Satori Paint

Satori Paint is the umbrella title for a suite of resolution-independent vector graphics applications developed by Spaceward Ltd. of Cambridge, UK. The Satori variants include Satori PhotoXL, Satori WebFX 2000, Satori FilmFX and Satori FilmFX 64. A further Photoshop-compatible plugin called Satori PaintFX enables rapid file exchange between Satori and any Photoshop-compatible application.

Features and Applications

Satori's resolution-independent architecture enables images to be processed and stored as a series of operations, rather than the standard bitmap convention as favoured by applications such as Photoshop or Painter. Completed layers or entire files can then be rendered as discrete bitmap files at almost any chosen resolution, and the rendered bitmap files can then be referenced by Satori for further editing. This process allows the user to work with multi-layered, very high resolution images with very little demand on system RAM or processor workload.

Although Satori was developed primarily for photographic, film and video post-processing, its customisable brush engine has made it equally applicable to digital artists in the fields of matte painting, illustration and animation backgrounds.

Variant Comparison

atori PhotoXL

PhotoXL is the entry-level variant of the Satori suite. It offers the basic brush and vector toolkit of Film and WebFX, but lacks any animation components and some of the higher functions of the other programs.

atori WebFX

WebFX was developed for website content generation, and to this end includes various web-orientated tools such as image slicing, java rollovers and web optimisation, together with rotoscoping and onion-skinning features for animation. However, image rendering is limited to 1024x1024 pixels.

atori FilmFX and FilmFX 64

FilmFX includes all the features of the previous two variants, but has no resolution limit and includes batch processing facilities that can be shared across a network. The flagship application, FilmFX 64, also supports 64bit processing where the rendered file fomat allows.

External links

* [http://www.satoripaint.com Satori Homepage] - main site maintained by Spaceward Ltd.
* [http://p201.ezboard.com/bsatori52261 Satori Forum] - primary forum for discussion of all Satori variants