{rw_text}Giveaway of the day for April 11, 2009 is:

3D Text Commander 2.0

Version reviewed:

v2.0

Software description as per GOTD:

Empower your Web site or software with realistic 3D text. Generate impressive banners or navigation buttons with ray-traced 3D text complete with shadows and reflections. Design flyers and brochures with innovative style with high-resolution 3D text. Insofta 3D Text Commander easily does all that, and more! No complex settings and no learning curve are involved thanks to the visual controls working in real-time.

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{rw_good}

• Very easy to use.
• Nice clean interface.
• Has 11 predefined templates you can use.
• Full control over the look of the text (size, look, shadow, light, angle, rotation etc.)
• “New Project Wizard” helps make creating 3D text very easy.
• Multiple language support (English, German, Russian, and more).

{/rw_good} –>

{rw_bad}

• Very, very computer resource intensive.
• “Render Preview”/”Render Image” is slow.
• Interface can become very laggy.
• No “Undo” or “Redo” features.

{/rw_bad} –>

{rw_score}
{for=”Features as Described” value=”10″}Developer claims this program will allow you to create 3D text and it allows you to create 3D text.
{/for}
{for=”Ease of Use” value=”10″}Point and click.
{/for}
{for=”Performance” value=”7″}The text/image themselves are fine but 3D Text Commander uses up a lot of computer resources. While a user should expect relative high computer resouce usage with a 3D rendering application, it is still worth mentoring.
{/for}
{for=”Usefulness” value=”8″}I figure many people will have use for a program that allows them to create 3D text in an easy manner; however the few graphically talented may prefer a more grassroots/hands on approach that this program does not provide.
{/for}
{for=”Arbitrary Equalizer” value=”8″}This category reflects an arbitrary number that does not specifically stand for anything. Rather this number is used to reflect my overall rating/verdict of the program in which I considered all the features and free alternatives.
{/for}
{/rw_score} –>

{rw_verdict}[tupr]
{/rw_verdict} –>

Registration and installation went fine. You have to manually enter your registration information. Grab the registration information from readme.txt and enter it into the proper location (Help -> Register).

3D Text Commander is an easy to use program that allows you to create 3D text quickly. No expert knowledge is needed to create 3D text w/ 3DTC (3D Text Commander). You have full control over how your text looks, including font style, font size, color, rotation, reflection, shadow, light effect, camera perspective, etc. Additionally, there are 11 predefined templates that you can use (in fact you must use a template – there no is “blank/create text from scratch” option).  If anyone has Insofta’s Cover Commander, 3D Text Commander works in almost the exact way as Cover Commander; the only difference is 3D Text Commander creates 3D Text while Cover Commander creates eCovers.

Considering the nature of 3D Text Commander, I figure a visual video review will be more usual then a text based review. Therefore I have made a short video showing you the ins and outs of 3DTC:

This is the image that I created with 3D Text Commander:

The video basically showed you everything you can do with 3D Text Commander. Now I would like to talk about the cons of this program. By far the biggest con of this program is how computer resource intensive it is. Sitting idle (all I did was open the program and close the “Welcome Screen”) 3D Text Commander was using 250 MB of RAM. Yes 250 MB of RAM. While actually using the program, i.e. making changes to my text, the RAM usage fluctuated between 250-320 MB (give or take); CPU usage fluctuated from 5-50%. However, in 3D Text Commander’s defense, anyone that uses a 3D application should expect high computer resource usage.

Furthermore, if you thought you saw some interface lag in the video that was because there was interface lag; with a program that uses so much computer resources, interface lag is inevitable for most people (it will obviously depend on your computer specs though – keep in mind my computer specs are pretty high). Also coinciding with being very resource intensive, often times “Render Preview” will take a long time (for people with slower computers you may want to consider turning off “Auto Preview” from the “Preview” menu); similarly when you try to save your text as an image on your computer it may take a noticeably long time to generate and save the image (as you witnessed in the video).

Lastly, I think the developer can make improvements in two more areas:

• Add more templates. I think 11 is a bit too few.
• Add “Undo” or “Redo” features. Someone can easily accidentally change one or more properties, such as vertical rotation, by accident and it is impossible to go back to exactly how it was before unless you remember the numerical value; an “Undo” feature would help in that scenario. Also, “Undo” and “Redo” can help a person see the differences between two configurations (i.e. keeping undoing/redoing to compare differences).

So overall what do I give 3D Text Commander? I give it a thumbs up. Sure it is computer resource intensive, but is it a very simple program that is easy to use; it allows you to create 3D text quickly without need of advance graphical knowledge. For us artistically challenged, this program is a good way to generate relatively aesthetically pleasing text.

This review was conducted on a laptop running Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit. The specs of the laptop are as follows: 3GB of RAM, a Radeon HD 2600 512MB graphics card, and an Intel T8300 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor.

{rw_freea}

3DTextMaker.com

A nice service for being free. Not better than 3D Text Commander but still nice. However it is worth noting that 3DTextMaker.com can make animated text while 3D Text Commander cannot.

{/rw_freea} –>

{rw_verdict2}Thumbs up for 3D Text Commander. 3DTC is not a Photoshop killer; rather it is a tool for people, who are not talented artist, to create aesthetically pleasing 3D text in an easy manner. True 3D Text Commander is very computer resource intensive, so people with older computers may have some problems running it, but overall it is a good program: I recommend it.
{/rw_verdict2} –>