The vendor states Adobe Spark allows users to create beautiful graphics, web pages, and video stories in minutes, offering free themes, fonts, and images, as well as editing. Imagery assembled or created can be presented through Spark Post, Spark Page, and Spark Video. Adobe Spark is available through a Creative Cloud subscription, free with the Starter Plan, or on a single product license via the Team or Individual plan.
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Kerkythea
Score 7.1 out of 10
N/A
Kerkythea is a free graphical rendering software designed to produce graphics without requiring image licensing.
I would recommend Adobe CC Express, especially if the colleague were an established Adobe user. The interface is designed so that anyone familiar with Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, or any other Adobe software products, will be familiar. This is a product that competes with Canva, but it's great to have the simplicity of Canva with an interface that feels familiar from day one.
Kerkythea is a powerful, yet simple to use rendering package that integrates seamlessly into SketchUp and other modeling programs. My experience is only with SketchUp, but the combination of these two packages (I bought SketchUp Pro and use Kerkythea for free!) is the best bang-for-your-buck way that I have found to produce high quality images of 3D models. I have seen some extremely photo-realistic images online, but I am not sure if a paid rendering engine would be able to produce higher quality or be easier to use. If you are looking for a free way to get higher quality images from your SketchUp models I would highly recommend Kerkythea.
Kerkythea seamlessly integrates with SketchUp, eliminating the need for costly and complex 3D modeling software.
Kerkythea has a simple to use interface and does not require extensive training to learn how to use.
Despite being easy to use out of the box, Kerkythea is also very powerful for advanced users. This allowed us to achieve fast results, but also to constantly improve the quality of our rendered images as we have gained knowledge and experience
The Kerkythea plug-in for SketchUp has an incredibly easy to use lighting feature. Spot lights and flood lights can be added, adjusted and manipulated easily, giving a much more professional looking end product.
The user community support for Kerkythea is vast. From tips and tricks to free, downloadable materials packages, there are an incredible number of peer-to-peer assistance options available.
Adobe Creative Cloud Express's video possibilities could be improved - I'd really like to see more options for animating text. Animoto is a great example of this. But the video is already improving, so perhaps these options are coming!
Sometimes images don't download properly from the web app and I have to download using the phone app and then transfer to my desktop for scheduling.
It would be cool if there was an approve / feedback option, so you could request feedback from a team member without having to share a link and send a separate email.
The default viewing mode for Kerkythea is wireframe. This makes it hard to view the model upon opening, however it is easily changed using "View/Adjust/Solid Rendering" in the menu bar. My preference would be for the software to default to Solid Rendering from startup, or to have a way to save the interface settings (If that option exists, I am not aware of it).
When exporting a model to Kerkythea from SketchUp, it usually takes a very long time to open the Kerkythea software. This only happens when selecting "Yes" in the dialog box that asks, "Open exported model in Kerkythea?" The quickest way I've found is to answer "No", open Kerkythea manually and then open the desired file from Kerkythea.
While there are many free, user contributed materials packages available online, it would be nice to have a larger materials library pre-installed in the software.
At this point, I have not found myself limited by using Kerkythea. It is easy to use and has not required a huge amount of time investment to get results. I have been able to utilize 3D modeling software that I am already familiar with and that is also cost effective. The quality of the finished product that can be achieved using Kerkythea is still beyond the abilities that I have, however I continue to learn and grow in my competency as I use the software.
The overall usability of the software was strong. The application, especially relative to other Adobe services like Photoshop that can demand a lot of knowledge and skill, was highly easy to use. At the same time, that also speaks to the somewhat limited amount of customization opportunities that allow content designers to truly create content that is dynamic, engaging, and different than the standard stuff that floods our vision every day.
Because adobe is so widespread the community support is amazing. I have never actually used adobe support short of their website, but I go to youtube a lot to get my questions answered. You can google any problem you have and not have any issues finding an answer. In my opinion, community support is much more meaningful and helpful than support directly from the company
I used Canva for a long time, but since we already had the Adobe Creative Suite and Adobe Creative Cloud Express was included, I went ahead and started using Adobe Creative Cloud Express, as it was more cost-effective. Unfortunately, Adobe Creative Cloud Express doesn't offer any content calendar and scheduling, so it was a difficult choice.
Blender is a free 3D modeling and rendering package. What I liked about Kerkythea is that it integrates with SketchUp, while Blender does not. This allows me to use modeling software that I was already familiar with rather than having to learn something new.
Autodesk 3D Studio Max and Autodesk Maya are also very powerful 3D modeling and rendering packages, however they are not free. They do have free trials, and the software is excellent and powerful. Guaranteed these are both better modeling packages than SketchUp, however with the work I do, SketchUp is easier to use and lower cost. If you're looking at doing more free-form modeling as opposed to basic rectangular buildings like me, you will need different modeling software than SketchUp. While Kerkythea can be used for many model types (*.kzx, *.xml, *.obj and *.sia at the time of this review) from any modeling package, it might be easier to use the rendering features built into 3DS rather than exporting to Kerkythea.
Adobe Creative Cloud Express is included with an Adobe Creative Cloud account. Our company has a corporate team membership so it is nice to have a professional and powerful tool that anyone on our team can use for free. The pricing structure of giving the tool away for free will be fundamental to users utilizing the tool. Similar tools, such as Canva, cost significantly more but do not offer the same features
The professional services for Adobe Creative Cloud Express is top notch and should be highly commended. I am thoroughly impressed with how far Adobe has come. In the past, I had several issues with how something were handled, but in the past few years things have been better than ever and they get no complaints from me
While it is impossible for me to give a firm number, I can definitely say that the images produced by Kerkythea are an excellent selling tool for projects presented to potential clients.
As freeware, Kerkythea has allowed me to achieve quality results without spending a fortune on software. Being self-employed, this is wonderful.
Kerkythea has allowed me to display professional materials without a major cost or time investment in training. This has allowed me to focus on creating floorplans and designs rather than spending all of my time getting the presentation of said designs to look good.
