Trying to draw direct comparisons to the current ProShow versions, won’t really work. That’s because ProShow Gold was missing several of the essential features to create robust animations, such as Keyframes, Masks, and Show Templates. Both Director and Creator have all of these. So, for these two new programs, there basically is no direct comparison to ProShow Gold.
Creator, which is the less expensive program, is basically Producer but without the ability to create your own effects, such as Slide Styles, Transitions, and Templates. It also has only two of the four new animations features; Groups and Shapes…it’s missing Slices and Caption Slices…that’s the ability to animate words and letters individually.
Director, the more advanced program, has all the new animation features, you CAN create your own Styles, Transitions and Templates PLUS you can create your own Fly Ins, Fly Outs, and Image Filters. It also has a few more Adjustments possibilities that aren’t available in Creator, such as Split Color Channel, Channel Mixers and Compositing Modes.
So…..for those of you who are wondering which of the two new programs you should go with, the main question you should ask yourself (aside from what you can afford….no I can’t discuss price yet) is whether you want to create your own Styles, Transitions, and Templates, or if you just plan to build shows using pre-designed Effects created by someone else.
Yes. I want to create my own Styles, Transitions, and Templates = Director
No. I just build shows using effects built by someone else = Creator
Here’s something else to consider……if you use products from 3rd party vendors, such as Choice Slides, that were created in Director, but you’re using Creator….you can still use them! That’s right. If I create a template or Slide Style in Director that uses Slices, and Creator doesn’t have the Slice feature, you’ll still be able to import it into Creator and the Slices will work perfectly, you just won’t be able to edit the slices, because Creator is missing the ability to alter that feature.
Another great benefit of both programs being able to use any effect created in Director, is that I won’t need to clarify which program or which version one of my products is compatible with, because anything I create will be able to be used in both programs!