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Alien Skin is one of the most well known developers of Photoshop compatible plugins in the industry. They produce four plugins : the recently introduced Eye Candy 5, Image Doctor, Splat, the very popular Eye Candy (Eye Candy 4000 is the latest version) and the new Xenofex 2. 

Eye Candy 5: Nature
Well, dance on your desk! Alien Skin has finally come out with number Two in its Three part Series called Eye Candy Five. This latest filter in the series is “Nature” and it’s really sweet. What makes me happy is that this puppy works with 16-bit images, which gives you incredible color transitions, reduced banding, and gives you fewer surprises when you send it to the printer. For you who love using the undo and redo options, you’ll enjoy how fast this filter can take the commands. And get this, there in an intra-product navigation which will allow you to switch from one Eye Candy 5 filter set to another from within the Nature user interface! Plus, for you ‘chatters’ it has “UpToDate”, a new messaging system Alien Skin will use to communicate with their users. They seriously mean to pick your brains for new ideas. What an opportunity! Nature comes with Snow Drift, Ripples, Icicles, Corona, Squint, Drip, Smoke, Water Drops Fire, and Rust. Some are just upgrades, while others are new, such as Icicles, Rust, Ripples and Snow Drift. For me, Squint really did the trick. It’s so much better than the old version, mostly because of the improved settings management system that makes it easier to browse, share and add new presets. There are over 500 quick and easy effects in the entire filter set for you who just don’t have time to mess with fine tuning, but for those who love to tweek, you’ll die of ecstasy when you see just how far you can take each filter. The third in this Series, Impact, is slated to be released in 2005, and will include the graphic design effects that made Alien Skin famous. So don’t be left out in the alley, pick up One – Textures, and Two – Nature, so you’ll be ahead of the game and ready for Impact, the third and final in this set of filters that fit together nicely and make your work oh-so-easy. For more info and a demo: http://www.alienskin.com
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Eye Candy 5: Textures
Oh, yeah. Alienskin. That’s all I need to say. ‘Eye Candy 5, Textures’ is a group of ten seamless texture generators set into an interface that’s the ultimate in control.  Four of the ten are all new textures.  The remaining six have been enhanced in the ways we all fantasized would make them perfect. As far as I’m concerned, Photoshop can throw away all their “in-program” filters, I’ll just take Alienskin’s Eye Candy Textures any day! Lighting fast and totally seamless, the effects are truly impressive. And best of all, they work with 16-bit images so you aren’t compromised in color depth. Color transitions are smoother and the results are more believable and print more accurately.  If you work a lot with stock textures for backgrounds or do digital architecture, this set is an absolute must. Animal Fur, Diamond Plate, Reptile Skin, Swirl, Weave, Brick Wall, Marble, Stone Wall, Texture Noise and Wood makes up the collection, and each one has a seamless tile option, making it easy to use with 3D modeling applications and other projects requiring repeatable surface textures.  And the user interface has been greatly improved with the ability to access presets within the effect itself making it easy to save, find and share your own presets.  Plus there is an unlimited undo/redo-undo option so you can take risks and still look like a hero. Mouseover text gives you instant guidance in each filter control, making it faster and easier to get the job done. Throw out all the others.  Alienskin’s Eye Candy 5 Textures is here! For more info and a demo: http://www.alienskin.com
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Xenofex 2
Well, the little Green Man has done it again!  While other software makers are still trying to copy Alien Skin's expertise, these guys confidently come out with Xenofex 2, a new plug-in with 14 different impressive effects.  The copy-cats just never quit seem to make the grade. What makes Alien Skins plug-ins so different?  The interface is easy to use and quick to understand, the effect is instantaneous, completely pre-viewable before adding, and there are no glitches or hesitations. Kinda like a religious experience. Admittedly, there are other plug-ins that have some of these same effects, but come on guys!  This is ALIEN SKIN!  You can never go wrong buying one of their cool new additions to their line-up.  And there are some important improvements to this version that you shouldn’t miss. There are four brand new filters, Burnt Edges, Classic Mosaic, Cracks (very cool), and Rip Open.  Then they have completely re-written the other ten classic Xenofex filters, (Constellation, Crumple, Electrify, Flag, Lightning, Little Fluffy Clouds, Puzzle, Shatter, Stain and Television) and I have to mention that this version is OS X compatible. The real difference between these cool effects and those from other plug-in companies is the finished product. While other effects often look ‘stuck on’, Alien Skins Xenofex 2 looks convincingly real. You can make your mother-in-law look like a hunk of marble, and even your wife will think you’re a magician.  And with over 100 one-click effects using presets, you can do it in seconds. Don’t hesitate. If you are an Alien Skin fan, and you love funky, creative filters, this set won’t disappoint you. It’s the difference between driving a 1965 VW and a 2003 Porsche. Quality. For more info and a demo: http://www.alienskin.com
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Image Doctor
Don’t let the goofy picture of a woman doc with a large needle fool you, guys.  This little jewel is what all Photoshop freaks dream of.  No more spending hours trying to remove something with your clone stamp tool. Image Doctor is a set of corrections filters that work in Photoshop/Image Ready, Fireworks, Paint Shop Pro and other image editors.  You simply make a selection with your usual lasso or selection tool, click ‘filter’, choose your poison and in two seconds you can literally remove a person from the picture!  The sample ( click here ) was done with two selections (one top, one bottom) and in forty seconds the Smart Fill filter gave the results I wanted. Awesome! There is also Scratch Remover (which works much like the Smart Fill), Spot Lifter (which can remove blemishes to retouch photos etc.) and JPEG Repair.  The JPEG repair didn’t seem as miraculous, but to be honest it’s the best I’ve seen.  Once you get those lovely little pixel blemishes in your image from over compressing files, it’s very hard to recover.  Image Doctor did a pretty good job. No fuss, no muss.  You know how you sometimes just sit in front of your screen and shout “JUST DO IT!” hoping your computer will find the right tool and do whatever it is your needing?  I thought Image Doctor got as close to making that happen as you can get.  You avid filter collectors out there will want this in your garage. For more info and a demo: http://www.alienskin.com
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Splat
Alien Skin, a company known for it’s amazing plug-ins, has released a new filter set called Splat!  While the name is playful, and certainly some of these effects are playful, don’t let the name fool you.  There is something here for both the novice and the expert. Splat comes with six content-powered plug-in filters: border stamp, edges, frames, patchworks, resurface (textures) and fill stamp. All of them efficient, quick and the bump maps used to do the different effects are completely interchangeable.  And get this, if there is a texture you want to create, you grayscale a jpeg and tuck it in the library of already useful bump maps. Although I can’t imagine you’d tire of the wide selection of textures included. The edges effect can give you a torn paper edge in seconds, adjustable in size, texture and depth on the selected layer.  My yellow pepper was on it’s own layer, and it was so easy to add the different effects, I found myself mesmerized by the cool selection of textures and ‘stuff’.  I particularly liked grass, skin and metal.  The metal had such interesting selections as rivets, rusted metal and metal plate (which is what I finally settled on for the pepper). One of the things I really liked about Splat! was it’s easy-to-use interface.  Once you fire up the filter, you can quickly and easily jump to another filter in the set without going back into Photoshop.  The bump-maps are applied in the blink of an eye, and if you jump to another filter, the first disappears and the new one attaches itself to the image in seconds.  I saw no hesitation, no glitches or freeze-ups, which can happen with software from less knowledgeable companies than Alien Skin. Very nice. When installing the program, it automatically includes 200 MB of bump maps, or you have the choice of allowing the program to access them from the CD.  Great for those with storage problems. The combinations are endless and the effects useful and creative.  This plug-in could actually replace several other individual plug-ins in your Photoshop plug-in stable, speeding up the time it takes to load Photoshop, which is nice.  I could go on and on about the amazing wooden frames included, or the sliders that come with most of the effects that allow you to control most aspects, or how the patchwork filter includes cross-stitch and light pegs, but what the heck.  Go buy the plugin and find out for yourself……I’m gonna go have some more fun. For more info and a demo: http://www.alienskin.com
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Eye Candy  4000 The latest version of Eye Candy is a real step forward.  Alien Skin has added 5 new special effects filters, Marble, Drip, Melt, Wood, and Corona to those already present in the previous version of this plugin… 23 filters in all.  For those of you familiar with Eye Candy 3, the most significant change to this plugin is a redesigned, and improved interface that manages to be both nice-looking and easy to use.  It is far better than the version 3.0.  You will also find major improvements in the effect’s overall appearance, and complete customization of the new and classic filters through the use of multiple tabs, controls, and sliders.  In addition to a larger resizable preview window, revamped menus add several new features to the effects, which include, an unlimited undo/redo feature, a bevel profile editor, a color gradient editor, a seamless tiling option in some filters, and the ability to create and save your own presets.  Other changes you will notice are that some of Eye Candy 3’s filters have been combined. Drop Shadow and Perspective Shadow have been combined into Shadowlab.  Inner Bevel, Outer Bevel and Carve have been merged into the effect called Bevel Boss.  They have also added keyboard shortcuts, which mirror the shortcuts found in Photoshop. Overall, Eye Candy 4000’s numerous enhancements make this version extremely easy to use. Each filter comes with several popular presets, so you can get started right away, and still has enough functions and settings for achieving the exact cool effect you are after… a really good tool. For more info and a demo: http://www.alienskin.com   Usefulness :   GUI :

Formerly known as the Black Box, it is the release 3 and consists of 21 effects, mostly "cool" and impressive ones (Fire, Fur, Antimatter, Smoke, Water Drops...), but also some very classic (the Bevellers, Drop Shadow, Motion Trail, Perspective Shadow...).

This plugin has been upgraded and replaced by Eye Candy 4000.

This plugin includes 16 effects ; some are very classic distortions that have many freeware counterparts (Shatter, Distress...), but there are also a number of new, excellent effects that usually require a good deal of time and experience, such as : Constellation, a very nice particle generator covering the image with a black background through which the image can be seen through little round shapes, Crumple, which gives the impression your image comes out of the paper bin, Flag, which produces a very convincing fluttering flag effect, Electrify that surrounds your selection with lightning streaks, and Lightning, an excellent lightning producer (better than Almathera´s). Finally, also of note is Little Fluffy Clouds, that gives much the same result as the default Clouds filter, but with much greater control.

The interface is similar to Eye Candy 3, with the possibility to save and load presets ; even though some effects are not so interesting, it remains a really great set in the end, with a lot of effects that are commonly used but can require quite some time to achieve by hand.

Note : in my Tutorials section I have added a little PDF file with some tips on my own for using these effects ; and I have also created a couple of actions which you can find here.

For the apply-disabled demo : http://www.alienskin.com

Also note :

• the Xenofex demo includes fully working versions of Stain and Crumple;
• there is a version of EyeCandy available for After Effects ;
• the latest version of EyeCandy is 4000.