Or, if you are like me, a place to go and download all of the filters that other more advanced filter geeks have created and shared (9836 filters available at the time of this writing). This leads to another really cool aspect of the Filter Forge user community – the company provides you with a place to share your creations with other users. You can use an existing filter as a jumping off point for a new filter or start with a clean slate in the Filter Editor. The Filter Forge website also has a forum for advanced users to share ideas, etc. The Filter editor comes with extensive online help to get you started creating your own filters. Filter Forge provides the tools to create anything you can visualize.
You are no longer limited to the imagination of the vendor who created your Photoshop plugin. More importantly, it provides a visual drag and drop interface and workplace for the more advanced user to create their own filters. These components are organized into categories similar to the way Filter Forge organizes the various filters that come with the plugin. This is a chance for even the casual user to look under the covers to see how all of these different effects are generated. True to the name, Filter Forge allows you to forge your own filters out of fundamental building blocks.īy clicking the Components button on the upper right side of the Filter Editor, you can bring up the various building blocks that make up each of the filters that come with Filter Forge 4.0. I think it is time we touch on the feature that sets Filter Forge 4.0 apart from it’s competition. Every other product I have used so far also allows you to save your own presets. The other vendors typically provide you with a variety of presets and a way to tweak their default settings. Most of the Filter Forge 4.0 functions we have discussed so far can be found in other Photoshop plugin packages offered by Alien Skin, Nik, etc. Your changes can easily be saved as a custom preset for future use. As you can see in the setting tab shown in the lower left corner of the dialog box, you can easily tweak the setting from a given preset. These can also be randomly changed to apply the same basic effect to multiple photos without making them all identical. Sent MON, WED, and FRI with the latest gadget reviews and news!įilter forge also includes various digital frame filters with the Frames > Halftone Frame filter shown here. Subscribe to The Gadgeteer Daily Digest newsletter In other words, you could apply a different version of the same texture with different raised areas and avoid using exactly the same fill in multiple places. Here you can modify the random number to create a different fill from the same settings. To the right of the Presets tab, you will find a Settings tab. The Stone > Layered Stone effect shown here provides a way to realistically mimic an eroded stone surface. The Misc > Electricity pattern fill shown in the dialog captured above generates a variety electrical effects. As a photographer, these types of filters are really the least useful for me, but I did play around with some of them, and they are seriously cool to use. This kind of filter could be used in a lot of different ways – creating a realistic environment for a 3D game comes to mind. Because these fill textures are procedurally generated, they are resolution independant. Some of these categories contain filters that provide various area fills: stone, woodgrain, patterns, etc. In general, Filter Forge filters are grouped into categories like Organic, Patterns, Creative, Distortions, Photo, etc. Later in the review I will provide a bunch of examples and these can be opened in even greater resolution to see the fine details of the images and applied effects. Click on the screen grabs like the one show above to see the text and other elements in their original resolution. Before I get too carried away, all of the photos in this review are reduced resolution to allow them to fit neatly within The Gadgeteer’s layout. You can scroll down in the preset area to view any additional presets for the currently selected filter. You can see the first six presets available for the Tri-Color filter at the bottom left corner of the dialog box. In this particular case, it is showing the initial factory preset from the Creative > Tri-Color filter. Pictured above is the basic dialog that comes up when you launch Filter Forge 4.0 from within Photoshop. is currently in their Beta Stage 2 for version 4.0 of their flagship product - you guessed it - Filter Forge.
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