for the amount of polish.
In my previous review, I mentioned the need for more detailed 3D tools – which version 4 delivers. My other principle complaint has been the interface, which unfortunately has not improved.
Swift’s main window is tiny, compared to the bulky sidebar. The sidebar features contextual options, but is often close to empty. There’s an additional tab to the main window for online help that does nothing more than launch the website. The toolbar along the top sports grayed-out tools that are rarely used.
So, given the nice improvements in rendering and importing, I would say this is a must-upgrade for existing users. For newcomers, this is a very flexible, cost-effective way to get into 3D but perhaps not the most efficient interface.
Swift 3D is $189, $99 upgrade
