Aren't We All Image Consumers?

very good
key review info
application features
  • Real-time 3D Editing and Rendering
  • (12 more, see all...)

Consumerism leads us to a new perception concerning the presentation forms. If once, there was a time when it really didn't matter how a product looked like, now we seem more and more preoccupied about aspects related to the form and presentation of everything that we pay for. Advertising develops not only a deviation from our current habits, but it also alters our thinking, as we begin to consume images instead of products.

Selling images is not that simple, as companies invest a lot in the commercial promotion of their products. That is why, in the rush for the client's satisfaction, coming up with a well designed item is the key feature of a business. eCover Engineer wants to help the ones who wish to manage perfectly their product's promotion. The easiest way to conceive a product cover is to have full control over it. As long as the cover design is 100 percent computer assisted, the final assemblage needs to be previewed in a digital format, as well. And this is exactly what this software does.

eCover Engineer is a very easy to use 3D cover creator. Not only will you be able to preview your product's cover in a real time 3D editing and rendering platform, but you will also have the chance to experience an interactive presentation of you product's cover in a scenery environment of your choice. eCover Engineer comes with a set of predefined product box shapes that allow you to apply your already made images. Of course, you should not think that this application handles your cover's design, too. The built in image editor that eCover Engineer provides is by default Windows' Paint application which you may not find very attractive, but still, in the Options panel, you have the possibility to associate with it any graphic editing application that you want, so it really doesn't matter if your cover is designed in Corel Draw, Photoshop or other similar softwares, as eCover Engineer imports BMP, JPG, PSD and many other types of image files.

Starting with the interface, you can see a handy worksheet which contains the scene where your box should be placed on and a tabbed settings panel. With this panel, you can configure all the settings that concern the images which will be applied on the front, top and side covers, the eCover X, Z, rotation and lift coordinates as well as the Floor, Scene and Light Source settings. You may probably find it uncomfortable at first to use the left setting tabs, but the easiness with which you can handle the 3D object will definitely help you accommodate.

A good mouse control is very easy to train as after just a few clicks you can manipulate the box as if it were in your hands. The horizontal rotation, as well as the viewing of the top parts of the box can be performed with a simple left click mouse movement. The right mouse click will move the object closer and further and the pressed scroll button (I must admit I discovered this pretty late) will change the position of the box by modifying both the Strafe and Front/Back coordinates.

After getting familiar with the 3D object handling and after setting an appropriate scene setting, floor texture and reflection option, you should consider taking the next step, which is the Light positioning and management. Your box needs to be shown in a good light and for this you are allowed to set the light source position, simply by adjusting the X, Y and Z coordinates. The light source will drop a shadow on the floor. If you have chosen to view the object's reflection you won't see the shadow, but if not, you will have to manage the shadow's intensity which can vary from dark shadow to an almost invisible one.

The 15 days trial should be enough for one to test eCover's abilities. You could get tricked on the small size that this application occupies on disk, but the truth is that the CPU usage increases considerably when the application runs.

eCover Engineer succeeds in being an efficient application as it manages to fulfill almost all of its main purposes. Creating and applying covers to Standard, Thin, Custom, Wide and Square boxes, providing the default shape for Books, Magazines, Spiral Notebooks and CD-cases, eCover Engineer represents by far a very good deal in managing a product's promotion.

The Good

The best thing about eCover Engineer is the easy 3D object management that I enjoyed the most and I think that for a software that intends to create outstanding product presentations, this feature does its best.

The Bad

I think the highest inconvenient of eCover Engineer is the 'demo' watermark that stays as a top layer onto the 3D object. What's not that pleasant is that you are forced to see it continuously and it integrates itself in the overall composition. It would have probably been better if the watermark appeared only on the final exported image. Another issue - but a smaller one this time - is the inability to control the Roll X and Z positions with the mouse moves.

The Truth

Still, as eCover tends to be accessible for a wide range of users, the Custom Box feature is not that handy as you may think. You don't have too many options in creating a custom box, and the only way in which you can actually customize your product's cover is by previously editing the main images at the right sizes and proportions in other graphic editing applications.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action:

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user interface 4
features 5
ease of use 5
pricing / value 3


final rating 4
Editor's review
very good
 
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