PCR’s guide to creative software

From web designing and music making to photo and movie editing, PCR takes a look at the hottest creative software to stock this Christmas.

SERIF DRAW PLUS X6
SRP: £81.69
DISTRIBUTOR: Exertis Gem
THEY SAY: The latest version of the award-winning DrawPlus has been designed for professional graphic designers, enthusiasts and amateurs wanting to express their creativity in the home or office. The feature-packed program is great for diverse tasks such as drawing vector art, sketching ideas, designing logos and diagrams, painting naturally, turning photos into artwork, and creating animations – regardless of previous experience. Professionals and enthusiasts will also be impressed with DrawPlus’ improved options for layer and colour management, plus legacy features like blend modes and PDF editing. For beginners, DrawPlus X6 has dedicated studios, a How To tab for on-screen assistance, plus helpful video and additional online tutorials.

MUSIC CREATOR 6
SRP: £45
DISTRIBUTOR: Roland UK
THEY SAY: Music Creator 6 turns your computer into your own personal recording studio and includes everything you need to create, edit, and mix professional recordings. Whether it’s a cover of your favourite tune or an original composition, turn a simple idea into a finished song with Music Creator’s powerful suite of tools, loops, instruments, and effects. And when you’re ready to share your music with the world, you can burn a CD or use SoundCloud to post your music on sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

ADOBE CREATIVE SUITE 6 DESIGN STANDARD
SRP: £1,032
DISTRIBUTOR: Computers Unlimited, Tech Data
THEY SAY: Adobe Creative Suite 6 Design Standard software combines industry-standard tools for professional print design and digital publishing. Create eye-catching images and graphics at lightning speed with innovative painting and drawing tools and dozens of creative effects.

MAGIX MOVIE EDIT PRO 2014
SRP: From £59.99 DISTRIBUTOR: Exertis Gem
THEY SAY: The new Movie Edit Pro 2014 build comes with the promise of improved multi-track performance through more efficient use of multi-core PCs. This new build also comes with lots of new content, with all versions now HD and 16:9 compatible. Movie Edit Pro 2014 now also includes HDR effects for the first time too.

ANIME STUDIO PRO 9
SRP: £149.99
DISTRIBUTOR: Avanquest
THEY SAY: Anime Studio Pro 9 is for professionals looking for a more efficient alternative to tedious frame-by-frame animation. The software includes an intuitive interface, visual content library and powerful features such as a bone-rigging system, bitmap to vector conversion, integrated lip- synching, 3D modelling, physics, motion tracking, a character wizard and more.

COREL PAINTSHOP PRO X6
SRP: £59.99
DISTRIBUTOR: Exertis Gem
THEY SAY: Thanks to the addition of 64-bit support, X6 is the most powerful version of Corel PaintShop to date. 64-bit dramatically improves the power of PaintShop Pro X6, delivering more performance, speed and stability in users’ favourite features. With X6, users can open larger files and more files – upward of 50 – with ease. This significantly improves performance in batch processing, multi-layer compositing work and HDR processing. New selection tools make traditionally tedious editing tasks a breeze, allowing users to focus on the creative side of editing.

MAGIX MUSIC MAKER 2014
SRP: £59.99
DISTRIBUTOR: Exertis Gem
THEY SAY: With Music Maker 2014 it’s easier than ever to produce your own songs and tracks – no matter if you’re a beginner or a pro. Thousands of loops, various genres, virtual instruments and spectacular studio effects provide limitless possibilities and sensational results. The improved recoding function makes it simple to record your own vocals and add real instrument to your arrangements. Thanks to the brand new Vocal Tune feature and Pitch Wizard you will never miss a note.

CRAFTARTIST: CRAFTS, CARDS AND MORE
SRP: £10.20
DISTRIBUTOR: Focus Multimedia
THEY SAY: The fast, fun and easy way to create your own projects. Includes everything you need to design your own custom-made print projects with hundreds of templates and graphics to choose from. Stunning projects created in minutes, from greeting cards to wedding stationery and photobooks to party kits.

PINNACLE STUDIO 16 ULTIMATE
SRP: £99.95
DISTRIBUTOR: Exertis Gem
THEY SAY: Pinnacle Studio 16 Ultimate is the easy-to-use power tool for creating professional-looking videos and multimedia. Built on trusted award-winning Pinnacle technology, it delivers frame-accurate editing on an unlimited number of tracks in HD or advanced stereoscopic 3D. Other features include enhanced media tagging, custom-fit soundtracks, Blu-Ray authoring in Dolby 5.1 surround, and one-click sharing. Integral cloud access lets you edit anywhere and even import Pinnacle Studio for iPad projects. Easily superimpose people over different backgrounds with the included green screen.

MANGA STUDIO EX5
SRP: £149.99
DISTRIBUTOR: Avanquest
THEY SAY: Manga Studio EX5 is the world’s leading comic and manga creation software and delivers powerful art tools for every manga and comic artists. Whether you are an experienced artist or just getting started with a new hobby and want to get up to speed super-fast, Manga Studio is an investment that you won’t regret. Manga Studio EX5 has all of the features of Manga Studio 5, professional story creation tools, as well as additional professional special content and features, which make it the ultimate illustration tool for serious comic, manga and graphic artists.

CORELDRAW GRAPHICS SUITE X6
SRP: £478.80
DISTRIBUTOR: Exertis Gem
THEY SAY: Whether you’re an aspiring artist or an experienced designer, CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 is your trusted graphic design software solution. With its content-rich environment and professional graphic design, photo editing and website design software, you have everything you need to express your style and creativity with endless possibilities. Quickly feel at home with built-in help, training videos and professionally designed templates. Then create with confidence – everything from distinctive logos and signs to custom websites, web graphics, billboards, car wraps and flyers.

DARK GAME STUDIO
SRP: £10.20
DISTRIBUTOR: Focus Multimedia
THEY SAY: Dark Game Studio is a special compilation of game making tools that makes creating your own PC games easier than ever. This easy to learn BASIC programming language enables you to program your own games and is packed with a wide range of tools that allows you to easily incorporate all of the special features and effects you see in today’s games. Using BASIC commands you can quickly load and animate 3D objects, play sounds and add music. Everything you need for game creation is covered and there are plenty of examples included.

DHALCO EASY WEBSITE IN A BOX STANDARD EDITION
SRP: £49
DISTRIBUTOR: Exertis Gem
THEY SAY: Create your very own .co.uk website address with the click of a button and build that professional website you’ve always wanted. Creating a distinctive web presence with our professionally designed themes is easy. See exactly how many visitors your sites get by using analytics to keep track of your website’s progress. Upgrade your website with additional tools such as anti-virus protection, additional web pages and email addresses, office stationary and an image library.

PHOTOZOOM PROFESSIONAL 5
SRP: £144.99
DISTRIBUTOR: Avanquest
THEY SAY: Photo 5 Pro is the ideal solution for enlarging digital photos for printing or on-screen use with professional results. Using the exclusive award-winning S-Spline Max resize technology you can produce stunning resized images of exceptional quality, with absolutely no detail loss. All images appear perfectly focused, without the jagged edges, loss of detail or lack of photorealism that normally occurs in an enlarged image. PhotoZoom 5 Pro fits perfectly into your photo processing workflow, with powerful functionality and GPU Acceleration to speed up processing time.

SERIF MOVIEPLUS X6
SRP: £61.27
DISTRIBUTOR: Exertis Gem
THEY SAY: Edit your videos with MoviePlus X6. Its powerful, yet easy-to-use, editing tools and studio-quality effects help you to create stunning movies in minutes. Burn HD videos to DVD or Blu-ray Discs, or upload your movies to the web and share them with friends, family or the world. MoviePlus X6 includes QuickMovie Studio, a new feature for quickly and easily creating movies in an instant. Users simply select from one of 20 professionally designed themes and then import their own videos and photos. Each theme contains customisable titles and credits plus matching transitions and effects. Music can be added too – users can select their own or choose from a library of tracks.

TOTALCAD 2D/3D V2
SRP: £10.20
DISTRIBUTOR: Focus Multimedia
THEY SAY: TotalCAD 2D/3D Version 2 is an easy-to-use, versatile CAD program combining 2D drafting with powerful and precise 3D modelling. Easily design anything from complex architectural and mechanical drawings to simple everyday projects and hobbies. Features a wealth of content and over 150 drawing, editing and viewing tools. Perfect for anyone, including architects, illustrators, contractors, builders, hobbyists, designers, teachers, engineers and students.

CONTACTS
AVANQUEST: 01480 496666
COMPUTERS UNLIMITED: 020 8358 9578
EXERTIS GEM: 01279 822822
FOCUS MULTIMEDIA: 01889 570156
ROLAND UK: 01279 702701
TECH DATA: 0871 880 3000