Yesterday I got around to downloading and test driving Aquafada’s newly released PulpMotion 2. The essence of PulpMotion is pretty straightforward: insert your digital media (whether it’s pictures, video, or music) and create a stunning photo slideshow. What impressed me more than anything was the sheer polish of the application and its components.
I remember getting a license to PulpMotion (version 1) back when I purchased the MacUpdate Bundle in 2007, but only used it once or twice and never explored too much further into the settings because it seemed too niche. I’m sure I wasn’t the first person back then (or now) to liken it to the popular Comic Life that comes bundled with some Macs, but it just felt like a program I’d only use to pass the time rather than utilize for completing a meaningful project.
Well all that’s changed now with the current release, as a huge long list of updates and changes decidedly quashes any issues I previously had. To focus on just a few that really stood out to me when working on a quick project: totally overhauled UI that’s downright easy, multiple songs in your soundtrack, huge performance improvements and, last but not least, new themes.
I’m not a read-the-manual kind of guy when it comes to consumer-grade programs. I like to be able to dive right in to a project and figure things out as I go. In this respect, PulpMotion delivers. Visual cues combined with just the right amount of information on the screen make working with this program a pleasure and, more importantly, easy. I stress easy because the alternative to producing such high-quality slideshows would most probably be Adobe’s After Effects, which is an undeniably intricate program.
The layout is reminiscent of earlier versions of iMovie.
The media browser you see there is a floating HUD window like the ones featured in Pixelmator, Twiterriffic, and other various Mac OS X programs. Despite my love/hate relationship with these types of windows, I think the execution in PulpMotion works extremely well. I only needed the Media Browser at two points: the very beginning of my project when I was selecting my images and at the very end when I chose the soundtrack. In between I just closed it, which allowed me to focus on the canvas and picture settings.
Another pretty excellent feature they’ve added is the “Zones of Interest” (also called Regions of Interest). Using the built in image editor, you can select particular parts of a photograph to focus on and PulpMotion does the rest. The end result is most excellent.
Speaking of the end result, I have to mention how many formats this program can export. The list is exhaustive: You get all of the standard Quicktime options (with presets) or you can choose custom settings specifically for the iPhone and AppleTV. Is your PulpMotion slideshow part of a larger project? That’s really not a problem because you can export your uncompressed project directly to the iLife suite for further editing.
I’ve saved the two coolest export options for last because I’ve never seen anything quite like them before. The first is exporting your project as a screensaver, which is nice for being able to share between Mac users. The second is exporting your movie as a standalone app, which is great for sharing between fellow Mac users. You get basic quality options here as well as the ability to wrap the whole thing in a DMG file for easy distribution. Again, if you were to consider the alternative of doing this by yourself, you’re looking at hours spent in front of Adobe Director creating a wrapper just for your video – not particularly a cup of tea and definitely not this easy.
So after using PulpMotion for a few projects I can safely say that it will be added to my digital media tool belt. The sheer number of improvements this version has over the former coupled with the simple interface is enough for all users, both new and old, to consider purchasing a license. If you’ve ever been curious about creating a slideshow that uses more than just fades and the Ken Burns effect, PulpMotion might be your ticket.
Here’s my little project, something I put together for my mom, whose 50th birthday was this past December 8th: Mom’s 50th (Quicktime Required)
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