The Plugin Site - Plugin Newsletter

Plugin Newsletter - 31 / 1999

Hi everyone,

Hope you survived the Christmas turkey and all the tasty things without too much stomach-ache ... I didn't. At least it wasn't that bad than last year :-)

I know I should have announced the winners yesterday, but I wanted to give some more people the chance to send in their wish lists. Unfortunately only 30 of the 60 winners sent a wish list. But I had some additional information (from the web form some of you filled out when subscribing to this newsletter), so I think I mostly chose the appropriate prizes for the rest of the winners.

So here are the lucky winners. The prizes are followed by the email addresses of the winners. Those winners who haven't already sent their snail mail address, please send it to me, if you like to receive your prize.

Jasc Paintshop Pro 6
r...yael@hotmail.com

DigiEffects Aged Film
r..p@pig.com

Xaos Tools Total Xaos
mat...@club-internet.fr

Auto FX Studio Bundle Pro 2.0
sg...r@zdnetmail.com

Auto FX AutoEye
vm...@aol.com, l...@cbn.net.id

Auto FX Photo/Graphic Edges 4
p...@wkpowerlink.com, jl...@erols.com, jlt...@alltel.net

Auto FX Webvise Totality
s...head@ivillage.com

Auto FX Steve Fisher's Heartland Tapestries CD
a...9@aol.com

Intense Software Powertone
p...y2@virgin.net

Intense Software Silvertone
j..n@mail.primorye.ru

Right Hemisphere Deep Paint
a...s@netscape.net, osmond@clara.co.uk

Megalux Ultimate Paint 2.4
g...r@eot.com, j...t@usac.net, l...t@home.com, G...G@aol.com

Sapphire Innovations Nozzles Magic 1 CD
p...e@brandon.net

Sapphire Innovations 1000+ plugins CD
e...n@veb.ru

Sapphire Innovations Plugin set 1
E...e@paganism.zzn.com

Sapphire Innovations Frames CD
s...3@hotmail.com

Lightning Mail
e...s@mcwest.com, m...e@nectech.co.uk, kb...o@netway.at

Alien Skin Xenofex
h...k@ihug.com.au

Hollywood FX Alpha Magic
rai...fx@aol.com, w...e@sssnet.com

Hollywood FX 4 Silver
r...t@nsw.bigpond.net.au

Altamira Group Genuine Fractals 2.0
b...e@fiax.net, e...2@aol.com, d...r@pelmark.co.uk

Panopticum LLC Alpha Strip 1.0 for Photoshop
f...g@hotmail.com

Panopticum LLC Fire 2.0 for Photoshop
v...gi@aol.com

Panopticum LLC Fire 1.x for Premiere
g...i@citynet.re.it

Panopticum LLC Lens Pro 1.0 for Photoshop
a...8@lafn.org

Panopticum LLC AnimaText 1.0 for After Effects
f...er@theriver.com

Paint Shop Pro 6 Power! by Lori J. Davis
book: m...1@crosswinds.net, g...t@thegym.net
ebook: d...ar@msn.com, z...n@planetxtc.freeserve.co.uk

Fantastic Machines Tile Tools
is...la@aol.com, arrc@hotmail.com

Crystal 3D IMPACT! Pro
ti...s@rt66.com, t...ia@pathwaynet.com, ll...es@webcombo.net

Lasersoft Silverfast
mi...am@netvigator.com, r...f@mail.kuban.su

Vivid Details TestStrip 2.0
sw....ng@bigfoot.com, p...g@globalsite.com.br, n...tl@avana.net, j....i@desarrollo.jazztel.com, r...c@twics.com

ATS-Graphics Filter Formula
Pro: li...an@ncea.ie
Light: s...n@polypress.bg, m...y@hi-ho.ne.jp

Knoll Lens Pro for Photoshop
ni...5@mindspring.com

Plugin Galaxy
v...o@access.victoria.bc.ca, k...on@virgin.net

Congratultions to all winners!!! I hope I could make you a bit happier this Christmas. You will recieve your prizes as soon as possible. Also, a big Thanks to all the sponsers who made this Xmas Draw possible!

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a prosperous and happy new year. Thanks for your great support and loyality. I prepared a special Xmas ecard for you at

http://pico.i-us.com/gallery/pictures/pics/Xmascard.jpg

All the best,
Harald Heim

Plugin Newsletter - 30 / 1999

NEW FILTER PLUGINS

There are three new free plugins available. I forgot to mention two of them in the last newsletter.

The new Mediamailer plugin offers the possibility to send images and image-related information directly out of the image editing software to someone by e-mail. Boris z-order and Boris rhythm are two free filters for After Effects from Artel Soft. RipleEyer is a filter factory plugin that creates a kind of interlace effect that seem to have become quite popular this year.

http://www.medialogixx.com/mediamailer
http://www.artelsoft.com/downloads/free.html
http://www.fatorcaos.com.br/ze/portfolio/filtros.html

For more free FF plugins visit the Filters/FFIndex and Filters/Free Filters pages at
http://pico.i-us.com/

PLUGIN COMMANDER 1.02 RELEASED

There's a new version of Plugin Commander available this weekend. A lot of problems were corrected, the help files were reworked and some new features were added to the Pro Edition.

I decided to offer the Pro Edition of Plugin Commander for a reduced price during the next two weeks. You can now get it for $39.95, that's 20% below the regular price. This special millennium offer ends 31.12.99.
The same offer is also available at www.i-us.com.

For more details visit

http://pico.i-us.com/

NEW EDGE TUTORIAL FOR ULTIMATE PAINT

I've created a new tutorial on how to apply edges to photos with Ultimate Paint. To view this tutorial, get more information on this topic and download some free edges and frames visit the OtherEffects/Frames page at

http://pico.i-us.com/

XMAS PRIZE DRAW

As a subscriber of this newsletter you have the chance to win one of 60 prizes (totally worth over $4000) this Christmas. Your chance to win something is around 1 to 50 which isn't that bad I think.

A few people complained that they aren't home at Christmas and can't email their wish list. So I decided to make a small exception from the rules. All people who aren't at home at Christmas can send me their wish list now. But only under these conditions:

1. You have to use "My Personal Xmas Wish List" (without the quotes) as the subject of the email that contains your wish list.

2. You have to include the email address you are currently subscribed to this newsletter somewhere in the email. So it may be best to include all your email addresses in the body of the email to make sure that your wish list isn't overseen.

See below for instructions on how to write the wish list. Please send the email with your wish list to harry@visca.com. All other people who will be at home or who can access their email account on the 23rd December: Please don't send your wish list! You will asked for it, if you win something. I don't want to get flooded with wish lists. Thanks.

So for the last time here are the rules and the full list of prizes:

The Prizes:
-----------

Jasc Paintshop Pro 6 (1 copy)
--------------------
Jasc Paint Shop Pro 6 takes image editing to a new level of functionality and ease of use. Designed for users who want control, power, and flexibility, Paint Shop Pro 6 delivers the tools you need to easily capture, create, enhance, and optimize your graphics projects. A full copy of Animation Shop 2 is included free.
With Paint Shop Pro 6, you can:
* Retouch and edit photos and images
* Create great Web graphics and animations
* Design images for business communications
* Share photos with family and friends
* Design animations with the included Animation Shop 2

http://www.jasc.com

DigiEffects Aged Film (at least 1 copy)
---------------------
AgedFilm is an old-movie look filter that is fully customizable. Compatible with Windows 95 and Windows NT versions of Adobe Premiere, Photoshop and Equilibrium's DeBabelizer Pro.
Simulates an aged (or not) "film look", with grain, dust, hair, frame jitter, luminance distortion, colorizing, and scratches. This is great for use in music videos, and entering your video into those film-only contests. No one can tell the difference! You can make your film as clean or dirty as you want.

http://www.digieffects.com/

Xaos Tools Total Xaos (1 or 2 copies)
---------------------
Total Xaos is a bundle of 3 of our Photoshop- compatible plugins PLUS a CDROM chock full of textures as a bonus:
* PAINT ALCHEMYTM 2.0, special effects painting plug-in rated as one of the top tools in the digital painter's arsenal, Paint Alchemy is the most intelligent painterly engine out there.
* TERRAZZOTM 2.0, Seamless tiling plug-in, ask the top Web Masters on the planet today and they will agree emphatically that Terrazzo makes award-winning web backgrounds with extraordinary ease.
* TYPECASTERTM 1.15, a 3D type-rendering plug-in, creates stunning 3D type quickly, directly within Photoshop¨. No previous 3D experience is required.
* FRESCO is a collection of 80 royalty-free luminescent background images.

http://www.xaostools.com/

Auto FX
-------
Studio Bundle Pro 2.0 (1 copy) is a compilation of 11 design products bundled together to provide the design professional with a endless variety of essential tools. Studio Bundle Pro 2.0 includes the following products: Typo/Graphic Edges 3.0, Page/Edges 3.0, Photo/Graphic Patterns 1.0, Ultimate Texture Collection Volumes 1, 2 and 3, Photo/Graphic Frames Volumes 1 and 2, Universal Animator, Universal Rasterizer and WebVise Totality.

AutoEye (2 copies) is a product that was created to improve digital images by restoring color quality, detail, sharpness and vibrancy. During the process of converting an image from analog to digital, a great deal of color and detail information is lost. AutoEye uses I.V.I.T, a patented Intelligent Visual Image Technology that helps it see images in a unique way and reclaim much of the lost detail and color and improve the overall appearance of an image automatically.

Photo/Graphic Edges 4 (3 copies) offers stunning special effect which allow users to create thousands of unique edge effects.
* 40 Special Effects including Carve, Bevel, Glow, Burn, and Distort
* Effortlessly create unique artistic effects like Sepia, Mezzotint, and Grain
* Enhance photos with Shadow and Lighting Effects
* Effects can be combined to achieve glowing bevels and shadowed burns for example

Webvise Totality (1 copy) is six powerful web graphic products in one. It is ideal for anyone who works with graphic files for the web.
WebVise Totality includes ultra-high GIF and JPEG compression engines, a Photoshop animation module which lets you create animations from inside Photoshop, Digital Watermarking,Hybrid Web Safe Colors, and an Optimized Dithering Engine capable of reproducing any color accurately on the web.

http://www.autofx.com

Steve Fisher's Heartland Tapestries CD (1 copy)
--------------------------------------
The CD's are simply photographs I've taken around Iowa. The subject matter is usually Nature of some kind, but not always. I photograph anything that looks interesting - shadows, lighting, textures, buildings, etc. All photos have been taken by myself, and are royalty free for your own use. The Photos are at least a resolution of 1075x768 at 300 DPI and individually scanned and touched up by hand. Saved in BMP format for ease of use and broad compatibility with graphics apps, the images are suitable for all ages. They can be used as computer backgrounds, printing, etc.

http://www.netins.net/showcase/wolf359/htcd.htm

Intense Software Products (1 copy of each of the 2 products)
-------------------------
Powertone is now an Adobe Photoshop® plug-in for Mac and Windows! This incredible plug-in generates dynamic and colorful images that can be printed with only two inks. Two-color printing will never be the same!

Silvertone Plug-in (M/W)- An Adobe Photoshop plug-in that produces ultra-high quality metallic process separations for offset printing. Make metallic objects appear as they do in reality and add a whole new dimension to your color printing.

http://www.intensesoftware.com/

Right Hemisphere Deep Paint (2 copies)
---------------------------
Deep Paint is a 2-D paint system that offers dynamic 3D lighting and texture control, for the most realistic and stunning effects you've ever seen. You can easily convert existing photos or illustrations into virtually any medium: thickly-textured oils, bold acrylics, delicate watercolors, pearlescent pastels, and much more. Or start with a blank page and let your imagination soar.
You can light your canvas from any angle. Mix your paint to any consistency. Work with an almost infinite variety of brush and paint combinations or presets. There's even an airbrush that performs so realistically, you may find yourself reaching for a paint rag! In fact, no other paint program takes greater advantage of the advanced features of the new Wacom Intuos tablets, including the new airbrush stylus.

http://www.righthemisphere.com/

Megalux Ultimate Paint 2.4 (4 copies)
--------------------------
Ultimate Paint 2 is a full-featured 32-bit Windows graphics program for image creation, viewing and manipulation.
Features include:
* Supports various image formats and Twain compatible scanners and has a comfortable image browser.
* Print your image, set its size, position and orientation.
* Very flexible brush handling method which encourages creative drawing.
* Retouch and enhance photos using a comprehensive set of built-in tools and plug-ins.
* Dozens of cool plugin filters and support for Adobe plugins.
* The user interface is adjustable to the user's experience level, thus both novice users and experts can use it conveniently.
* Other features like resizing, rotating, flood filling, text operations and a lot more.

http://www.ultimatepaint.com

Sapphire Innovations (1 copy of each of the 4 products)
--------------------
Nozzles Magic 1 CD is a collection of 1000+ nozzles for Painter (windows and Mac). Part of an every growing series of Painter resources collection.

The 1000+ plugins CD is the entire collection of plugins created as the series now known as 'Andrew's filters'.

The Innovations 1 Plugin set is a recently released 8 plugin set for Photoshop featuring camera shudder effects, opArt effects, emboss effects and more - available for download from http://i-us.com but here brought together on a CD.

The Frames CD - Sapphire have created huge numbers of frames, this is a collection of some of the more recent ones yet to be released and in addition the edges collection - a 500MB collection of frames/edges.

http://www.sapphire-innovations.com/

Lightning Mail (3 copies)
--------------
LightningMail is a multiple mailing list management application for Windows 95/98/NT. Features include personalized mailing lists, attachments, total mailing list control, easy to use interface, interruptible sending, fully configurable. LightningMail can easily beat the competition. Totally free for lists of up to 100 recipients, over 32000 recipients possible in the full version.

http://www.v-d-l.com/

Alien Skin Xenofex 1.0 (1 copy)
----------------------
16 inspirational special effects filters. Easily create complex effects like Lightning, Baked Earth, Stain and Little Fluffy Clouds. Includes powerful distortion filters like Television and Flag, and commonly-requested effects like Puzzle, Rounded Rectangle and Stamper. Very user-friendly interface with an advanced preview and over 160 presets. For Photoshop and other graphics programs.

http://www.alienskin.com

Hollywood FX Alpha Magic (2 copies)
-----------------------------------
Alpha Magic offers a whole new way to create transitions using gradients. It contains 400 gradients and the Gradient Wizard, a plugin that lets you create incredible wipes, dissolves and particle transitions, and helps you organize your Alpha Magic gradients with simple groups of gradient icons. Alpha Magic is so flexible you can even use it with your own gradients or gradients from other companies.
Alpha Magic works with Adobe Premiere, Avid Media Composer, Symphony, Xpress, Canopus RexEdit Discreet Logic Edit, DPS Video Action NT, FAST Video Machine Plus, 601, blue, In-Sync Speed Razor, Media 100 Finish, Panasonic DVEdit, Sony EditStation 3 and Ulead Media Studio Pro under Windows and Macintosh.

http://www.hollywoodfx.com

Hollywood FX 4 Silver (1 copy)
------------------------------
Hollywood FX Silver is our long time award-winning answer to the
industrial and broadcast user's needs. It includes over 200 digital
effects, transitions, and compositing and animation tools. Features
include; light control, motion blur, an intuitive flight-path editor,
cropping, multiple source trimming and motion controls, layering, loading of new objects, and saving of new FX (with icons), support for 3rd party
plug-ins, envelope control over every parameters, infinite sub-pixel
rendering, stand alone editing (for NLEs without plug-in technology), 3D
props like arrows, stars, words etc., chroma & luma keying and more.
Includes a stand alone version plus plugins for all popular non-linear editing and effects/compositing packages. Available for Mac OS, Windows 95, Windows NT (Intel).

http://www.hollywoodfx.com

Altamira Group Genuine Fractals 2.0 (3 copies)
-----------------------------------
Genuine Fractals 2.0 creates resolution-independent images from any size file and displays full-screen, full-color, interactive images on the web.
* Award-winning Photoshop plug-in provides easy encoding and rendering for all RGB, Multichannel, and Grayscale images
* Resolution on demand lets you output any file size from a single encoded file
* Provides four methods for encoding and three rendering solutions for the ultimate in image flexibility
* Enables you to work in, store, and transmit smaller, more manageable files
* Lets you open and save both STN and FIF file formats

http://www.altamira-group.com/

Panopticum LLC (1 copy of each of the 5 products)
--------------
Panopticum Alpha Strip 1.0 for Photoshop is a unique set of procedures for cutting the images on alpha-channel. Before the emergence of this set for the creation of effect of cutting the image by geometrical objects (thin lines, circles, rectangular, etc.) you had to draw the mask manually. Now all has changed. Without effort you can process your image by the different geometrical effects, if you take advantage of a new set of Panopticum Alpha Strip, filters.

Panopticum Fire 2.0 for Photoshop and Panopticum Fire 2.0 for After Effects are designed for the purpose of creating realistic effects of burning. Structurally the Fire plugin is one module that contains a great number of different regulated fire effects. The product allow a great variety of different parameters of the flame.

Panopticum Lens Pro 1.0 for Photoshop includes incredible Lens filters.
New options adjustments of lens lighting and anti-aliasing and qualitative images increasing in lens will allow to you to create more realistic lenses images.

Panopticum AnimaText 1.0 for After Effects is a very convenient and powerful tool for creating different effects with text in Adobe After Effects 4.x. Using the software makes for an easy and quick creation of very complex effects: with different fonts, styles, the position of the fonts and so on (there are 127 adjustable parameters!).

http://www.panopticum.com/

Lori J. Davis, Paint Shop Pro 6 Power! (2 paper books, 2 ebooks)
--------------------------------------
The full-color Paint Shop Pro 6 Power! book is ideal for anyone who has recently purchased the latest version of Paint Shop Pro, version 6, and would like to get the most out of the new software. The book includes 12 focused chapters that explain how to use the various aspects of Paint Shop Pro 6: layers, masks, animations and filters. Additionally, the book integrates with a comprehensive Web site that contains updated information, complete examples and frequently asked questions. Author Lori Davis, a well-know expert in the Paint Shop Pro field, conveys her knowledge in a way that is easy to read, understand and put into practice.

http://www.muskalipman.com

Fantastic Machines Tile Tools (2 copies)
-----------------------------
Tile Tools is a package of 21 image altering "Plug In" filters that work with the following host packages under Windows 9x:
* Adobe Photoshop versions 3.0.5 and greater
* JASC Paint Shop Pro versions 4.12 and greater
* Image Explorer Pro 4.0 or Above
* SPG ColorWorks: WEB version 3.002 and greater
* Ulead Gif Animator 3.0

http://www.fantasticmachines.com/

Crystal 3D IMPACT! Pro (3 copies)
----------------------------------------
Crystal 3D IMPACT! Pro creates photorealistic 3D animated titles and
graphics for all your Web pages, video presentations, and print needs.
Special effects include realistic glass, chrome, gold reflections, shadows, bumps, phong highlights, and sparkles. It has over 145 objects that you can use to animate your videos and web pages. With just a few clicks, you can take the pre-created 3D objects and make them fly off your web page or video presentations.

http://www.crystalgraphics.com/

Lasersoft Silverfast (2 copies)
--------------------
SilverFast sets a new standard for Desktop-Scanners. SilverFast is high-end scan and imaging software from LaserSoft which is now available for well known scanners under Mac, Windows 95 and Windows NT operating systems.
SilverFast combines an intuitive user interface with highest professionality. Beginners and professionals will appreciate the intelligent automatic functions as well as the possibility to manually adjust the image at any point. Since any operation can instantaneously be undone, the beginner can easily get acquainted with the software's interface. The professional user can adjust any operation via numerical input and can precisely monitor the results using a densitometer.

http://www.lasersoftint.com/

Vivid Details TestStrip 2.0 (5 copies)
---------------------------
Test Strip® is a powerful and sophisticated Adobe Photoshop plug-in for color correction, proofing, and calibration. Test Strip divides an image into strips, showing the result of adding or subtracting color, density, contrast, and saturation in 1% increments. Plus, any display can be output as a Test Proof.

http://www.vividdetails.com/

ATS-Graphics Filter Formula (1 x Pro Version, 2 x Small Version)
---------------------------
FilterFormula is a Photoshop plugin designed to create your own filters in a simple but effective way. More than 50 powerful functions, up to 6 custom defined colors and six custom defined coordinates, eight sliders and many other controls plus a freely selectable filter background give you all features needed to create even very complex filters - and you can use all the code written for Adobe's Filter Factory! The professional version contains the ability to create royalty-free standalone filters.

http://www.ats-vienna.com/graphics

Knoll Lens Pro for Photoshop (1 copy)
----------------------------
Designed by John Knoll, co-creator of Photoshop(R) and visual Effects
Supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic, Knoll Lens Flare Pro for Photoshop allows you to create lens flares and light effects with unprecedented precision and control. You can use the individual lens primitives to design your own custom flares, or select for the pre-built effects designed by John Knoll himself. Have complete control over the brightness, size, color, and location of the flare, to create just the effect you are looking for.

http://www.puffindesigns.com/

The Rules:
----------

On the 23rd December I will generate as much random numbers as prizes are available. These numbers will correspond to the position the of people on the subscription list of this newsletter. E.g. if John Doe is the 345th subscriber of this newsletter and one of the random numbers is 345 then John Doe would be one of the winners.

There will be a hierarchy of winners. That means that the subscriber who was selected with the first random number will be the first winner, the one who was selected with the second random number will be the second winner and so on.

On the same day (23rd December) the 50 winners will then be informed privately that they are one of the winners. They will be asked to send in their wish list with the prizes they would like to have. Such a wish list could look like this:

1. Hollywood FX 4 Silver
2. Xenofex
3. Knoll Lens Flare Pro
4. Crystal 3D Impact Pro
etc.

The prize on position 1 should be the prize you like best, the prize on position 2 should be the one you like second best and so on. If you already own one of the prizes or don't want one, because e.g. you don't have the necessary application to use a plugin, just don't put it on your wish list. Otherwise you may end up with a prize you can't use or don't need.

This wish list has to be sent in by the winners by afternoon (GMT+1) of the 24th December. If a winner won't send in his wish list in time, his wish list will be disregarded. So please don't forget to check your email account on the 23rd December if you want to make sure that you get one of your preferred prizes!!! And please prepare your wish lists in case you don't have that much time right before Christmas.

On the afternoon (GMT+1) of the 24th December the prizes will be assigned to the winners.
This will work in the following way: The first winner will have the highest priority, so he will get the prize he mentioned on position 1 of his wish list. The second winner will get the prize he mentioned on position 1 if the prize is still available and wasn't taken by the first winner. If this is the case, the second winner will get the prize he mentioned on position 2 of his wish list.
I think you can imagine how this system will go on.

Finally all winners will be announced in the evening (GMT+1) of the same day by this newsletter. I will also send their names and addresses to the companies who have generously contributed the available prizes. Some may receive their prize on the same day by email in case of a downloadable prize or get it by snail mail a few days later.

Have a good time,
Harald Heim

Plugin Newsletter - 29 / 1999

Hi,

From now on I will add all related links below each article in this newsletter. So you won't need to visit http://pico.i-us.com anymore, to find the appropriate link.
The Xmas Prize Draw gets hotter and hotter! 15 new prizes were contributed in the meantime. See below.

NEW FILTER PLUGINS

There's a new collection of over 70 plugins created with Filter Factory by Mr. Trond available. They contain mostly weird patterns and represent a mixture of already known FF plugins. This collection was rated with only 1 star.
The AIM Photoshop plugins are a few plugins with basic image manipulation functions like Sharpen, Blur and Color Space Conversion. (I didn't manage to download them though. Damn slow server. If anyone of you should get them, I would appreciate, if you could send the to me. But please tell me firstly, before you send them. Thanks.)
The DragonFly plugins include a plugin for creating nice 3D sinus curve shadows and two import plugins for .ico and .cur files.
For more free FF plugins visit the Filters/FFIndex and Filters/Free Filters pages on my site.

http://home.eunet.no/%7Etgimre/Skins/Filter.html
http://www.pp.clinet.fi/%7Etimothy/aim/photoshop/index.htm
http://home.t-online.de/home/Spoeth/

ANOTHER GIVE AWAY

Intense Software (who also contributed prizes to the Xmas Prize Draw) hold a similar Giveaway. In the First Annual Graphics Giveaway entrants get a chance to win thousands of dollars worth of prizes including fine graphics software from companies such as Adobe, Quark, Photospin, Vertigo, Alienskin, HotDoor and others. So if you want to have a double chance of winning a prize this Christmas, visit

http://www.intensesoftware.com/

NEW REVIEWS

There are new reviews available in the Plugin Guide section of my site. They should be especially interesting as they are about products you can win in the Xmas Prize Draw. The review are on AutoEye, Deep Paint, Tile Tools, Paintshop Pro and the PSP 6 Power book.

http://pico.i-us.com

XMAS PRIZE DRAW

As a subscriber of this newsletter you have the chance to win one of over 60 prizes (totally worth over $4000) this Christmas. There were several new prizes donated since the last issue of this newsletter. I've placed the descriptions of the new prizes on top of the prize list. I also added a description of the rules below, for the people who just joined this newsletter.

The Prizes:
-----------

Jasc Paintshop Pro 6 (1 copy)

DigiEffects Aged Film

Xaos Tools Total Xaos (1 or 2 copies)

Auto FX

Steve Fisher's Heartland Tapestries CD (1 copy)

Intense Software Products

Right Hemisphere Deep Paint (2 copies)

Megalux Ultimate Paint 2.4 (4 copies)

Sapphire Innovations (1 copy of each of the 4 products)

Lightning Mail (3 copies)

Alien Skin Xenofex 1.0 (1 copy)

Hollywood FX Alpha Magic (2 copies)

Hollywood FX 4 Silver (1 copy)

Altamira Group Genuine Fractals 2.0 (3 copies)

Panopticum LLC (1 copy of each of the 5 products)

Lori J. Davis, Paint Shop Pro 6 Power! (2 paper books, 2 ebooks)

Fantastic Machines Tile Tools (2 copies)

Crystal 3D IMPACT! Pro (3 copies)

Lasersoft Silverfast (2 copies)

Vivid Details TestStrip 2.0 (5 copies)

ATS-Graphics Filter Formula (1 x Pro Version, 2 x Small Version)

Knoll Lens Pro for Photoshop (1 copy)

The Rules:
----------

1. Hollywood FX 4 Silver
2. Xenofex
3. Knoll Lens Flare Pro
4. Crystal 3D Impact Pro
etc.

Have a good time,
Harald Heim

Plugin Newsletter - 28 / 1999

Hi,

For those who are new to this newsletter: You have the chance to win one of ca. 50 prizes (totally worth over $3000) this Christmas. This message discusses in detail how the "Xmas Price Draw" will work and what prizes you can win.

First of all let's begin with the rules...

The Rules:
----------

1. Hollywood FX 4 Silver
2. Xenofex
3. Knoll Lens Flare Pro
4. Crystal 3D Impact Pro
etc.

This wish list has to be sent in by the winners by afternoon (CET) of the 24th December. If a winner won't send in his wish list in time, his wish list will be disregarded. So please don't forget to check your email account on the 23rd December if you want to make sure that you get one of your preferred prizes!!! And please prepare your wish lists in case you don't have that much time right before Christmas.

On the afternoon (CET) of the 24th December the prizes will be assigned to the winners.
This will work in the following way: The first winner will have the highest priority, so he will get the prize he mentioned on position 1 of his wish list. The second winner will get the prize he mentioned on position 1 if the prize is still available and wasn't taken by the first winner. If this is the case, the second winner will get the prize he mentioned on position 2 of his wish list.
I think you can imagine how this system will go on.

Finally all winners will be announced in the evening (CET) of the same day by this newsletter. I will also send their names and addresses to the companies who have generously contributed the available prizes. Some may receive their prize on the same day by email in case of a downloadable prize or get it by snail mail a few days later.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

You may consider this draw system a bit complex, but I love complex things and I think in this way the winners have a better chance to get a prize they really want. Besides writing wish lists is a nice tradition at Christmas and increases the anticipation :-)

But please don't send me any wish lists before the 23rd December or if you weren't informed to do so. If you should get such a winner message on the 23rd December, don't panic, I will explain everything you need to do in detail again.

And now the prizes. First of all I want to say a big Thank You to all companies and people who generously contributed these great prizes. Visiting their sites and informing yourself about the prizes should make it easier to prepare your wish list.

So here are the descriptions of the currently available prizes (totally worth US $3000) and furthermore some information about how many copies of each prize are available.

The Prizes:
-----------

Megalux Ultimate Paint 2.4 (4 copies)

Sapphire Innovations (1 copy of each of the 4 products)

Lightning Mail (3 copies)

Alien Skin Xenofex 1.0 (1 copy)

Hollywood FX Alpha Magic (2 copies)

Hollywood FX 4 Silver (1 copy)

Altamira Group Genuine Fractals 2.0 (3 copies)

Panopticum LLC (1 copy of each of the 5 products)

Lori J. Davis, Paint Shop Pro 6 Power! (2 paper books, 2 ebooks)

Fantastic Machines Tile Tools (2 copies)

Crystal 3D IMPACT! Pro (3 copies)

Lasersoft Silverfast (2 copies)

Vivid Details TestStrip 2.0 (5 copies)

ATS-Graphics Filter Formula (1 x Pro Version, 2 x Small Version)

Knoll Lens Pro for Photoshop (1 copy)

Jasc Paintshop Pro 6 (1 copy)

Good luck to everyone. And don't forget to tell your friends about the Xmas Prize Draw.

Have a good time,
Harald Heim

Plugin Newsletter - 27 / 1999

Dear Plugin News subscribers,

I've decided to play Santa Claus and to distribute some presents among you this Christmas. The whole action is called Xmas Prize Draw. Currently I've managed to organize almost 50 prizes from different companies and more are on the run. Read about it below!!!

First some news on things I've added to my Plugin Com HQ site at http://pico.i-us.com. Plugin Com HQ had the 500.000th visitor this week, by the way.

PICO VIDEO TUTORIALS

I've created 7 videos that demonstrate how certain task can be done with Plugin Commander. The most often done task with Plugin Commander is probably converting FFL files to plugins, so I've done an animated gif file with extensive descriptions.

The other videos are AVIs that were zipped to reduce their size to below 500K. To view them, download them, unzip them and double click them.

The second video is on changing the categories of plugins so that they show up in other sub menus in your image application. The five other videos demonstrate features of the Plugin Commander Pro Edition:
previewing plugins, using the browser, batch conversion and using the Rattler Galaxy FF Editor.

If you should like to see a video on a specific task, please let me know.

PICO PRO STUDENT LICENSE

I've decided to offer the option of selling a student license of Plugin Commander Pro. This means that if you're a student, you can get PiCo Pro for just $29.95 and save $20. To make use of this offer, please scan your student card and send it as a JPG or GIF file to harry@visca.com.

PICO PDF MANUAL AVAILABLE

I've created a PDF manual for the Plugin Commander 1.01 Pro Edition and placed it on my site. Even if you only have the free Light Edition, you may consider it very useful to print it out and have it at hand when needed.

WEB TOOLS PAGE UPDATED

The Tools/Web Tools page was updated with Lightning Mail. Lightning Mail lets you conveniantly manage mailing lists and send messages to up to 100 recipients. If you need to send messages to up to 32000 people, you just need to register and pay a $15 anti-spam fee.

FREE FILTERS PAGE UPDATED

The Filters/Free Filters page was updated with two new plugin products. Filter Farm is a freeware plugin that creates colorful noise effects according to random algorithms. It's nice to play with it and to turn photos into abstract artwork.
The Sandwater plugins are a collection of some commercial trial plugins plus 4 freeware plugins for manipulating the alpha channel. The commercial plugins are quite nice, but the freeware plugins however didn't work for on my machine, though.

TWO NEW PSP TUTORIALS

A spanish guy called Juan Migel Amoros sent me two html tutorials for Paintshop Pro and asked me to publish them on my site. They describe how to achieve Gold, Glass and Cut Out effects with Paintshop Pro very easily. Have a look at them on the Know How/Tutorials page on my site.

!!! XMAS PRIZE DRAW !!!

This Christmas is going to be hot, cause I will be very busy with my occupation as an electronical Santa Claus. I will give 50 or more people (who are subscribed to this newsletter) a christmas present.

The prizes include image and video plugins for Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, Premiere, After Effects and other applications, graphical & internet applications, books and ebooks and much more. To view the prizes visit http://pico.i-us.com. The list of prizes will be updated as more and more prize rush in. Be ready to prepare your wish lists, in case you will be one of the 50+ lucky winners.

You will get another message this week with more details on the prizes you can win. I will also explain how the Xmas Prize Draw will be executed in detail.

Until then have a nice time.

Your
Harald Heim

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