Xara
Extreme is an incredible illustration and design tool, right up there
with Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw. Now I am not a graphic designer. I know
my way around design software tools, and can usually use them effectively to
produce a decent finished product. But Xara
Extreme is a horse of a different color because while it is amazingly
powerful and fully capable of creating spectacular graphics in the hands of an
artist, the average guy or gal can probably use it to create some pretty cool
stuff, too.
In case you are not familiar with Xara, they are a
France-based company who specializes in the development of graphics design
tools. What separates the hommes (that's French for men) from the boys, is
that Xara tools render, especially complex, 3D illustrations, in blinding fast
speeds. It doesn't seem possible. 3D rendering usually requires a very
powerful workstation, but not with Xara. I've used average workstations and
still watch my stuff render ultra fast. The software is that good. Above you
can see a photo of a car -- uh, actually that's an illustration! I started
dinking around with it and added some yellow highlights with just a few
clicks.
Well, I could not let that artist show me up, so I created my
own abstract picture just by arbitrarily clicking on stuff. I was able to add
shapes, turn them, bevel them, add drop shadows and color, even draw free-hand
lines and color and shadow them -- all with a few clicks. So if I can do this,
imagine what you can do! As with all Xara products, you can download a free
trial of Xara
Extreme just by visiting their web site. Click here
to learn and see more!
