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Check out five of our favourite creative applications…
www.artrage.com
Unlike the more expensive Corel Painter, this app is the ultimate way to create artwork with virtual paint, brushes and utensils, and is also a great deal of fun.
£39.95
www.sketchup.google.com
For such a detailed 3D design application it’s amazing to think that Google SketchUp (in its basic form) is a free application. The simplicity of its interface makes designing easy. It’s a great tool for home design as well as more professional pursuits.
Free
www.propellerhead.se
Reason is an all-in-one music studio in a box and offers a number of features not provided by GarageBand. Ideal for creating dance music, Reason is also pretty handy at any genre you throw at it. You can use ReWire to transfer your work to GarageBand.
£293.95
www.smithmicro.com
Anime Studio Debut 6 makes creating moving images a breeze, even for beginners in the field. The 2D animated creations can be put together using a simple timeline and your output can then be quickly uploaded to YouTube for the world to see.
£39.95
Photoshop Elements 8
www.adobe.com
The slimmed down, consumer version of Adobe’s professional Photoshop package is aimed at the consumer and offers a variety of neat tricks for editing your photos. While some features tread on the toes of iPhoto, the photo manipulation options are worth exploring.
£74.95
