A Flash Developer Resource Site

Results 1 to 18 of 18

Thread: Is Graphic Design possible for people w/o $1000 for the software?

  1. #1
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2001
    Posts
    14
    I'm 15 and into graphic design, web developing, and programming and game design. But I'm finding that the programs and software for everything I want to do costs $300 or more and my flashkit trial period is runnin out. Any other options out there? Or should I get a job and start savin now.

  2. #2
    FK Times - Editor in Chief
    My Good Little Birdie

    Join Date
    Sep 2000
    Posts
    692
    You're gonna want to kiss me but resist the urge

    http://www.softwareshowcase.com
    You get disounts if you can prove that you are a student

  3. #3
    Senior Member mg33's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2000
    Location
    Chicago, IL
    Posts
    1,539
    I think you mean Flash trial period.

    Do you have a job? Have cool parents? Maybe you could ask them to split the cost of Flash with you if you earned half of it. I know you're 15, so maybe you have things you could do for people to pick up a little cash.

    A good graphics program, in addition to Flash is pretty important. Photoshop is what most people use and is the Industry standard for graphics work. It's around $600 I think, much more than Macromedia products.

    Best of Luck,

    mg33

  4. #4
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2001
    Posts
    14

    Smile Saviors!

    Thank you both. UpNorth, love your Flash graphic. That's awesome

  5. #5
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2001
    Posts
    14

    WoW

    Wow that website has the software for half the price! And I'm actually going to apply for a job at Taco Bell, my friend who says he can help me get the job got $400 on his last paycheck so I'll have the money I need quicker than I thought.

    *resisting the urge to kiss you guys*

  6. #6
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2000
    Posts
    843


    at a student discount, (college for me), I got an Adobe bundle for $350

    Photoshop 6
    GoLive 5
    Illustrator 9
    LiveMotion 1

  7. #7
    Eat Rice!
    Join Date
    Sep 2000
    Posts
    299
    Yup... educational discounts rule! How else would I have these programs? I'm in highschool but i went to college last summer. I went to their store and they were selling packages of flash/freehand and adobe suites for cheap cheap cheap!

  8. #8

    In a cavern, in a canyon,
    Excavating for a mine,
    Dwelt a miner, forty-niner
    And his daughter Clementine.
    Oh my darling, Clementine

    Join Date
    Jan 2001
    Posts
    288
    Originally posted by riceraver
    Yup... educational discounts rule! How else would I have these programs? I'm in highschool but i went to college last summer. I went to their store and they were selling packages of flash/freehand and adobe suites for cheap cheap cheap!
    Yeah - if I were a full time student, I could've gone to UTD and purchased Office 2000 Pro for $20 a disc (two discs total) - alot of their software is like that from what I understand

  9. #9
    Senior Member mg33's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2000
    Location
    Chicago, IL
    Posts
    1,539
    Yep, schools rule.

    I got Win2000 for $5, and Office 2000 Premium for $20, as well as Flash 4,5 Freehand 9, Dreamweaver 4 all for $99 each. And I'm about to be a student no longer in May... and because I'm darn glad to be graduating!

    mg33

  10. #10
    Eat Rice!
    Join Date
    Sep 2000
    Posts
    299
    ya better buy as much software as you can now before you graduate!!!

    win2k for $5??? Office forr $20??/ that's rediculous! i wish i could get that price!

  11. #11
    FK Times - Editor in Chief
    My Good Little Birdie

    Join Date
    Sep 2000
    Posts
    692
    Originally posted by riceraver
    ya better buy as much software as you can now before you graduate!!!

    win2k for $5??? Office forr $20??/ that's rediculous! i wish i could get that price!
    Where did you get office for 20??? I need Access soooooo bad for my ColdFusion ventures!!!! The best price I can find Access for is $70!!!!!

  12. #12

    In a cavern, in a canyon,
    Excavating for a mine,
    Dwelt a miner, forty-niner
    And his daughter Clementine.
    Oh my darling, Clementine

    Join Date
    Jan 2001
    Posts
    288
    Access is great stuff - teh possibilities with it are endless ~ Well at least now you know if you have one of those 'extra money' moments - you know what you will buy, right?

  13. #13
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2000
    Posts
    148
    there is a downside to educational software.

    you can't use it for commericial development. not legally, at least.

    it's a huge fine if you get caught.
    and they do raids on it.

    i recall a NY firm a couple of years ago that god raided for using educational software in development that accrued hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

    the best is that you can upgrade from the edu. version to the full, or competetive upgrade.

    i went freehand edu version to illustrator full and saved a bunch of money. especially on the pricey stuff (3d modeling, director, etc)

  14. #14
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2000
    Posts
    5,087
    If you are 15 and on a budget but still want to learn design there are a lot of freeware and Shareware alternatives that will do you right.

    Open Office http://www.openoffice.org will give you every MS office compatible tool out there. The tools behave exactly the same as MS Office and they export as MS Office formats and is free.

    The Gimp behaves almost like Photoshop http://www.gimp.org

    The blender is one of the best 3D programs out there and costs all of nothing and the same with Strata 3d.

    Linker Animation Stand Personal edition is the stripped down version of the Animation Stand Cinema edition which is used in creating Film Quality animations... The Personal edition is free but only allows you to make small movies (about the size of a postcard).

    IMS Web Dwarf V2 Freeware and IMS Web Engine Shareware ($99) are very good SVG-DHTML tools. Amaya http://www.w3c.org is also a decent freeware web editor for static pages.

    QT Pro- 29.99 You can't beat this one with a stick even if you tried. QT gets kinda complicated when you start scripting with it.

    To be honest I started reviewing Freeware and shareware alternatives to software the list is in the review Section at http://www.koolmovers.com others have added to the list and we did review some comercial software with demos.

    http://www.thefreecountry.com/ has a lot of free compilers and software. I personally use POW with a GNU C++ Library and the STL Port.

    I also would download PHP and install it on a server or find a free server that has PHP already available to use- they are out there. PHP Nuke is a great alternative to VB Bulltin and is widely used. PHP is free and will run on Linux or MS servers.

    You also may want to check out Linux and Linux products- There is a Linux altrnative now for just about any MS application. Linux software mostly is free. If you install The KDE or Gnome then Linux will behave just about like windows except it won't crash as much and you can't run Windows software on it. Either get a cheap hard drive and put Linux on it or Very carefully partition your Hard Drive and install Linux on the Partition. Be sure to back up all of your files before partitioning the drive.



    AS far as alternative to Flash...

    You can download a compiled version of the Flash SDK API Manger from http://www.openswf.org along with extended documentation by Oliver Debon and David Michie (David Michie was actually the guy who wrote the documentation for the Official SWF SDK- he used to work for Macromedia and is the creator of Swish- Oliver Debon is the guy who ported the Flash Player to Linux and among other things created Swift Generator a shareware version of MM Generator that is free to use if you display the Swift generator banner)

    Insane Flash Animator 2 is still only $19.99. IFA is the first 3'rd party tool that supports actionscripting. http://www.insanetools.com Its cheap and includes everthing you need but the interface takes some getting used to.

    Kool Moves 2.0- 29.99 a very good animation engine that is easy to learn and can create Flash interfaces and pages in minutes. http://www.koolmoves.com produces Image sequences, still images, and SWFs.

    Swish 2.0 when it finally comes out (June more than likely) looks and behaves much Like Flash 3 and 4. The beta can be downloded from http://www.swishzone.com



    Swift Generator or JGenerator- These products are shareware and freeware Generator replacements.

    I don't think Flare works($70), Live Motion ($299), or Corel Rave (Part of the $500 Corel Studio package) are for you becuase of the price vs functionality.


  15. #15
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2001
    Posts
    14

    Smile

    I never knew there was so much alternatives. I gotta start surfin the web more. I'm really glad I made this post. Now I gotta figure out where to start. Thanks to all that have replied with advice.

  16. #16
    FK Times - Editor in Chief
    My Good Little Birdie

    Join Date
    Sep 2000
    Posts
    692
    Glad to help Let us know if you need anything else

  17. #17
    Eat Rice!
    Join Date
    Sep 2000
    Posts
    299
    Originally posted by UpNorth
    Glad to help Let us know if you need anything else
    That was a blatant post to increase your ego!!!

  18. #18
    FK Times - Editor in Chief
    My Good Little Birdie

    Join Date
    Sep 2000
    Posts
    692
    Originally posted by riceraver
    Originally posted by UpNorth
    Glad to help Let us know if you need anything else
    That was a blatant post to increase your ego!!!
    And your point...?

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  




Click Here to Expand Forum to Full Width

HTML5 Development Center