Plugin Newsletter - 5 / 2000

Hi everyone,

The second Plugin Poll was closed and the full results can be seen on
the Know How/Poll Results page at http://pico.i-us.com. Thanks to all
553 votes.

The winners of the poll were:

1. EyeCandy (26%)
2. Blade Pro (14%)
3. Plugin Galaxy (11.5%)
4. KPT 6 (10%)

The 16 other plugin sets were below the 5% limit. I'm especially proud
that my own Plugin Galaxy product made it to the Top 3. If don't already
know it, you can have a look at it at
http://pico.i-us.com/products/plugingalaxy/plugingalaxy.htm

I already started a new poll with the question "Which is the best image
editing application?". You can choose between 18 different applications.
The poll is still online and waiting for your vote at
http://thepluginsite.com or http://pico.i-us.com

If you know a good question for a new poll or want to know people's
opinion on a graphical topic, please email me and I'd be glad to do such
a pool.

TRANSITION SECTION REWORKED

A part of the Transition section at Plugin Com HQ has been updated in
design. Also the broken link for downloading the Variwipes Gradients has
been fixed. Don't miss these 14 transition effects, if you own Adobe
Premiere, After Effects or any other animation or video application.

http://pico.i-us.com

NEW REWIEV

I reviewed Fire 2.0 from Panopticum LLC in the Plugin Guide. Fire 2.0 is
a plugin for Photoshop, Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere. I
reviewed the Photoshop version only, so the review may not be adequate
for the Premiere and AE versions. Fire 2.0 was rated with 4 stars.

http://pico.i-us.com

TUBES AND PAINTER STUFF

The Painter Stuff and Tubes pages in the Other Effects section have been
updated with a link to tube sets, patterns and papers from Sapphire
Innovations. If you enjoy Paintshop Pro tubes or Painter papers and
patterns, have a look at these products.

http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click?bfmid=251924&siteid=387537&bfpage=sapphireproducts

ULTIMATE PAINT 4.45 IS OUT

A new version of this image editing software that everyone can afford
has been released. This tool is getting better and better.

What's new in UP 4.45?
- New Color/HSV Adjust and Gamma Correction components,
- Improved rotate and stretch functions,
- Hardware gamma correction support (for Win95 OSR2 and above),
- Improved Save Optimisation panel,
- Improved Image and Effect Browser panels,
- Interface improvements,
- Minor bug fixes.

For a trial version or the Ultimate Paint 1.91 freeware version visit
http://www.ultimatepaint.com

ANALOGX TOOLS

I also came across a web site with a lot of useful freeware tools. This
site isn't graphically orientated, but very interesting nevertheless.
Besides some tools for monitoring your internet activity, some sound
plugins and a speech synthesizer, you can also find there a MP3 meta
search tool, a screen capture tool, a tool for freeing up memory and a
tool for submitting software to shareware sites. It is really worth a
visit...

http://www.analogx.com

Have a nice week,
Harald Heim

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Plugin Newsletter - 4 / 2000

Hi,

Did you already ask yourself which plugin set is preferred by most
people? I did and made a poll on that topic last year with the result
that Eye Candy, KPT 5 and Blade Pro were on the first three places.

Now I again started a new poll at http://thepluginsite.com with the
question "Which is your favourite plugin set?". This time I've sent 20
plugin products in the race instead of just 8.

Here are the current Top 5 from 179 votes:

1. EyeCandy (25%)
2. Plugin Galaxy (12%)
3. Blade Pro (11%)
4. KPT 6 (10%)
5. Andromeda (6%)

The poll is still online and waiting for your vote at
http://thepluginsite.com

THE PLUGIN SITE WAS UPDATED

Two new sections have been added to the ThePluginSite.com. The Effects
section contains pages with links and description of free and commercial
Photoshop-compatible, Adobe Premiere and After Effects plugins. The
Tools section contains links and description of free and commercial
graphic tools. More to come...

Have a look at http://thepluginsite.com

FREE TOOLS

There's a new image editing tool called Pixopedia. Pixopedia is an image
editing application that is still in beta stage and therefore free to
use.
It has a lot of convolve effects, color and some nice warp effects. But
the user interface is a bit uncomfortable, the Undo function is limited
and there are no shortcuts.

http://sigmapi.digitalchainsaw.com/

The freeware version of GenesisII generates schematic and photo
realistic images of landscapes from your geographic data. You get full
control over base surface, lighting, atmosphere, camera/target, and
water definition. Along with rendering and graphic capabilities, the
software incorporates several tools that support landscape modelling and
related tasks (such as VRML Modelling and Terrain Editing). Other
features include full import/export functions, a plug-in interface, and
the ability to produce realistic vegetation, ecology, and terrain areas.

http://www.geomantics.com/

Terragen is an amazing 3-D terrain rendering program that lets you
produce great landscape images within minutes. The picture on the main
page at http://thepluginsite.com was produced with this tool. Double
click on it to see the full image.
The free version is for private use only and outputs up to 512x512
pixels. For an unlimited older version go to www.zdnet.com.

Windows Version:
http://www.planetside.co.uk/

Macintosh Version:
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/%7Ejomeder/TGMac/TGMac.html

For further free graphics tools visit http://thepluginsite.com

EDGE PRODUCTS

Sapphire Innovations has released some nice products with edge effects.
Cog Edges contains 100 edges for $19.95 that can be used in a variety of
application including Photoshop, PSP, Corel Photo-Paint, PhotoFrame and
PhotoGraphic Edges. The Star Edges pack contains another 100 star-like
edges for the same prize.

Download the demos of these products at
http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click?bfmid=251924&siteid=387537&bfpage=sapphireproducts

For more free edges visit the Other Effects/Edges & Frames page at
http://pico.i-us.com

VISITOR GALLERY

The Gallery/Visitor Gallery page at http://pico.i-us.com has some new
and interesting entries along with comments on how these images were
produced.

Thanks to Blip_Kathi, Simon Perrott, Teddy, Bernhard Luckenheimer, Paula
Sanders, Carl Slater, Spottydoodle, BGH and Rod for sending them in.

Have a nice week,

Harald Heim
The Plugin Site -
Your guide to image and video effects

 

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Plugin Newsletter - 3 / 2000

Hi and Welcome

to the third issue of the Plugin Newsletter. I'm proud to announce that
I've opened a new web site called

The Plugin Site - Your Guide to Image and Video Effects
http://www.ThePluginSite.de

There isn't much stuff there right now, but I will continue to add more
soon. So watch out. You can also reach this site under the following
aliases:

http://www.designfx.de
http://www.designtools.de
http://www.effektfilter.de
http://www.videoeffekte.de

Pay a visit to it, if you have the time. Any suggestions on design and
content are welcome. The old Plugin Com HQ site at http://pico.i-us.com
will nevertheless remain and be updated, too.

THE PLUGIN SITE.de AFFILIATE PROGRAM

With the initialization of my new web site I also started the
ThePluginSite.de Affiliate Program. This Program gives you the chance to
earn money easily with your own web site. All you have to do is to place
text, buttons or banners links to some of the products offered at The
Plugin Site. Placing these links is just a matter of minutes and will
ensure continued revenue.

Currently you can only link to the Plugin Galaxy and Plugin Commander
Pro products as an affiliate of ThePluginSite.com. But I'm going to add
more products soon. You will get a 15% commission for every purchase
that was done with your link. That means if a visitor of your site
clicks on one of your affiliate links and orders a product at
ThePluginSite.de, you will get a commission. For example, if your
visitor orders a copy of Plugin Galaxy for $49.95, you will earn $7.50.
What's even better is that you will get a free copy of every product
that you sold at least 10 time with your affiliate links.

For more details and joining the Affiliate Program go to
http://thepluginsite.de/Affiliate.htm

NEW FREE PLUGINS AND APPLICATIONS

Several new plugins and applications were added to the Filters/Free
Filters page at http://pico.i-us.com, two old links were updated and all
plugins are now rated with one, two or three stars.

The Harmonix plugin for creating 2D wave lines has been updated. It
includes a HTML Help file and a color box for specifying the wave's
color now.
http://www.v-d-l.com

The link to the Dragonfly plugins was corrected.
http://home.t-online.de/home/Spoeth/

The web site with the AIM plugins has moved to a new and faster server,
so they are downloadable within a reasonable time now. Additionally
there is a new blur and sharpen plugin available there. These plugins
are only recommended for people who are interested in image editing
algorithms as they aren't very spectacular. The help files contain
detailed descriptions of the way these filters work.
http://www.pp.clinet.fi/%7Etimothy/aim/photoshop/index.htm

Red Prince's Flips 'n Rolls is a new set of 19 plugins without a dialog
that flip, roll, invert and reverse the order of bits in the RGB
channels. They were rated with 1 star either as they aren't spectacular.
Interesting however is that they were written in assembler and that the
source code is included. Beware when you visit the Red Prince web site.
Don't get lost!
http://www.redprince.net/

Sapphire Innovations has released three free plugins for Illustrator 8.
A forth is on the way. One of them is also available for Macintosh.
You will also find many other stuff like tubes, nozzles and edges there.
Click on the Ressources button to go to the download section.
http://www.sapphire-innovations.com/

If you're into Adobe After Effects on the Macintosh don't miss the 39
nice and free plugins from http://members.tripod.com/%7Ethumbtack/

And if you're doing 3D, have a look at Geometra, an professional
application that lets you create 3D models from photos. They also offer
a free Light Version.
http://www.geometra-3d.com/geometra.htm

Wow! A lot of free stuff this time. Enjoy it!

HTML SHRINKER 1.07 RELEASED

Version 1.07 was released two weeks ago. A lot of nice improvements were
made:

* Server Side Includes (SSI) are left untouched
* Visual SourceSafe comments aren't removed anymore
* Asp, php and java tags are supported now
* Improved shrinking of scripts and java tags
* The following file types are now displayed and processed by default:
htm, html, shmtl, jhtml, xml, cfm, cfml, js, css, asp, php
* New option: Don't create backup file

Don't miss this great tool, if you own a web site and want to make it
load faster, consume less bandwidth and decrease your monthly traffic
volume.

http://pico.i-us.com

FREE FOR ALL LINKS PAGE

If you want to promote your web site, visit the Free For All Links page
in the Links section at http://pico.i-us.com. You can add your web site
there and it will automatically be displayed after you've submitted it.

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

Happy surfing wishes you
Harald Heim

P.S. If you want something to relax during your internet sessions, get
Linkz, a small and cute game created by Martijn van der Lee. It is
available at http://www.v-d-l.com

The Plugin Site -
Your guide to image and video effects

 

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Hi,

thanks for your overwhelming feedback to the give-away of the remaining
prizes. Please stop sending in your addresses as the 6 winners are
selected now. Here they are:

Teststrip:
Norman Calkins, Cindy Wiseman, David Currie

Genuine Fractals:
Michael Anderson, Gabriele Curlett, Deborah Bult

Congratulations to the winners! You'll recieve your prize soon.

Kindest Regards,
Harald Heim

Plugin Com HQ - Plugins, effects and tools for Image and Video Editing

 

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Plugin Newsletter - 2 / 2000

Hi and Welcome

to the second issue of the Plugin Newsletter reporting about topics
concerning the Plugin Com HQ web site at http://pico.i-us.com. You
mayhave wondered why the web site was down from Tuesday to Thursday.
It's because it moved to a new server with more bandwidth. So it will
reachable even better now.

NEW VISITOR GALLERY IMAGES

Three new images were added to the Gallery/Visitor Gallery page. They
were created by subscribers of this newsletter. Thanks for sending them
in. If you would like to get your own creations exposed in the Visitor
Gallery, please send them to harry@visca.com.

http://pico.i-us.com

CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Paintshop Pro Users Group hosts two interesting contests this month.
The PSPUG Millennium Contest requires the artist to show an object from
the twentieth century and then to present his prediction of the
appearance of the object in the next millennium. You can win 5 prizes
from Auto FX and a copy of my Plugin Galaxy and Plugin Commander
products.

http://pspug.org/contests/millenium/milleniumcon.html

The PSPUG Webring Logo Contest wants you to design three images for a
new Webring Logo. You can win 4 prizes from Auto FX and a copy of
Xenofex in this contest.

http://pspug.org/contests/logo/logocontest.html

HOTBAR SKINS

There's a new hotbar area on www.i-u.com with user-submitted skins. If
you use Internet Explorer for Windows, you can quickly add new skins to
your browser and refresh the look of your browser as often as you like.
You will even find a skin there I created myself with one of my tubes.
You can create your own skin using the instruction provided there and
submit it to the User Gallery.

http://www.i-us.com/hotbar/hotbar.htm

PANOPTICUM PRODUCTS

Some great products from Panopticum LLC are now featured in the Plugin
Store: Alpha Strip, Fire, Lens Pro and Anima Text. They can be used in
Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, Premiere and After Effects. Don't miss the
demo versions of these products that are downloadable here:

http://pico.i-us.com/store/panopticum/Panopticum.htm

Besides, if you order one of these Panopticum products, you can choose
one of the 20 Plugin Galaxy plugins as a bonus or get a $10 discount on
Plugin Galaxy
(http://pico.i-us.com/products/plugingalaxy/plugingalaxy.htm).

TUBES LINKS

Unfortunately three of the tubes links on the Other Effects/Tubes page
weren't valid anymore. Now I've added several new one. Three of them
lead you to pages were hundreds of download places for Paintshop Pro
tubes are listed.

http://pico.i-us.com

YOUR CHANCE TO WIN

As you know, there was a Xmas Draw give-away in December with over 50
prizes. As some of the winners didn't answer within the last 4 weeks,
there are still some prizes available. They include:

3 x Teststrip
3 x Genuine Fractals

To win one of these 6 prizes, send in your mailing address as fast as
possible. The first 6 emails I receive will win.

Have a nice week,
Harald Heim

Plugin Com HQ - Plugins, effects and tools for Image and Video Editing

 

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Plugin Newsletter - 1 / 2000

 

Hi everyone,

this is the first issue of the Plugin Com HQ Newsletter in the new year.
Time to wish you a happy and prosperous new year.

NEW REVIEWS

Two new reviews were added to the Plugin Guide section at
http://pico.i-us.com. One on Eye Candy, a plugin set every designer
should have, and a second on Alpha Strip, a new plugin for creating all
kind of abstract patterns and alpha channel carvings.

You can order Eye Candy for $119 ($10 off) at
http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click/ius?siteid=387537&bfpage=eyecandy

If you order Alpha Strip at
https://secure.element5.com/register.html?productid=130877&reseller=harry

for $39.95, you can choose one of the 20 Plugin Galaxy plugins as a
bonus or get a $10 discount on Plugin Galaxy.

Have a look at Plugin Galaxy at
http://pico.i-us.com/products/plugingalaxy/plugingalaxy.htm

NEW TUBES & PSP 6 OFFER

I updated the three tube sets (SunFigure, Stones, Fruits) from the Other
Effects/Tubes page for using them with Paintshop Pro 6. Additionally I
added two new tubes (StarGlow and PaintBall) for Paintshop Pro 6. You
will also find links to almost 1000 free tubes on the same page.

Tubes are just one of the various fantastic features of Paintshop Pro 6
from Jasc Inc. Now you can get this great piece of software for just
$59, if you order it at

http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click?bfmid=251924&siteid=387537&bfpage=psp6

and mail in the supplied $30 rebate coupon. Don't miss this offer, you
won't regret it.

VISITOR GALLERY OPENED

I opened a new page in the Gallery section at http://pico.i-us.com
called Visitor Gallery. I already placed three images that were send in
by two visitors. If you created one or more images that you consider
worth showing to the public, please send them to me (harry@visca.com)
and I will upload them to the Visitor Gallery. Please include a few
comments on what you used and how you did them. Looking forward to
seeing your artwork.

NEW FREE PLUGINS

Martijn van der Lee started a new plugin series called Adrenaline. The
first plugin from this collection is called Harmonix and is available
for free at http://www.v-d-l.com. It creates wave lines which you
probably known from sound editing tools with the help of some
equalizer-like sliders.

Ulead has made the ArtTexture plugin, a part of their Web Utilities
product, freeware. It can be used to create hundreds of colorful
gradient patterns. Get it from
http://www.ulead.com/webutilities/products/art/runme.htm

For more free plugins, visit the Filters/Free Filters page at
http://pico.i-us.com

Take care,
Harald Heim

Plugin Com HQ - Plugins, effects and tools for Image and Video Editing

 

 

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