Box Shot Maker :: Introduction

 

Box Shot Maker is one of a number of products offered by 533soft. I’m afraid I can’t tell you much else about 533soft as their website has nothing to say about them at all.

 

Product: Box Shot Maker

Version Reviewed: 1.9

Company: 533soft

Price: $48.95 USD

Date: Information correct as of 31/12/2007

 

 

Box Shot Maker :: Installation

The download isn’t signed and the installer looks like inno setup with a full screen background. Box Shot Maker is a WYSIWYG program, which means that the final image is a direct pixel for pixel copy of what you can see in the program’s view port.

 

Box Shot Maker :: Interface

Box Shot Maker has fundamentally unattractive interface that simply doesn’t work in some places. There’s no mouse control over the view port by default, although you can activate some limited pan and zoom mouse controls, but overall the control system is clunky and awkward. 533soft obviously don’t think that interface design is an important factor.

Box Shot Maker :: Demo Restrictions

The demo is restricted for 15 days or 15 uses and also subtle watermarks throughout the exported image. I can’t personally see the logic in restricting a watermarked trial version based on uses. All the end of 15 day trial will do is prompt people to uninstall the program.

 

Box Shot Maker :: Features and Benefits

The main strength of Box Shot Maker is in its support for shadows and reflections. These all work pretty well. However, the program also includes some rudimentary design tools. The design tools in particular are worth looking at in more detail as they represent the nearest thing the Box Shot Maker has to a unique selling point.

 

The issue of design is a problem for a lot of box programs. Many take the easy option of simply not including any design tools at all. As a designer, this doesn’t tend to bother me, since I’d rather eat broken glass than use anything other than photoshop for my design. I suspect a majority of graphic designers feel the same. However, not everyone has access to Adobe Photoshop, so 533soft decided to include some simple design tools in Box Shot Maker.

 

While I’d really like to applaud 533soft for doing this, putting it as politely as possible, these design tools suck. You can apply various settings to pens, but because the drop down menu hasn’t been given enough space, it’s not possible to read what they actually do. As a result, you need to use a combination of trial and error and guess work in order to achieve anything in the image editor. In essence the image editing facilities of Box Shot Maker are comically awful.

Box Shot Maker :: Image Quality

The image quality in Box Shot Maker isn’t too bad. Close up shots of high resolution images can appear a little muddy.. However, the program is at least capable of creating useable box shots for web use. Box Shot Maker also includes a floor texture option, which works well with seamless textures. I'm afraid I'm unable to show any sample images made with the program as the 15 use time limit ran out before I had time to create any.

The program does include some smoothing options, but I could not get these to work in my copy of the demo. I’m not sure if this has something to do with the Graphics chip on the machine I used to write the review, but assuming the program is using a software routine to anti alias the image, this shouldn’t be a factor.

 

Box Shot Maker :: Quirks

Box Shot Maker has rather a lot of quirks, so many in fact that it’s difficult to know where to start. Perhaps the most glaring problem is that the default box isn’t shaped like a software box. Instead its square shaped with the X and Y values being exactly the same. While it’s easy enough to tweak the box into the required shape, I suspect this is a step too far for most users.

 

The program also purports to have anti aliasing, although I couldn’t get this to work on any of the images that I produced. It also fails to reset textures when you select “New”. I also encountered a number of strange bugs when creating a new project and switching between boxes and books. The program seems unable to cope with changes in viewport size and left me with the impression that it has never been properly tested.

 

Box Shot Maker :: Documentation

Box Shot Maker features a manual of sorts. This includes the same garish programmer art style that afflics the artwork in the demo and on the website. The manual has plenty of screen shots covered in ugly, blocky line drawings that attempt to explain the interface. Strangely, the image editor, which is by far the most complex and impenetrable part of the program, gets only a tiny mention in the manual, with no attempt to explain any of the illegible dropdown options.

 

Box Shot Maker :: Conclusion

What Box Shot Maker needs more than anything is an extreme make-over. Starting from the website and moving to the software, everything looks horribly dated. Box Shot Maker has some nice features in terms of the shadow and reflections, but sadly a reflection of an ugly box is just an ugly boxes reflection. 533soft need to urgently hire a GUI designer as the image editor in particular is an appalling piece of work that could better be used as an example of how not to design a software interface.

 

The program gives the definite impression that the authors are over reaching themselves. The design elements are frankly shoddy and do a great deal to detract from the more competent elements in the program. At $48.95 the Box Shot Maker is ridiculously over priced.