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Creating eye-catching graphics for your Web site, presentation, or publication either takes a wealth of technical know-how or involves paying vast amounts of money to a designer. But not if you use Ulead's latest version of Cool 3D, an $80, entry-level 3D titling and graphics package.

Cool 3D 3.0 provides the same easy-to-use interface as the previous 2.5 version did, but it adds more special effects, animation tools, and other features that will appeal to Web and video developers, as well as to the average business user. With Cool 3D, you can now create everything from sparklingly chiseled 3D titles, shapes, and objects to lively 3D animations with professional-looking special effects. Best of all, you won't need a degree in graphic arts to get great results.

Thanks to Cool 3D's EasyPalette, which is chock-full of ready-made 3D shapes, objects, and special effects, you can quickly create a finished and polished graphic in a matter of minutes. Cool 3D doesn't provide wizards to help you create a complete composition, while Crystal 3D Impact Pro, an $80 program from CrystalGraphics, does. Compared to Crystal 3D Impact Pro, Cool 3D provides more advanced animation and drawing tools, making it a better value for users who want the most bang, not to mention shapes and special effects, for their buck.

Cool 3D Graphics

Like other entry-level 3D graphics packages, Cool 3D provides a simple dialog box for adding and editing a line of text, such as a short title for a presentation or Web page. The program automatically extrudes the text into a three-dimensional version that you can easily rotate and move (in the x-, y-, and z-axes) by simply clicking on it and moving your mouse. But what separates Cool 3D from others in its class is its enhanced drawing and animation features, as well as the extensive canned effects you can apply to your text.

With Cool 3D's new vector-based drawing tools, located in a new Path Editor window, you can create and edit any freeform shape you want. And if you don't want to draw an object from scratch, the Path Editor also sports an autotrace feature to transform a bitmap image--such as a scanned image of a simple logo--into an editable vector graphic.

Cool 3D's enhanced animation features give you more control than does Crystal 3D Impact Pro in the creation of short animations that you can save in .gif, .avi, QuickTime (.mov), and RealText formats. Among Cool 3D's new animation tools are separate timeline controls over each item (text and objects) in an animation, a motion path feature that lets you easily move your text around a path (such as text spinning around a globe), and a show/hide feature that provides an easy way to make various items appear to pop on and off the screen. Although learning how to use all of those controls takes a little time, the payoff is your ability to create some very slick animations. And few competing products include animation controls as extensive as those provided in Cool 3D.

Other noteworthy additions include a truckload of new 3D geometric shapes--spheres, cones, cylinders, pyramids, and cubes--that have been added to the EasyPalette, and that you can plop into your own graphic with a single click. More canned special effects, including jazzy transitions to transform objects from one form to another, and classy bevels to apply unique front and back edges to your text and objects, have also been added to the mix.