By Dale Farris, Secretary
Golden Triangle PC Club
April 2005

Program Overview

Cosmic Blobs is an ingenious, amusing 3-D graphics program that is both easy to use and powerful. Designed for children, the program can be used to create artistic designs that will seem to pop off the page, and to make designs do just that via animation.

Cosmic Blobs is the coolest 3D graphics software for kids ever invented. Blobs lets you create amazing 3D graphics on your PC, just like you were using digital modeling clay. You just take basic shapes and squish, pull, poke, and bend them into incredible objects and models. You can also paint and animate your Blobs with all the cool tools in the Paint Shop and Animation Lab.

The maker of Cosmic Blobs, SolidWorks Corp., does graphics software for engineers, artists, and architects, and this team knows 3-D inside and out. In addition, they also know how to translate the world of 3D design into something that appeals to the special interests and needs of children. Folks who have experience with AutoCAD, or TurboCAD will appreciate how much power has been coded into the many easy-to-use tools and buttons found in Cosmic Blobs. In effect, we now have for children the ideal program to begin them on their road to becoming an engineer, or especially someone who might end up working with computer aided design (CAD) software in their adult life.

Cosmic Blobs delivers on all fronts. The program is well-organized, and a colorful, drippy, acid-green-accented frame around the large workspace holds tools and materials and has the feel of a mad professor's lair. Just as children would expect, the program is just way cool, and a joy to work with.

Jars hold different-shaped blobs to use as raw material, similar to modeling clay. Instruments to bend, stretch, shrink, flip, flatten, and otherwise mold the blob are displayed as disembodied hands doing the action.

The interface is entirely self-explanatory. No words are needed, but the program has many amusing sound effects that accompany every poke or pull. Once shaped, blobs can be painted, decorated with features and accessories, and then animated, accompanied by music and a backdrop. Creations can be saved in various formats, e-mailed, printed in 2-D or 3-D, pasted into a report, or even used as an online avatar.

The Cosmic Blobs Web site, www.cosmicblobs.com, has a link to a trial version of the program, handy instructional videos — intro, special features, basic and advanced animation — and a gallery of models to crib from.

Features

Create amazing 3D graphics that look like today’s coolest cartoons, movies and video games

3 modes for creating, decorating, and animating 3D graphics: Modeling Zone, Paint Shop, and Animation Lab

17 easy-to-use modeling tools for endless ways to design fantastic creations

Familiar editing tools, such as undo, redo, delete, and copy

Large buttons and animated icons to clearly present and explain all controls

Open-ended design supports endless additions of content

Interactive help that explains each tool and control in simple, visual descriptions

Video instructions and tutorials on the CD and at the web site that walk through all the major features and give tips

Viewing tools and control handles specially built for working in 3D space

Dozens of cursors and sounds for visual and audible cues to highlight and explain selected tools and options

Starter library of basic shapes, model pieces, and full models to guide directed or free-form play

Laboratory-themed visual file system for easy management of all artwork

Special program features, such as Auto-Save, remove the worries of losing any work

Dozens of textures, decals, and color palettes are included for endless decorating options

Over 10 different animation actions for bringing models to life in worlds created with custom landscapes and backdrops

A music library, including marching band, reggae, techno, and various other songs put in the soundtrack to complete an original animated scene

Incredible new computer game works like digital modeling clay to bend, pull, poke and flatten basic shapes into characters, vehicles, animals…anything!

Decorate with tons of colors and decals to make a one of a kind creation

Real computer animations such as running, slithering and jumping bring 3D creations to life

Bend, pull, poke, stretch, and flatten Blobs into amazing shapes

Make your Blobs run, hop, slither, and gallop with incredible animations

Print out your Blobs, copy to other programs, e-mail them to friends

Targeted Customers

Cosmic Blobs lets boys and girls from 7 to 14 create amazing 3D computer graphics like today's leading computer generated cartoons, movies, and video games. An incredible new technology inside Cosmic Blobs works just like digital modeling clay for building fantastic 3D art in a fun, easy, and exciting way.

Simple mouse controls and colorful decorating activities offer endless ways to make the simplest sculpture or the most complex model. Bend, pull, poke, stretch, pinch, and flatten basic shapes into animals, vehicles, robots, princesses, or anything else that can be imagined. Real computer animations, such as running, slithering, and jumping bring the 3D creations to life in a world designed by the user.

This super amazing program will exercise children's imagination and foster artistic skills with unique functionality. The program will also help improve visual retention skills by enabling the replication of popular and familiar cartoon, movie, and computer game characters and content. Organizational and logical thinking skills are improved while following the steps of 3D graphics creation, from modeling to decorating to animating. Active backgrounds, immediate rendering, and instant animations create an immersive environment that motivates extended play time and ongoing experimentation.

Price

$44.99 - Cosmic Blobs Lab Rat Edition (CD package)

$39.99 - Cosmic Blobs Digital Edition (Download package)

These standard retail prices are a super bargain for the power, fun, and creativity offered in this important program that is a sure bet for all families with children interested in creating their own 3D characters. Cosmic Blobs is a powerful program built to promote creativity and free form thinking. Cosmic Blobs is like digital modeling clay, and using a unique surface definition, completely graphical user interface, and a simple approach to modeling, the program is a winner and belongs in the homes of all families with children and computers.

System Configuration Requirements

Minimum
Pentium 1GHz processor or equivalent
Windows 98SE or newer
256MB RAM
3D video card with 16MB VRAM

Recommended
Pentium 2.4GHz processor or equivalent
Windows XP
512MB RAM
3D video card with 64MB VRAM

Note that Cosmic Blobs is a neat 3D modeling program designed to appeal to children interested in creating cool graphics and making these animate. Although this edutainment focus will definitely provide all the creative fun parents desire, the program will run better the higher the system specifications you have installed on your machine. Be reminded that Cosmic Blobs represents an adaptation of the power found in business computer aided design (CAD) applications to the children's education/entertainment market. This means you should strive to run Cosmic Blobs on a machine with the horses to support its many neat, but powerful features.

About Solidworks

The Solidworks team is a dedicated group of programmers, mathematicians, artists, and visionaries who created Cosmic Blobs. The team is all kids at heart and they are excited at this new program's capabilities. Cosmic Blobs is the result of giving creative, mathematically gifted and experienced people the freedom to explore unbounded possibilities with 3D computer graphics.

The Cosmic Blobs team is part of Dassault Systemes S.A. (Nasdaq: DASTY, Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), a company that develops and markets software for mechanical design, analysis and product data management. Dassault is the #1 supplier of 3D mechanical design software for the mainstream market.

Contact Information

SolidWorks
Attn: Cosmic Blobs Team
300 Baker Avenue
Concord, Massachusetts 01742
info@cosmicblobs.com
www.cosmicblobs.com