Wow. This just keeps looking better and better.

That's insane, I'm not a photoshop user (or any design tool user) but I think what you're doing with these apps is incredible from an RIA point of view. Quality stuff guys!

Nice demo of the power that this tool has.

These are really cool effects. But I'm wondering, is this going to be practical for web designers to use for page layouts like Photoshop is?

Tammy, yes and no. It is fantastic for mockups and individual graphics, but Photoshop has built in HTML slicing, and we do not. My advice: if you are planning on doing a lot of commercial work, buy an older version of Photoshop... it should run you a couple hundred dollars (which is much cheaper than the latest version).

HTML slicing ... why not ? :)

wow

Looks good!

Love your tools. Hate this last demo. I can't automatically guess what your political background is, as hate crosses aisles. However, the casual ease with which you associate a strong political woman with snakiness reminds me of the naturalness with which people used to associate ideas of African-Americans with monkeys, or Jews with vampires. I'm really shocked that no one else has commented on your product blog about it. Considering you're trying to advertise your product here, I'm especially surprised you chose this kind of a demo. Do you think everyone naturally agrees with you?? Bottom line, I'm bummed. As much as I am thoroughly impressed by your image editor and its abilities, I don't want to use it. If you don't like Hillary - that's your right. Campaign against her all you want. Don't like Obama? Campaign against him, too. But I'm not going to support your use of such ugly imagery by supporting your product. And oh yeah - Bill isn't running.

Leah, your obviously a moron.

I don't know know if this demo is politically motivated - it doesn't matter, because I'd much prefer to view it as an excellent homage to the V mini series from the '80s. If Hillary Clinton is indeed a Visitor, I, for one, welcome my new reptilian overlord.

Oh please, Leah. We figured it was an interesting way to get people to watch (and spread) a demo of our tools in a timely way. The Bill comment was a joke (as was the Photoshop). Our next version was actually going to be Barack Obama or John McCain. That being said, I've never heard of the stereotype of political women being associated with snakiness, and googling after reading your post hasn't turned up anything either. This was an homage to a tv show called V.

This is alot scarier and truthful!

http://i26.tinypic.com/2gtsy74.jpg

Tina, is that you? http://dilbert.vtools.net/Dilbert%201995/images/dilbert19950829.jpg Obviously, I kid. Lighten up a bit. Although, it may or may not show their political views, they obviously, don't take themselves too seriously. And that can be a good thing.

I was Digg 101, do I still get an invite?

no

I don't need to buy photoshop, I'm already a successful freelance designer using it. But it's killing me that I don't have the expense account to upgrade to cs3. I'm one of those, "gotta have the coolest new thing" type of people, and aviary is one of those coolest new things. :)

This is too cool! Good work!

Your eloquence is revealing, Alex - perhaps you should think about what it's revealing sometime.. As to Leah's comment, I disagree but it was one of the more interesting comments I've read in a while. Certainly it wasn't anywhere close to how I was thinking about the image, but I can understand the thought process behind the opinion. In that regard, I think it's probably the best comment on the page. Keep posting insightful comments, Leah, but in the future please allow for the possibility that people who don't agree with you may also have intelligent things to say. The tone of your comment is too abrasive for any real discussion.

Amazing looking program. I cant wait to give it a go. Looking forward to an invitation.

I have to call your bluff on that "homage to V" comment and condescending reply ("Oh please, Leah"). Your introductory statement ("soul-reveal filter") and eager reply to the comment under the Britney detoucher pretty much reveals how non-partisan you are. Photo editing can be done to humorous effect without partisan ugliness or celebrity schadenfreude. Check out the "You Suck at Photoshop" series on YouTube for examples. But first and foremost, remember you're a software company, not the National Lampoon. Keep your personal hate out of the marketing; I guarantee it'll sell better with your prospective customers.

Bud, actually, have you seen Worth1000.com? Lampooning stuff through Photoshop is our roots and we've been pretty equal opportunity when it comes to it. The trick is to take nothing seriously and not read too much into every visual we produce. We're definitely not "just a software company." We made our tools because we like to have fun using them. I still maintain Leah needs to lighten up. Not everything has to be 100% PC to be enjoyable and insulting political women in general was the farthest thing from our mind in producing that. We didn't think "make Hillary look snaky because she is a political woman". We thought "make Hillary look like a Visitor because it will look funny and probably get a bit of attention, given that it's a hot election race." Controversial? Yes. Over the line? Maybe. Motivated by hate? No.

I think this rocks!!! I think some people need to put the feelings on the sleeves away and realize this is art and nothing out of hatefred.It doesnt bother me the use of Hilary in one bit and maybe it is because i am a worthian and we do this kind of stuff all the time not to make fun or to be rude to people or transform them into mutants out of hate but because it is pure art and you got to have some mad skills to make it look right and a good program.. i asked for a invite and i hope i get one... kudos to you i think this is G-L-A-M-O-U-R-O-U-S lol ( first class..)

Not getting the "Hilary as a snake" angle either. First thing that came to mind was the shape-shifting reptilian humanoid conspiracy theories, which the V stuff was probably based on. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reptilian_humanoid Anyway, great video. Introduced me to your software as intended. ;)

I like the Worth1000 reference... maybe you could tie this in more strongly to them (get a few endorsements), or woot.com. Forgot to mention already, this is an awesome looking app.

As a long time fan of the Worth1000 photoshop contests, I think that nobody should take any photoshops produced by you guys seriously. Only as a "hey look at what I can do" and "wow thats funny" picture. Anyone complaining that you guys are wrong to poke fun of Hillary Clinton is just overly defensive and shouldn't even bother looking at your other photoshops. I think that Worth1000 is intended for people with a sense of humor. Btw, good job on it, I got a great laugh at it and I would have gotten the same reaction no matter who's skin that reptile overlord was in. Just my 2 cents.

You just lost 50% of the Democratic market. But it was worth it.

Nice work Avi, Meowza and all the others.
Can we see your intended video editing tools?
Please, please with sugar on top.

Invite me! <Insert generic plead for invitation here>

Love the look of Aviary. WHEN, OH WHEN IS RELEASE!!! -lol Kind of a bummer that those of us who don't use the digg site didn't have a chance to get an invite though. Oh well, I still am holding out for one (hopefully!) Keep up the great work! Looking forward to it! P.S. Anyone know if there will be a cost associated with these tools, and if so how much?

Poor Hillary! This is incredible you guys.... Wow, it's just amazing. I really can't wait for the invitation! Please do Bush next :)

que bella se ve Hillary, que buen programa, ya quiero probarlo. asi fácil ganará en las elecciones.

We've been rolling out invitations every day actually - If you signed up recently, you might just be getting one TONIGHT.

Great work it's good for Times cover page.

Um...bipartisan with Bill next? Doesn't make sense. Bipartisan would be someone from the other party.

I've been a member of Worth1000 for 5 years and I'm telling you I barely noticed it was Hillary. It was all about the tools and how they can better my skills. It could have been Humphrey Bogart for all I paid attention to the who. This is one seriously giant step for artists who love but are slaves to the price of Photoshop. I for one can't keep up. Avi Muchnick and his collaborators are my heroes and have all of my respect and gratitude. What a great opportunity to be at the beginning to Aviary and it's SO much fun.

I'm gonna run to the corner deli and have me a guinea pig. Anyone want to join me? Thanks for bringing memories of one of my favorite shows when I was a kid. I might point out (then again I might not), that the invaders were both male AND female. So there, Leah. There are plenty of examples of the representation of men and women real or imagined, as something other, better, worse, cooler or scarier than human. I going to guess thatt sci-fi and fantasy aren't your genre, or if they are you insistently view them sociological, anthropological, and/or any of a bunch of other academic filters, rather like a Freudian filters dreams and any reference to sex. In other words you can't sit back and enjoy anything because you're too busy "tying it to a chair and beating meaning out of it with a rubber hose" (Billy Collins). Forgive me if the quote's not perfect, I can't find my copy of Sailing Alone Around the Room at the moment. Love the demos, guys, and I'm floored by the product. I thought I knew how to build Flex apps... :( you put me to shame!

I am a student who has a passion for graphics created digitally, but am no way able to get a copy of CS3. u have created an incredible alternative for the student/hobbyist here. while by no means a replacement to the creative suite, i am ecstatic to try it. my beta invite is in the nest and begging to hatch. btw, i love the bird theme. im a bib nature lover and my fovorite creatures since i was 5 are birds(right after i'd gotten over dinosuars) i love that all of ur bird titles have a reason to be that program to that bird if u know what i mean. :)

i also wanted to ask (hopefully u still are checking this post avi) is pheonix going to include tools like the ellipse and rectangle marquee tools or polygonal shape tools like photoshop to allow for the creation of things like buttons or web elements(my personal field) or is it more just for photo retouching and effects? will there be a tool in the suite for something like this, and too will there be preset brushes in pheonix, patterns in peacock, vectors in raven, or music loops in roc ect.?

No hay alguien que hable español?

@Zach LeBar Yes, phoenix has such tools

Are there still invitations? I signed up some time ago and can hardly wait trying Aviary out!

i'd love an invite please!

Oh dear. Look closely enough and you see the monster inside us all just waiting to get out. The trouble with this world is that we have forgotten how to giggle. If you think you have trouble with hilary, wait till you see what happens if you do Obama. Or are you going to chicken out on that one? Great graphic. That's not meant as an epitaph, by the way. A straight genuine compliment.

oh, boo hoo, my strong female mentor icon has been literally defaced! what am i going to do . .. . ? if you guys twist up Pelosi next, i'll jump off a bridge !! then you won't be so smarmy will you ?

Nick - we did Obama next (and Hillary again). How's that for chickening out?

It's this just one of her High School pictures?

Huckabee! Please do Huckabee! - The Creationist.

How long did that take to do from start to finish? And is it an *average* time for an oookkaayyy Photoshopper? If it took less than 70 or 90 minutes I'll certainly be wanting to use this tool.

Tell me, what is the difference with Photoshop? Is it easier, well how is it easier?!

Thanks very much. And yeah that cold wrinkled-faced-Hillary photo is a bit scarier. http://tinyurl.com/2e2hln

Then again having read an account of someone seeing a 'human' shapeshift into a 7ft dragon reptilian is about as horrible as it gets for something non-Hollywood.

I'm guessing perhaps that skin shedding thing maybe only took 40 or so minutes. I'm so curious now LOL.

P.S As a Younger Man in a relationship with an Older Woman I actually don't care about personal appearances of a person, as beauty is really more on the inside. I guess there really are exceptions to the rule with this Hillary Redham Klinton, hehe then again she's not nice on the inside either ;-P

What version of Glamorous is this? ;)

Congratulations to the Aviary team for eating their own dog food, web 2.0 technology and politics! I'm Black, Jewish and female; no offense taken to this demo. I liked this one much better than the modded car. I can relate better to human features than car parts. Video is a powerful and effective medium of communication which really can get abstract ideas through to people. Congrats on the Hillary/Barack lovechild! I'd also want to know how long this took to complete.

damn...

it is true!!

soo nice ^^ well , whats the name of that song?? =P

I'm scared...are you people saying that this picture isn't real and that someone was offended? eeeeeeeeeeeek! (Gosh...I pray that no one lampoons us handsome boys next. Although with vast amounts of expensive therapy...I may recover.)

Interesting blog and creative writing.Keep up the good work.