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 This company produces 3 plugins :
Lens and
Fire, plus a freeware one named
Strip, with versions for After Effects, Premiere and 3DS Max, and of course for Photoshop. The latest is
Alpha Strip.
For info, the demos or online buying, go to
AlphaPlugins or click on the logo . |
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Lens Pro |
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 A set of 7 differently-sha ped lenses, each one provided with various settings, and deforming the image beyond. One of the most interesting features is the ability to chose between applying the filter as shown above, or to cut the geometry so only the deformed part will remain.
Though the general interest of these filters may seem limited, they do their job very well, with short preview and apply times ; the droplet especially is great for water drops and artistic effects. The Pro version adds a number of interesting and welcome light and color effects. |
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 This one is a huge plugin producing about all sorts of possible fire-like effects, ranging from a simple Candle flame to a complete fire, with all possible variations : the default settings are for a natural fire, but you can tweak the colors and directions to get ice or alien effects as well ; this new version adds all sorts of sparks, glows and drops. They have also provided all sorts of transitions, for those of you after that "burning page" effect for example. In each case, an impressive number of settings make it possible to get the exact result you are looking for; their number may make the plugin look like a maze at first, but the interface is very well designed (on top of looking very good), so after a couple of minutes playing with it you can easily master it without having to read the manual. The only problem I see is the fact that the fire in the preview window is animated, so it is sometimes hard to preview exactly what you will get.
In the end, this is probably the ultimate in fire effects... |
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This very simple tool adds empty/transparent stripes to your image, with a number of options for choosing the width and frequency etc. Not really useful, except when you want to add TV scanlines to your images, in which case other freeware plugins are available
here and
here. |
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This plugin creates all sorts of geometric alpha masks - of course the same can be done by hand, but this one really is a time-saver for those effects ; there are numerous controls, so you can get exactly what you want, plus presets you can create etc, and the interface, as is now usual with this company, is a pleasure for the eye though it could be a bit easier to read. The speed of the plugin and the preview also are OK even if you do not have a monster machine.