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Plugin Newsletter - October 2001
Contents
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EDITORIAL
PHOTO GALAXY: 1200 royalty-free Photos
MUTATION: 1000 hi-res textures
UPDATES of THE PLUGIN SITE
NEW POLL: Download vs. CD Software
REVIEWS: Three Andromeda products & PhotoBrush 1.5
FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS
GRAPHICS NEWS
PRODUCTS FROM THE PLUGIN SITE
THE PLUGIN SITE MAP
Dear Reader,
The Plugin Commander Newsletter has been discontinued and its subscriber
base has been transferred to the Plugin Newsletter. To keep costs and work
time low we decided to melt both newsletters, because 50% of the
subscriber base intersected anyway. We think that it should be interesting
to receive the Plugin Newsletter for the subscribers of the former Plugin
Commander Newsletter. If you don't think so, you can easily unsubscribe
using the information at the bottom.
This issue should have been sent out over a week ago, but unfortunatelly
we had some heavy problems. Somone evil minded caused this email list to
be blocked, because he or she subscribed one or more email addresses of
other people with the aim to cause trouble. To avoid such problems in
future we decided to use a double opt-in subscription process. This will
be less conveniant for subscribers, but should avoid future abuse.
This issue of the Plugin Newsletter announces our two new products and
contains some product review summaries, selected free plugins and graphics
tools, the latest computer graphics news and many more.
Yours,
Harald Heim
----------------------------
The Plugin Site - Your guide to image and video effects
http://ThePluginSite.com/
PHOTO GALAXY: 1200 royalty-free Photos
------------------------------------------------
One of the two products that were released lately by thepluginsite.com is
called Photo Galaxy. Photo Galaxy is a collection of more than 1200
royalty-free digital photos on CD-ROM. It can be used for a lot of
different purposes as follows: as material for graphics artwork or
multimedia projects, as decoration for web sites, brochures, flyers or
other print products, as desktop backgrounds and many other things.
The 1200 photos are provided at a resolution of 1760x1168 pixel (which is
4 x 6 inches or 10 x 15 cm at 300 dpi) as high quality JPG files and are
divided into 74 different topics. They were taken in different places in
England, Wales, France, Spain, Germany and Austria.
To view the contact sheet of the photos and for downloading some free
samples please visit
http://thepluginsite.com/products/photogalaxy/
MUTATION: 1000 hi-res textures
------------------------------------------------
Our second new product, Mutation, is a co production with Cybia.co.uk.
Mutation is a collection of 1000 royalty-free textures on CD-ROM. It can
be used with various image and video editing, animation and 3D
applications like Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Premiere, After Effects,
Bryce, Poser and 3D MAX.
The Mutation textures can be used in various ways. They can either be used
to give your graphics, photos or videos more color, to create some photo
collages, as background graphics or for giving logos a special look.
Furthermore they are rather useful for creating video transitions,
colorful 3D landscapes or surfaces for 3D objects. In addition to that
there is a wide range of other possibilities of using them.
The Mutation CD-ROM contains 1000 textures at two resolutions: 2100x1500
pixel (300 dpi) and 400x286 pixel (72 dpi). The computer-generated
textures are supplied as high quality JPG files.
To view the contact sheet of the textures and for downloading some free
samples please visit
http://thepluginsite.com/products/mutation/
UPDATES of THE PLUGIN SITE
------------------------------------------------
Some pages of the Resources section have been updated with plugins and
tools mentioned in the latest three Plugin Newsletter issues.
http://thepluginsite.com/resources/
The msvrt10.dll download, which is required to make Filter Factory plugins
work, as well as the ApplyEdge.8bf download which is needed to apply edges
in PhotoDraw are available again.
http://thepluginsite.com/products/picopro/tutorials/makework.htm
http://thepluginsite.com/knowhow/tutorials/edge/ApplyPD.htm
The Polls 2001 page has been updated with the latest three poll results.
To have a look at all conducted polls please visit:
http://thepluginsite.com/knowhow/
NEW POLL: Download vs. CD Software
------------------------------------------------
With 25 polls already conducted on thepluginsite.com it is getting harder
and harder to think of a topic for a new poll. If you can think of an
interesting topic, please let us know. Anyway, the latest poll is about
software sales via internet. You are allowed to vote for one of five
statements concerning Download Products vs. CD Products.
To cast your vote please visit
http://thepluginsite.com/
REVIEWS: Three Andromeda products & PhotoBrush 1.5
------------------------------------------------
Here are the summaries of the latest three product reviews:
Andromeda Series 4: Techtures (2 stars):
"Techtures is a nice and huge collection of textures of different types.
The supplied plugin for applying the plugins is nice. Some limitations
apply however: The plugin only offers very few texture manipulation
options and the proprietary file format of the textures makes it
impossible to use them with other tools."
Andromeda LensDoc (3 stars):
"Lensdoc is an essential tool for digital photographers. The correction of
distortions, perspective and rotation are a great help for repairing bad
photos."
Andromeda Perspective (1 star):
"Perspective is a nice tool to play with, but for professional use it is
too unprecise. With some enhancements its usage field could be much
broader than it is now. "
PhotoBrush 1.5 Update (rating increased to 3 stars):
"PhotoBrush 1.5 is a very nice and affordable painting tool. The great
amount of graphics tools it features makes it very attractive. As it
misses necessary selections and layer features, it is less useful for
composing complex images, but it can be a nice addition to other
professional applications."
For the full product reviews please visit
http://thepluginsite.com/reviews/
FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS
------------------------------------------------
Flaming Pear added some more effects to their Freebies package (Win/Mac)
of Photoshop-compatible plugins. They are called RGB/HSL, TransLine &
TransTone and Anglyph Flip.
http://www.flamingpear.com/download.html
VDL released a new Photoshop-compatible plugin called NightVision (Windows
only) as freeware. It creates realistic night-goggle effects including
enhancement, anti-aliased interlacing, signal noise, feedback and more.
Alternatively the separate effects in this plugin can be combined for even
more effects such as surveillance camera style pictures or normal
interlacing.
http://www.v-d-l.com/adrenaline_nightvision.html
Rasterizer Plug (Macintosh only) is a plug-in for Photoshop 5.0 or later
that renders hi-resolution screenshots of 3D models included in Infinity
MetaFiles directly onto a Photoshop layer with transparency.
http://www.french-touch.net/products/3dtools.cfm
Version 4 of the free video editing software MovieXone (Windows only) is
available now. MovieXone means video editing, animation, titling and audio
under one single interface, it features a freely scalable Live Preview in
realtime, DV editing and will be expandable with plugins in the future. It
offers one compositing track, one A/B editing track, two audio tracks and
7 different video effects. The maximal resolution is 720 x 576 pixels at
32-bit color depth.
ProjectDivX 1.5 (Windows only) is a small tool for editing and merging
DivX (MPEG4-Codec) AVIs encoded with Low-Motion and Fast-Motion. It can
quickly cut big AVIs into smaller parts. The interface is a bit
overcrowded at first sight, but usable after some practising.
http://www.joern-thiemann.de/tools/index.html
Infinity Model Builder (Macintosh only) is a free powerful 3D editor
designed to create and edit object files with real-time rendering through
the Infinity 3D Rave engine. Model Builder can import the meshes contained
in 3DMF files, DXF files or OBJ files, modify them, add colors or textures
and save the result as a standard Infinity MetaFile. However, Model
Builder is not a 3D modeler. It does not allow you to create meshes.
http://www.french-touch.net/products/editing.cfm
Snap it! (Macintosh only) is a screen capture tool for MacOS. Contrary to
other screen capture tools available, Snap It! is a very low-level screen
hacker: Snap It! can take a picture of every part of the screen absolutely
whenever you want and save the result in a standard PICT file. Snap It!
can capture in any bit depth and in any size, provided that enough memory
is available.
http://www.french-touch.net/products/utilities.cfm
Zpaint (Windows only) is a flexible button maker for creating 3D-looking
elements for websites and software interfaces. With the help of Zpaint you
can easily paint raised or lowered shapes such as buttons, rings, boxes,
or add these effects to existing graphics. It lets you colorize and
texture selections, offers adjustable extrusion depth, gloss and other
effects. As its editing functionality is a bit limited you still need an
image editing application for the final touch.
http://www.steffengerlach.de/freeware/
GRAPHICS NEWS
------------------------------------------------
New LVS online classes teaching various graphics, web and office
applications will start November 3. The four Filter Frenzy classes are
about using different Photoshop-compatible plugins, including products
from The Plugin Site. If you still want to get in, hurry and sign up at
http://lvsonline.com/courses.html
Corel Corporation introduced Corel GRAPHICS SUITE 10 to the Macintosh
platform. It is designed to run on Mac OS X and Mac OS 8.6 to 9.2. Corel
GRAPHICS SUITE 10 includes applications for vector illustration, image
editing, painting and animation. New and Enhanced Features of Corel
GRAPHICS SUITE 10 include enhanced interactive tools, enhanced publish to
the web, new color management interface, new integrated preflight engine,
new web image optimizer and other professional publishing features.
ACD Systems released Version 4.0 of ACDSee, an award-winning picture
viewer, graphic converter and digital image management tool. The latest
version offers a user-friendlier interface, viewing and browsing
enhancements, multimedia management improvements, additional editing
functions and support for online services.
Jasc announced the distribution of Virtual Painter, a collection of 12
special effects filters for Windows that let users turn their favorite
digital photos into realistic-looking paintings. The effects include
Pastel, Collage, Rectangles, Drawing, Silk Screen, Impasto, Color Pencil,
Pointillism, Oil Painting, Gouache, Watercolor, and Triangles. These
painting styles can be applied to one of 12 different simulated materials,
including Paper, Washi, Canvas, Stucco, Wood, and Cork for added realism.
http://www.jasc.com/products/vpainter/
Sapphire released INNOVATIONS VOL 5, 20 low-cost plugins for Photoshop and
other Windows applications. The plugins produce dark grainy scatter
effects, lightburst effects, random line effects, diffuse grain, patchy
effects, squared random effects and more.
http://www.sapphire-innovations.com/products/prdfilters.htm
procreate KPT effects, a collection of nine new Photoshop-compatible
plugins for Win and Mac machines, has been released. KPT effects features
the following new plug-ins: KPT Pyramid Paint, KPT® Lightning, KPT Fluid,
KPT Hyper Tiling, KPT Scatter, KPT Channel Surfing, KPT Ink Dropper, KPT
FraxFlame II and KPT Gradient Lab.
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