Plugins for Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, PSP & others
Plugins for Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, PSP & others
Plugin Newsletter - May 2002
Contents
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EDITORIAL
PHOTO TEXTURES 2 RELEASED
NEW IN THE DISCUSSION FORUMS
UPDATES OF THEPLUGINSITE.com
POLL RESULTS: Preferred pixel size of textures
FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS
GRAPHICS NEWS from www.GraphicsNews.com
PRODUCTS FROM THE PLUGIN SITE
THE PLUGIN SITE MAP
Dear Reader,
Here's another issue of The Plugin Newsletter. I hope you enjoyed the previous ones.
I came across a funny story about a designer who was seduced by plugin
to do esoteric designs. The article is called "Graphic Designer's
Judgment Clouded by Desire To Use New Photoshop Plug-In" and can
be read at
http://www.theonion.com/onion3634/graphic_designer.html
I hope you won't have or had similar problems when using the exciting plugins that can be found on The Plugin Site ;-)
Stay creative and have a good time!
Harald Heim
----------------------------
The Plugin Site - Your guide to image and video effects
http://ThePluginSite.com/
PHOTO TEXTURES 2: 1000+ royalty-free photographic textures
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Our fourth Photo Galaxy volume called "Photo Textures II" is
available now. It is a collection of 1000+ royalty-free photographic textures
on CD-ROM for Windows and Macintosh. The photo textures are provided at
a resolution of 1600x1200 pixel (which is 4 x 6 inches or 10 x 15 cm at
300 dpi) as high quality JPG files. It is allowed to use the photos on
a royalty-free basis, which means that the photos can be used for commercial
purposes at no additional costs.
You can use the photos for different purposes: as material for graphics artwork or multimedia projects, as decoration for web sites, greeting cards, brochures, flyers, e-book covers or other print products, as desktop backgrounds and many other things. A gallery with examples, which were created with Photo Galaxy, is available now on the product page.
The Photo Textures CD-ROM contains 1000+ photos divided into 100 different topics as follows: Ancient Stone, Autumn Leaves, Bamboo, Bark, Blurred, Bottles & Cups, Branches, Bricks, Buds, Cactus, Cake, Candles, Candy, Canvas, Carpet, Cave, Ceiling, Clouds, Colored Glass, Conifers, Curtain, Dark Clouds, Deco, Disco-Lamp, Fabric, Facade, Fireworks, Flakes, Floor Stones, Foam, Foil, Food, Frost, Fruits, Gems, Glass, Graphiti, Grass, Ground, Hair, Ice, Ivy, Leaf, Leaves, Leaves on Stones, Letters, Light, Locomotive, Marble, Metal, Moon, Mortar, Mosaic, Motors, Noodles, Old Bricks, Old Paper, Organ Pipes, Other, Planks, Plastic, Plush, Pool, Red Bark, Red Flowers, Rock, Roller Coaster, Roof, Root, Roses, Sand, Smoke, Snow, Snow Bark, Snow Bush, Snow Tree, Sparkles, Sponge Stone, Stained Glass, Stalks, Stars, Stone, Stones, Straw, Tapestry, Trees, UFO-Lamp, Violet Flowers, Wall, Water, Water Circles, Water Reflection, Water Ripples, Water Surface, Weave, White Flowers, Wood, Wood Grooves, Xmas Deco, Yellow Flowers.
For more information and for downloading some free samples please visit
http://thepluginsite.com/products/photogalaxy/
NEW IN THE DISCUSSION FORUMS
------------------------------------------------
This is a new section in the Plugin Newsletter and is intended to report
what is going on on our Discussion Forums. First of all, the software
of the The Plugin Site Discussion Forums has been updated. The major changes
are the updated design and the new search functions.
Here are some contributions to the Forums, which were posted lately:
SyneRyder started a new thread in the Forum <Photoshop-compatible
Plugins> called <Which plugins do you like?>. He writes: "What's
everyone's favorite Photoshop plugins at the moment? What sort of effects
do you like? If you could make a plugin that did anything you wanted,
what would it be? Do you even need plugins anymore now Photoshop is so
powerful?". Feel free to post your opinion at
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=83
Treorai22 posted dozens of URLs of useful PSP resources in the Forum
<Resources>. Have a look by visiting:
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=14
Otto asked in the <Video Plugins> Forum for a <plugin to reduce
grain in After Effects>. My answer was: "The Smart Blur plugin
included with After Effects 5 is quite nice to reduce grain. But you have
to do some experimenting with the sliders to get a satisfying result.
The same plugin is also available in Photoshop. Otherwise try to overlay
the grainy layer with a duplicate layer that is partially transparent
and has a slight Blur or Median effects applied to it."
If you have some other suggestions, please write them down at
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=141
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/
UPDATES OF THEPLUGINSITE.com
------------------------------------------------
The Filter Factory Plugins page of the Resources section has been updated. Two broken links (Oliver's Filters & Crescent Moon) were corrected and some others were marked as not working.
http://thepluginsite.com/resources/freeff.htm
The plugins and tools announced in the latest Plugin Newsletter issues
have been added to the Free Tools and Free Plugins pages of the Resources
section.
http://thepluginsite.com/resources/freetools.htm
http://thepluginsite.com/resources/freeps.htm
POLL RESULTS: Preferred pixel size of textures
------------------------------------------------
The latest poll didn't seem to raise general interest as there were only 23 votings. Although the results aren't very representative, they are listed up as follows:
Low-Res: 43.4%
------------------------
100 x 100 Seamless (3) 13.04%
128 x 128 Seamless (2) 8.7%
200 x 200 Seamless (3) 13.04%
256 x 256 Seamless (2) 8.7%
Med-Res: 17.4%
----------------------
320 x 240 Non-Seamless (0) 0%
400 x 400 Seamless (3) 13.04%
512 x 512 Seamless (0) 0%
640 x 480 Non-Seamless (0) 0%
800 x 600 Non-Seamless (1) 4.35%
High-Res: 39.2%
----------------------
800 x 800 Seamless (2) 8.7%
1024 x 768 Non-Seamless (2) 8.7%
1024 x 1024 Seamless (4) 17.39%
1280 x 960 Non-Seamless (0) 0%
1600 x 1200 Non-Seamless (1) 4.35%
2100 x 1500 Non-Seamless (0) 0%
Non-Seamless: 17.5%
Seamless: 82.5%
So the most required texture types are seamless ones in a very low or
very high resolution, which are probably needed for web design or professional
printing. Anyway, the current poll will still be left running some time.
So if you still want to cast your vote, please go to
Previous poll results can be viewed at
http://thepluginsite.com/knowhow/
FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS
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The Photoshop 7.0 Scripting plugin (Win/Mac) lets you automate repetitive
tasks and key workflows in Adobe Photoshop 7.0. It lets you write scripts
using JavaScript, Visual Basic or AppleScript to do certain tasks in Photoshop
automatically. Almost 50 sample scripts are already included with the
package to get the user started.
Scripting means in this case that Photoshop is completely controlled by
an external program. Unlike Photoshop Actions you have to create these
scripts or programs in an external development environment, which means
that more work and knowledge is needed, but greater flexibility is offered
in return. So this Scripting plugin is something for software developers
rather than for designers. Designers without programming knowledge should
stick to Photoshop Actions instead.
Windows Download:
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=1478
Macintosh Download:
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=1477
The Photoshop Brushes web site offers hundreds of free as well as commercial
brushes for Adobe Photoshop. The free brushes include topics like Flowers
& Fronds, Togs, Circles, Celtic, Nottingham, Edible, Textures, Spaghetti,
Pearls and Yorick. The commercial brushes cost $10 to $25 per set.
http://www.photoshop.brushes.btinternet.co.uk/
The Walker Effects (Win / Mac) set includes 13 plugins for After Effects
5.0 and 5.5 . Two of these plugins are free. "2001: Stargate"
simulates the slit scan camera technique used in the movie '2001: A Space
Odyssey' by turning any video into a moving landscape. "SolidFill"
provides an easy way to fill a layer with a color while also specifying
its matte, which saves time and reduces composition clutter. The other
11 plugins cost between $12 and $15 each.
The LEE Filter Collection and PA Filter Collection (Macintosh only) by
infilm.de are two sets of Adobe Premiere plugins. The LEE Filter Collection
represents the effects of some of the LEE filter foils for film lamps.
The filters can be used to remove color aberrations. The filters are called
Artificial Light -> Day Light, Day Light -> Artificial Light, Neon
Tube -> Artificial Light, Artificial Light -> Neon Tube and are
available in different intensities. Additionally there are other filters
called Choc
olate or Soft Amber.
The PA Filter Collection contains a "Colorize Filter" and "Gradations
Filter" for Adobe Premiere to simulate different film types.
Please notice that this plugins are only available in German language.
http://www.infilm.de/new/index05.html
STOIK Video Converter (Windows only) is a free helper application for
Video Man 3 and Morph Man 3 from STOIK, but can also be used without them.
It converts AVI and Windows Media Video files while changing fps, frame
size, code, sampling depth, frequency and the number of audio channels.
STOIK Video Converter also detects scene changes and splits video by episodes.
It can create multiple clips of individual episodes while avoiding additional
recompression.
http://www.stoik.com/morphman/svc.html
STOIK Morph Man Helper (Windows only) is a free application designed to
properly crop and rotate photos or videos to facilitate the creation of
face-to-face morphing projects. It was designed to be used for MorphMan,
but can also be used without it for other purposes. MorphMan Helper allows
you to easily crop and rotate a pair of images or videos so that faces
or other objects are of the same relative size and position in both cropped
images or videos. MorphMan Helper lets you then save the cropped images
or videos as various file formats.
http://www.stoik.com/products/morphman/mmhelper.htm
GRAPHICS NEWS from GraphicsNews.com
------------------------------------------------
Macromedia MX Product Line Now Available
Macromedia has announced the availability of its Macromedia MX product
line, available for immediate purchase from the Macromedia Online Store.
http://www.graphicsnews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=778
Win procreate Software Bundles
Like to win a bundle of procreate software that includes Painter 7, KnockOut
2 and KPT Effects? Just fill out a form to enter..
http://www.graphicsnews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=749
Upgrade Offer On Corel Products
If you own selected Adobe, Macromedia or Corel products, you now qualify
to purchase the Upgrade version of CorelDRAW 10 for Macintosh, CorelPHOTO-PAINT
10 for Macintosh, Corel GRAPHICS SUITE 10 for Macintosh or CorelDRAW Graphics
Suite 10 for Windows.
http://www.graphicsnews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=746
Eovia Unveils CARRARA STUDIO 2
Aurora allows Photoshop users to change the weather in any 2D Photoshop
image to enhance an existing picture or create new content from scratch.
http://www.graphicsnews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=739
Creature Creator 1.5
Creating humanoids, aliens, monsters, bugs, and other things that go bump
in the night is an easy experience with Creature Creator. Boo!
http://www.graphicsnews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=728
Puzzle Pro 1.2
This plugin for Adobe Photoshop and compatible hosts lets you produce
realistic and high quality jigsaw puzzle effects from your images.
http://www.avbros.com/english/products.html
MorphMan 3.0
Morph Man 3.0 introduces new functions and interface capabilities designed
to enable the creation of morphing transitions between movies.
http://www.graphicsnews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=724
PhotoSurface 1.0
With this plug-in one click is enough to add very natural textures, including
wood, bricks, metal, sand, glass, Van Gogh-like and an extensive collection
of leather textures.
http://www.graphicsnews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=720
For daily graphics news updates, visit
http://www.GraphicsNews.com
