Plugins for Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, PSP & others
Plugin Newsletter - July 2002
SPONSOR AD: APOLLO 26 to release DEFCON DESIGN KIT
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GRAB YOUR GASMASK - Apollo 26 announces its first retail release, DEFCON,
an eclectic mix of DIGITAL ELEMENTS for designers and hobbyists. The DEFCON
Design Kit will feature fonts, icons, digital illustrations, Photoshop
Art, and sounds. It will go on sale Aug. 20. Each Design Kit will come
packaged in a LIMITED-EDITION collector's tin with goodies such as a T-shirt
and postcards. Only 199 of the Design Kits will be sold, ensuring their
rarity and collectability.
Visit http://www.apollo26.com/
for more information.
Contents
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EDITORIAL
HYPERTYLE 1.0: Our latest Texture Effects Plugin
GALAXY CONTEST 2002 UPDATE
POLL RESULTS: What would you like to see on The Plugin Site in future?
NEW IN THE DISCUSSION FORUMS
REVIEWS: flAIR
FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS
GRAPHICS NEWS from www.Graphics.com
PRODUCTS FROM THE PLUGIN SITE
THE PLUGIN SITE MAP
Dear Reader,
I was happy to see many artists participating in the Galaxy Contest 2002. The Contest Gallery is bursting with more than 500 images only after 4 weeks and two more months to go. There is enough bandwidth and web space for some thousand images more, so don't hesitate to send your cool images.
During the latest two weeks we've been working at full steam on our latest product called HyperTyle, a texture effects plugin, to get it ready until July 31. When the work on HyperTyle started in November 2001, probably no one thought that it would get that packed with features.
I got the idea for such a plugin two or three years ago while investigating other texture plugins which lacked some useful features. I also noticed that there was no single plugin package which combined most of the possible texture effects. Therefore I think that HyperTyle will be a useful addition to the plugin world by closing this gap. There's probably no plugin available which lets you apply so many effects simultaneously without leaving the plugin dialog.
Stay creative and have a great summer time!
Harald Heim
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The Plugin Site - Your guide to image and video effects
http://ThePluginSite.com/
HYPERTYLE 1.0: Our latest Texture Effects Plugin
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After 9 months of work, we have finally released a new filter plugin called
HyperTyle. We think that it is one of the most sophisticated texture plugins
available. HyperTyle is a sophisticated plugin for generating texture,
surface, paint, erosion, transparency, edge, frame and shadow effects.
These main effects are based on seamless textures, so there are unlimited
variations possible.
Additionally there are also zoom, rotation, metal, chrome, pop-art, warp, mirror, blur, noise, blending and other secondary effects which can be simultaneously applied to the seamless texture which is used for the main effect. Up to 20 different effects can be applied at the same time without leaving the plugin dialog.
The download version of HyperTyle is delivered with 128 seamless photo, synthetic and painting textures. The CD version has 1000+ seamless textures including 100 high resolution ones. You can also use other textures in BMP format in HyperTyle e.g. self-created textures, textures downloaded from the web or textures from various image applications like Paint Shop Pro.
The dialog of HyperTyle is skinned and consists of a large preview on the left side and a tab sheet control with all filter parameters on the right side. HyperTyle is quite easy and intuitive to use. For beginners there's even a Tutorial Mode which displays explanations and tips when the mouse pointer moves over a control. A preset feature lets you save effect settings and reuse them later. 100 useful preset files are already delivered with HyperTyle.
For downloading a demo version and for more information, please visit
http://thepluginsite.com/products/hypertyle/
GALAXY CONTEST 2002 UPDATE
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Thanks to everyone who participated in the Galaxy Contest 2002. An unbelievable
number of over 570 images and animations has been uploaded to the Contest
Gallery so far. As usual there are images from beginners as well as images
from professional artists. The Contest Gallery is definitely worth a visit
to see some of the great artwork.
As expected there have also been various problems: Many people uploaded too large images (with a bad compression/quality consideration) or images which were much larger than 800x600 pixels. These images were recompressed or sized down. There were also a few cases of using copyright material without permission and one case of visualized violence. Of course those images were removed. If you find any images that violate the contest rules, we appreciate notifying us accordingly.
There are still a lot of images in the Contest Gallery without an author name and email address. If you didn't add your name to your creation, please do so as soon as possible. At the end of the contest these anonymous images will be removed and won't be able to win a prize.
If you want to raise your chances to win one of the 70 prizes, I suggest that you consider submitting an image to the category "Nicest Interface Design". There are only 20+ images submitted there, whereas there are 50 to 100 images submitted to the other categories.
The Galaxy Contest 2002 page is located at
http://thepluginsite.com/gallery/galaxy2002/
POLL RESULTS: What would you like to see on The Plugin Site in future?
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A total of more than 500 votes has been submitted to our latest poll.
Here are the results of the question "What would you like to see
on The Plugin Site in future?":
1. More freeware from us 21%
2. More detailed reviews of freeware plugins and tools 15%
Tutorials about using plugins 15%
3. Tutorials for various image applications 12%
4. More news about commercial plugins and tools 6%
5. More Premiere/After Effects stuff 5%
More Contests 5%
More reviews of commercial products 5%
6. Extended Resources section of our web site 4%
Extended Gallery section 4%
More commercial products from us 4%
7. Improved Graphics Galaxy Search Engine 3%
Thanks for your votes. We will doubtlessly consider these results when adding new things to www.thepluginsite.com.
Previous poll results can be viewed at
http://thepluginsite.com/knowhow/
NEW IN THE DISCUSSION FORUMS
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ArendsArt asked: "Does Graphic software in general and plug-ins specifically
make creating artwork too easy? I showed some of my digital "paintings"
to a group of people and one of the guys said, "Oh yes, Photoshop
has some good filters in it too." The implication seemed to be that
"anybody can do stuff like this nowadays." So my question is,
are people really impressed by artistically enhanced photographs or output
from Auto-painting programs like Studio Artist?"
You can tell your opinion about this interesting question at
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=128
ArendsArt also asked: "I notice in the advertising of artists who
feel they have a unique creative style, they are very quick to play up
this fact. ... So I would like to throw this out to the group: how important
IS a unique style for an artist's success? ... Plugins can add some unique
effects to an artist's repertoire. The problem is, there are so many wonderful
effects available it is almost impossible to decide on a single one. "
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=129
CherokeeCandy asked: "I have had a problem getting the photobevelsolo.8bf
to work in Paint Shop Pro 7. It is there....... an error appears that
it is not supported and the error returned is a 17500. I have tried it
via PSP plugins folder and also preferencing the path in filters to Photo
Shop and Photo Deluxe where the filter works fab. Any help would be greatly
appreciated. The filter is an Extensis filter I think. ... Any Help to
get it to work in PSP would be greatly appreciated."
If you know a solution please post it at:
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=116
There are a lot of forums about plugins, graphics application, digital video as well as our products, so feel free to have a look and write some lines at
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/
REVIEWS: flAIR
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Only one plugin product has been reviewed for this month's issue. It is
called flAIR and was created by Philipp Spoeth who some peopke should
know from his free Dragonfly plugins. It got three full starts. The review
summary states: "flAIR contains a lot of interesting 3D, blur, sphere
and light effects. The large amount of parameters gives you great control
over the effects and let you produce exciting new effects even after experimenting
for hours. It needs some time to get used to it firstly, but here
after it is a joy to use, especially as it reacts so quickly to your commands."
For the full review, please go to
http://thepluginsite.com/reviews/flair.htm
Other review can be read at
http://thepluginsite.com/reviews/
FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS
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David Blend asked us to host his plugin filters (for Windows) which were
created with Filter Factory. The collection consists of 13 plugins.
The three "Frosted Edger" plugins apply a vignette of varying
radius and intensity. The three "Gradient Sky" plugins overlay
the image with user defined color gradient for enhancing the colors of
photos. "Highlight Correction" darkens overly bright image areas.
The two "Transparent Sky" plugins replace bright or dark image
areas with transparency for making composite images.
Finally, "B/W v Color Tiling" and "Contrast Checkers"
generate tiling effects, "Zebra Stripe Frame" creates zebra
stripe frames and "Alternating Even Bars" is a two-color stripe
maker. The white vignette filter and two of the gradient sky filters are
the best ones in the collection and are recommended.
http://thepluginsite.com/resources/blend/
Pro Canvas (for Windows) is an automation plugin designed to enhance and
replace the existing Canvas command in Adobe Photoshop. While providing
you with all of the standard Canvas options (in Absolute mode), Pro Canvas
also adds a powerful new Relative mode that allows you to add or subtract
from each side independently and simultaneously.
Additionally, you may specify horizontal and/or vertical uniformity to
add or subtract the defined amount from the width, the height, or all
four sides. Pro Canvas even has a New Size display area allowing you to
preview the canvas dimensions while working within the dialog. Pro Canvas
is Shareware and costs $8, but has no nags and no time limits.
http://photoshopplugins.tripod.com/
Richard Rosenman has released three filter plugins (for Windows). 3D Sphere
Generator generates a 3D sphere and allows you to configure virtually
all of its properties. Color Bar Generator creates color bar templates
for computer and television monitor calibration. Scanlines creates hard
to produce scanlines on your image to simulate a monitor.
http://www.richardrosenman.com/photoshop.htm
The Fresnel Reflection Plugin is a free Filter Factory plugin which creates
a transparent sphere effect. It is available for Windows and as an AFS
file for using in Filter Factory on the Mac.
http://www.stereopsis.com/fresnel/
Nvidia offer two free plugins (for Windows) . The Normal Map Generation
Filter allows you to convert any image or layer to a normal map. It also
includes a 3D preview with per-pixel lighting to view the generated normal
map. The PhotoShop DXT Compression Plugin lets you read and write compressed
or uncompressed .dds files.
http://developer.nvidia.com/content/nvidia-texture-tools-adobe-photoshop
Some of the links in the Free Plugins page have been updated. The Axion
FX Freebies (Windows) can now be found at
http://www.axionfx.com/free_stuff.asp
and the Extensis PhotoBevel & Extensis PhotoText freeware plugins
(Windows/Macintosh) can be found at
http://www.extensis.com/download/index.cgi/Freeware
Tint (for Mac OS X) is a tool for adjusting the color balance of images.
Color adjustments with original color near the pixel color are applied
more, whereas color adjustments that differ in original color from the
pixel color have little or no effect. This allows changing different colors
separately.
http://www.orcsoftware.com/~martin/Tint.html
GRAPHICS NEWS from Graphics.com
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Optipix 1.0
Optipix is a suite of Win/Mac Photoshop plugins for enhancing the contrast
and content of digital images. This includes images taken from digital
cameras and those from high-quality scanners.
http://www.graphics.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=969
Adobe Photoshop Targa Plugin Update
In response to user feedback, this plugin restores the earlier behavior
of the Targa plug-in. Both Mac and Windows versions are available free
from Adobe.
http://www.graphics.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=950
Sapphire Innovations Releases Innovations Vol 7 for Windows
This Photoshop plugins set of Gradient effects for Photoshop 6 and 7 and
other applications is for Windows only.
http://www.graphics.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=947
Adobe Ends Free Access to Plugin Development Tools for Photoshop 7
It seems that would-be plugin developers must now pay $195 to first join
the Photoshop developer program and then hope that Adobe provides them
with access to the SDK.
http://www.graphics.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=927
Softener 1.11
Softener is the perfect plugin for adding smooth, soft and glossy effects
to your images. It's ideal for making your 3D renders more "organic",
or giving your images a unique touch. Windows only.
http://www.graphics.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=914
Dragri Interactive Video Editor
Dragri is an innovative video manipulation software technology that allows
you to handle video content by grabbing objects right in the video. For
example, if you want to see a golfer's swing closely, you can grab his
golf club and drag it to examine the specific position and movement. Pretty
cool.
http://www.graphics.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=970
Curious Labs Announces Poser 5
Curious Labs has announced Poser 5, the new version of their award-winning
3D-character animation tool for artists and animators. Poser 5 is expected
to be available in late summer 2002 with a suggested retail price of US
$549.
http://www.graphics.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=965
Mover 4 For Vue d'Esprit 4
Mover 4 is an animation pack for Vue d'Esprit 4, e-on software's rendering
and animation tool. With Mover 4, Vue d'Esprit 4 is transformed into a
powerful but easy to use animation solution.
http://www.graphics.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=963
For daily graphics news updates, visit
http://www.Graphics.com