Anark Studio (AS) is designed to manage content created in other applications. The introduction says that it allows you to create digital projects for distribution by the net, an intranet or perhaps a PC running a display on a sales stand. You might also use it to write a training course. It runs under Windows (Win 98 SE, Win Me, Win 2000 or Win XP). The suggested minimum specification is a P2 of 300 mhz or better with 128 MB of RAM. I installed it on a P3 700mhz running Windows 2000 with half a gigabyte of RAM. The minimum install is 15 MB, I did the full install and it took 27 MB. The software also installs the client needed to read the files in Internet Explorer. Most of the space is taken up by the tutorials and sample files.

AS comes in an attractive shaped box with a translucent plastic outer part with a printed cardboard inner. The box only tells you what it is on the cover (Anark Media) as this is not the sort of program you would buy on impulse (it costs $995). However, if you were looking to buy this sort of program and found AS on the shelf alongside its competitors, there's nothing on the box to give you any clue as to what it can (or can't) do. The manual and the box both say "Anark Media" on them and have stickers attached to say the product is called "Anark Studio", although inside everything says Anark Studio. The manual measures 9 by 7 inches and is about half an inch thick (190 pages). The softback (thin card) cover is full colour, the pictures inside are black and white on paper of above average quality. The book is well indexed and contains a lot of information on using the embedded JScript 5.5 scripting language (about half the book is about scripting) If you were regularly using the book as a reference, I think it would start to fall apart. If you are paying around a thousand dollars for a program, It's not too much to ask for a manual that lasts. Buy some transparent adhesive plastic film and back the book as soon as you open the box if you want it to remain in decent condition. The box also contains the CD in a jewel case and a folded cardboard spacer to stop the two items rattling

'AS' comes with some nice tutorials. I found them very useful, they were well written and introduced new ideas at a sensible rate, so I was not bombarded with too many new ideas at once. It's well worth working through the tutorials just to see what the program is capable of. I particularly liked the one where you map a video (of some fish) onto a sphere and I spent a good half an hour making movies (in Poser) and mapping the image of a walking woman onto a ball as it bounced around the workspace. Video can come from a local source (a hard drive or CD) or can be streamed from the web. AS has a buffering function to allow you to show a "loading" screen and it will automatically cancel this and start playing the video when it is ready.

I then tried the 3D model import. This was my first disappointment. AS only imports 3DS models. (They provide a few sample models for you to use.) To import any model (such as a 3D logo) it must be made in 3D Studio Max 2.5 (or later). I don't have 3DS Max, but 3DS is a common file format and a lot of 3D graphics programs can write 3DS files. I tried Truespace 5 and, as you can see in the first picture, the "D" of "3D Links" was filled in. I then tried something made in Rhino and it did not work.

I can not say if it was the fault of AS or the programs exporting the 3DS files, but I would have liked to have seen Wavefront obj and Lightwave's lwo formats also supported, just to give the program's users a wider selection of creation software. The manual gives five pages of useful advice on how to export your 3DS Max models, but says nothing about anything else. DXF is also very widely used, but DXFs do not have any UV mapping, perhaps this is the reason why it isn't supported. An imported 3DS file (such as a logo) still has the letters as individual elements when imported. You have to move it with the "Group" tool if you want it to stay together. If you want to move individual letters (or change their colour) this is still possible. You cannot assign a new texture map to an object, but you can assign a texture that has been brought in on an object to something else. I felt that this was rather limiting, as there are some primitives provided with the program and it would have been nice to assign textures to them.

AS allows you to set lights to animate your workspace. I very much liked the subtle effects you can obtain by animating the light colours. Make something simple, then change the colours every couple of seconds, it looks great. You can set just about any property of a light that you can think of. In this AS is very much like a 3D program, your lights can be Point (360 degrees) Directional (parallel) or a Spotlight. Adjust the colours (diffuse, specular and ambient) the range, fade rate etc.

You can import sounds as wav files (no other options) and there are lots of settings to play with. Music can be streamed from a remote source (a URL needs to be supplied if you intend to publish your project online). AS does not allow you to create any music or sounds, just manipulate the materials you have made in other programs. It handles a wide range of image files, but does not import .gifs.

Whatever you make, you can view it in IE by hitting the F12 key. This launches a browser window so you can see your changes in action. Note that if you have a Macintosh (or a Linux box) you can't view the files on-line. AS wraps your work into an .am file with the Anark Client Active X control embedded. I would have liked the software to have made something that everyone can see, irrespective of Operating System.
From page 69 to page 153 in the manual covers the use of Microsoft's JScript 5.5 scripting language. You can assign behaviours to objects in your project. This feature adds a lot of power and flexibility to AS if you can use it.

The manual is honest, it does not attempt to act as a handbook for JScript 5.5, but if you do not know it and want to make the best possible use of AS, I think you would be well advised to buy a dedicated book and learn it properly. The manual gives you a scripting object reference, showing how each behaviour takes arguments (around 50 pages) and an overview of scripting. There are a couple of URLs to Microsoft's JScript user's guide and command reference, lists of reserved keywords and a brief overview of the subject. AS error-checks the behaviours you script. One feature I really liked was the behaviour examples included with the program.

They give you an html page with around 50 behaviours listed.

Click on the behaviour name and you can see the script. Click on the example link and you can see it in action. There's a brief description of what the behaviour does too.



At the back of the manual there's a scripting glossary and a copy of the licence. The glossary is useful, but I was not was not very happy with something I noticed in the licence. It says that the software may automatically communicate with Anark's servers to check for updates. This may be done with the best of intentions, they presumably want you to have the latest features and bug-fixes available, but I would much prefer software not to connect to anywhere without my say-so.

Update advice can be easily sent out by email with a URL for registered users to visit. If my PC is communicating with someone's servers, I want to know what information is being sent. I hope that I'm mistaken, Anark describe themselves as honest and trustworthy on their web site, but too often this kind of behaviour results in data being collected and sold to other companies. Any good firewall will stop this sort of thing.