Anark Studio 1.5: Anark streamlines its multimedia authoring tool.(Anark Studio 1.5)(Product Announcement)

Animation and interactivity on the Web are becoming increasingly popular. Graphic designers and Web masters are always pushing the boundaries of what can be downloaded or streamed without requiring a viewer with a dial-up connection to wait for minutes, or even hours. Programs such as Shockwave, Fireworks, Flash, and others all purport to make multimedia authoring easy and many of them do. But a relatively new kid on the block is unleashing a program that puts creative power in the hands of artists and media developers hoping to create the next revolution of interactive digital media experiences.

Anark Studio 1.5 from Anark Corp. is multimedia-authoring software that allows users to create interactive content that seamlessly integrates 3D models, video, images, and audio for Web sites, and many kinds of multimedia presentations. Anark Studio streamlines the authoring process with interface elements and tools typical of multimedia, video, and scripting environments, making it a user-friendly media integration and development tool.

Upon opening Anark Studio I was faced with five windows, or palettes: the Library, a Project window (or Scene preview), a Timeline, the Inspector, and the new Assistant palette. The Library is where you store the materials, images, models, sounds, and behaviors used for a particular project, all of which you find first in a new palette, Storage. Another new palette is the Assistant, which offers lessons, tutorials, and tips from within the authoring UI.

More than 60 behaviors, sample sounds, materials, and models came with the program, which I found very handy. Upon installation I had the ability to create complex event-driven interactions through drag-and-drop authoring without any scripting. For someone like me who hates writing any type of code, this is a blessing. I was able to quickly drop mouse control behaviors into my project so that I had rollover sound effects and mouse-controlled animations, all within a few minutes of installing the program. Advanced users can write their own JavaScript behaviors using an integrated scripting environment.

Everything is drag and drop. You can drop selected items into the Library, directly into the Timeline, or into the Scene preview. Once ...