StageTools Moving Chart
Have you ever been in the middle of editing a video segment, or putting together a PowerPoint presentation, and suddenly the script contains a stream of numbers that are hard to digest? Sounds like it's time for a graphic. But not just any graphic -- you need a chart with bars showing the relative values of each of these numbers. It would be even better if all this would animate into position, and be quick and easy to use. If this scenario sounds familiar, then you need the $99 application called StageTools Moving Chart. Here's a review.
Moving Chart isn't some sophisticated 3D software package that can make elaborate animated charts of any description and move them every-which-way. But it can put together a few quick charts for you with nicely-shaded 3D objects illustrating your numbers, animate them smartly onto the screen, and best of all, it's as fast and easy to use as it could possibly be. Take your pick of bar, area, line and pie charts, add your numbers in Excel-style fields (or import data from Excel), and then after you've entered your keyframes you're able to preview the chart's motion in real time without waiting around for rendering.
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The software also gives you the option of using a solid color background, or adding your own video footage to the background. Or, you can import a still to use as a background as well. Another nice feature is the way you're able to apply textures to the walls and data elements of charts (see graphic at left) using either the supplied texture files or some of your own favorites.
We've also found Moving Chart to be useful for non-moving charts, using it for all our benchmark graphics on our recent Mac vs. PC series here on Digital Media Net. Looking for a quick way to make some still graphics of bar charts, I entered the data for each bar into the fields and got a great-looking graphic as a result. Next, I hit Print Screen and then pasted the graphic into a Photoshop file. After adding labels in Photoshop, I had a workable graphic on my hands.
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| Click for enlargement -- Moving Chart interface is easy to use |
So, if you need a few quick charts to illustrate numbers that are too confusing without graphic support, get this Moving Chart software. If you're wondering if this is for you, download a free trial version of the software from www.stagetools.com and see for yourself how easy and fun it is to use. The demo version will let you do everything possible with the software, except when you want to make a movie of your animation it adds a red horizontal line across the final result. This package is especially useful if you aren't a 3D animator and don't want to spend the extra money on an occasional animation. It's the easiest keyframe-based 3D animation software I've seen, and even though the resulting animations are slightly limited, no one will ever know you whipped up these professional-looking charts in just a few minutes. It's definitely worth your $99.
Charlie White has been writing about new media and digital video since it was the laughingstock of the television industry. A technology journalist and columnist for the past eight years, White is also an Emmy-winning producer, video editor and shot-calling PBS TV director with 28 years broadcast experience. Talk back -- Send Chazz a note at cwhite@digitalmedianet.com.[an error occurred while processing this directive]
