The latest website I’ve been playing around with is Aviary.  The site intends to provide a number of web-based creative tools and applications for users.  Right now I’ve been able to access Phoenix (image editor) and Peacock (pattern maker).  I’ve found Phoenix to be quite robust.  If you’re familiar with Photoshop, you should find Phoenix to be quite similar.  Now, I’m no Photoshop expert, so I’m sure many advanced features might be missing.  But for my simple uses (and well beyond that) Phoenix really seems to get the job done.  I think the controls are fairly intuitive.  I also like the fact that there are to be a ton of nice user-created tutorials online.

The site’s creators are affiliated with Worth1000, famed for it’s Photoshop contests and always fun to browse.  In the future, they plan to release additional creative tools, including audio and video editors amongst many others.  They also want to provide a marketplace for artists and means to collaborate.  The site has some social network features as well.  I don’t see myself using those - I’ll probably just log on to do some simple image editing and that’s it.  But I do see the value in the idea for more serious artists.

For now, I’ve had a good experience with the tools I’ve tried and I really like the design of the site.  My one issue is that I’m not crazy about the way the forums are laid out.  I’d like a more traditional design that let’s me see more topics on one page.  It looks nice but I prefer usability.  I also wonder if they will have as much success with their future tools as they seem to have had with the current ones.  I say that because these people are obviously experts in image editing.  I wonder how they will do in other creative aspects.  But they may very well succeed…so far so good I would say.  I’ve found the community to be quite strong and that’s always a great sign.

I think the overall concept is great and could prove very handy to users.  The site is free but is in private beta currently. I do have five or so invites to give out, so just drop us a line and I’ll send them out.