Plugin Newsletter - June 2000

CONTENTS
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INTRODUCTION

LATEST POLL RESULTS: YOUR FAVOURITE GIF ANIMATION SOFTWARE

NEW POLL: YOUR FAVOURITE TEXTURE TOOL

EDGE & FRAME CD-ROM NOW AVAILABLE FOR MACINTOSH

NEW FREE PLUGINS & APPLICATIONS

NEW REVIEWS IN THE PLUGIN GUIDE

FREEWARE OF THE MONTH: ULTIMATE FX

LATEST REVIEWS

Hi people,

I have already got some emails from people who were worried because
there was no issue of this newsletter within the last four weeks. The
reason is that I was on holiday. I had a great time and shot almost 1000
photos of the landscape and sea. Maybe I'll prepare a gallery with the
best shots if you are interested.

I'm glad to see that over 10000 people are subscribed to this
newsletter. If you like it, please recommend it to other people who you
know. I'd be happy to serve even more readers. See the end of this email
for subscribing options.

But before we continue with some new stuff, I'd like to mention that
this issue of Plugin News is sponsored by AV Bros who produced two great
plugin products. Here's what they have to tell you:

--------------
AV Bros. Page Curl 1.2 (turning page effect), AV Bros. Puzzle Pro 1.2
(jig-saw puzzle effect).
If you are looking for a professional Photoshop (Paint Shop Pro,
Photo-Paint...) plug-ins, powerful and flexible - you MUST try these
products!
Both are awards winning software (ZD Net 5 stars, Shareware Junkies 5
stars...) with an attractive and easy to use interface, great options
and also the coolest setup routine. Both plug-ins give you opportunities
you have never had before concerning these kinds of effects. TRY it for
FREE!

All information on our web site:
http://www.avbros.com/statadv/pcomhq.html
--------------

Yours,
Harald Heim

LATEST POLL RESULTS: YOUR FAVOURITE GIF ANIMATION SOFTWARE

The latest poll was run four weeks and got over 200 votes. Here are the
results:

1. Jasc Animation Shop 42%
2. Ulead Gif Animator 17%
3. GIF Construction Set 7%
4. Macromedia Fireworks 6%
Not listed here! 6%
5. GIF Movie Gear 3%
6. WWW Gif Animator 3%
Animagic Gif Animator 3%
7. Coffee Cup Gif Animator 2%
8. 3D Gif Designer 2%

The rest of the tools scored below 2%. So the winner is Animation Shop
which isn't surprising, because it is a free add-on to Paintshop Pro.
Both tools make a perfect combination, although I sometimes wonder why
many of PSP's features aren't directly integrated in Animation Shop.
Swapping images between both applications is sometimes a bit time
consuming.

For other poll results, visit the Know How/Poll Results page at
http://pico.i-us.com

NEW POLL: YOUR FAVOURITE TEXTURE TOOL

The new poll deals with texture creation software. Vote for one of 14
texture creation applications at http://thepluginsite.com or
http://pico.i-us.com. If you don't find you favorite texture tool among
them, you now have the chance of entering it after selecting the "Other"
choice.

As usual, if you know a good question for a new poll or want to know
people's opinion about a graphical topic, please suggest it by emailing me.

EDGE & FRAME CD-ROM NOW AVAILABLE FOR MACINTOSH

My latest product, the Edge & Frame Galaxy CD-ROM which was previously
only available for Windows is now available for Macintosh users. I also
produced a demo with sample edges and frames for the Mac.

The Edge & Frame Galaxy CD-ROM includes over 1400 edges and 150 colored
frames in over 120 categories. You can use them to give your photos a
personal touch, as backgrounds for titles and credits, to design
greeting cards, CD booklets and labels, to create unique shaped buttons,
animations and speical video effects.

http://pico.i-us.com/products/efgcd/efgcd.htm

NEW FREE PLUGINS & APPLICATIONS

AccessFX T-1000 RoboVision is a free plugin for Adobe Premiere that
makes your video look as if it was seen through the eyes of the T-1000
cyborg from the movie "Terminator". Nice to bring some thrill into your
family videos :-)

http://www.accessfx.com/robovis.htm

Strata 3D is a full featured 3D modeling, animation and rendering
applications. Previously it sold at $200, now it is available for free.
Prepare yourself for the download of 22 MB.

http://www.strata3d.com/html/strata3d.html

ABC VideoRoll is a free video application that is build around Quicktime
4. It offers moer than 100 effects and some basic video editing
features. Requires QuickTime4 and for full install Microsoft DirectX
Media 6.

http://www.abc-tv.com/

For more free plugins or tools visit http://thepluginsite.com

NEW REVIEWS IN THE PLUGIN GUIDE

There are three new reviews in the Plugin Guide at http://pico.i-us.com
on AV Bros Page Curl, AV Bros Puzzle Pro and the book "Scanner
Solutions". All three got a full 5-star-rating and they are worth every
penny.

http://pico.i-us.com

FREEWARE OF THE MONTH: ULTIMATE FX

This time the freeware of the month award goes to Ultimate FX. It
contains dozens of nice image effects, knows various file formats and
even supports Photoshop-compatible plugins. So it is the best free
plugin host and maybe even the best freeware image editing tool.
You won't believe that this nice application is freeware, but it is.
Actually, it is advertisement sponsored. Make sure you click a few times
on its banner window when being connected to the internet. The author
really deserves a few pence for making this tool available for free. If
you want to get rid of the banner window, you can register Ultimate FX
for only $9.95.

http://www.ultimatepaint.com/ufx/

LATEST REVIEWS

My web sites and products have received some attention during the last
three months.

The Plugin Site (http://thepluginsite.com) received the Web Exellence
Award and the "It's too Cool" Award. (If you want to nominate your web
site for some awards, too, please get the Aesop Award Submitter tool
from http://www.roibotlibrary.com/freesoftware.htm)

HTML Shrinker got a full 6-cow-rating from tucows.com, got a 95% rating
and the title "Best software of its class" from bestfreeware.de, was an
Editor's Pick at webattack.com and was featured in the Lockergnome
Newsletter.

Plugin Commander got a full 5-doves rating at cfs.com and a full
5-smileys rating at rocketdownload.com, was "Cool Tool of the Day and
Week" at cooltool.com, received two Cybia Awards and was a "Pick of the
Day" at Slaughterhouse.com.

Plugin Galaxy received a Cybia Awards and was a "Pick of the Day" at
Slaughterhouse.com, too. It was commented as "some of the nicest dialog
boxes available", a "wonderful tool for creating a variety of unusual
and lovely effects" and was recommended together with EyeCandy and the
KPT series as one of the first sets of plugins newbies should look into.

Finally if you understand German, you may be interested in reading an
interview with me at http://www.bestfreeware.de

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