Photoshop for Students. Get super savings at the Adobe Academic Store.
Read our review of Genuine Fractals (includes 10% discount coupon).
Buy. Download. Create. Get Photoshop CS3 now at the Adobe Store.
Reviews for PhotoGraphic Edges, Mystical Lighting, and Mystical Tint.
Auto FX DreamSuite Series One & Two
Review by Jennifer Apple
(Get special pricing, bundles, and free demos at the AutoFX site.)
Auto FX DreamSuite Series One
Auto FX DreamSuite Series One offers a variety of powerful visual effects that allow you to create stunning images and artwork. DreamSuite lets you achieve a range of realistic results that are difficult or impossible to obtain using any other software – it allows you to digitally replicate many special effects that print designers often have to produce by hand.
You can crease, crumple and crackle digital images in a manner so realistic that it is almost as though you've been able to reach into your computer screen and manipulate your images with your own hands.
Unique Visual Effects
The other visual effects that DreamSuite One offers are really quite unique – for instance, Chisel allows you make text appear as if it was carved or hammered from stone, while Dimension X lets you create 3-D metallic bevels.
It also offers several incredibly realistic effects, though admittedly they are fairly limited in scope – for example, Instamatic replicates the appearance of a classic, white Polaroid frame around your image, while Tape creates realistic renderings of Scotch, duct and masking tape, among others, that can be applied to your image.
Unique & Friendly Interface
Like many of Auto FX's offerings, DreamSuite includes a stand-alone imaging application as well as a highly integrative Photoshop plug-in.
DreamSuite works with both Windows (98 and later) and Macintosh (OS 9 and OS X) and requires at least 128MB of RAM. However, 256MB or more is recommended for optimal use.
Using their unique Smartlayers technology, DreamSuite allows you to combine masking, photos, effects and color correction layers together in a single document. Unlimited undo/redo functionality lets you go back and rework brush strokes, effect settings, object transformations and more.
DreamSuite Series One Includes 18 Visual Effects
DreamSuite was designed to offer an infinite amount of variation into the effects to avoid a "canned" look. Here is a list of the included effects.
35mm Frame - Put your photos into 35mm slides and create collages of your work
- Dimension X - Over a dozen unique depth bevels, shading, glassy reflection & more
- Photo Border - Add stylized borders around your photos and overlap collages
- Chisel - Unique hammered, chipped and dented depth bevel effects
- Focus - Simulate soft focus, zoom, rotated, and motion focus effects
- Photo Depth - Add depth to your photos by fraying, denting and crimping
- Crackle - Simulate photo-realistic aged photo cracks and crackled surfaces
- Hot Stamp - Add punch to your type and graphics with roughened edges, blends and melded glows
- Photo Tone - Blended sepia tones, focal glows and mottled backgrounds
- Crease - Interactively bend and crease your photos for unique depth looks
- Instamatic - Surround your photos with a photo-realistic instamatic frame
- Putty - Bend, twist, enlarge, push, reshape, squish and reform your images with bezier tools
- Cubism - Add artistic cubed shapes to your photos and backgrounds
- Liquid Metal - Brush and paint with liquid mercury, melted gold and other metals
- Ripple - Interactive photo-realistic ripples, waves, water surfaces
- Deckle - Rip and tear your photos to give them a torn deckled appearance
- Metal Mixer - Blend metal surfaces together for a mix of unique depth effects and metal blending
- Tape - Photo-realistic masking tape, transparent, duct, sports and other tape types
Auto FX DreamSuite Series Two
Auto FX DreamSuite Series Two isn't so much as an upgrade of its popular Series One program as it is an expansion, offering 12 new visual effects ranging from plastic wrap to filmstrip. Fully compatible with DreamSuite Series One, Series Two installs into the same DreamSuite interface to increase the number of effects you have at your creative disposal.
With Film Grain, you can realistically replicate the appearance of traditional high-grain print film in your digital images. Puzzle Pieces lets you turn your digital image into a puzzle, with pieces that you can move around and layer. You can create film-strip effects for individual images using Film Frame Art, which you can then layer together to create a collage-type design.
DreamSuite Series Two Includes 14 Visual Effects
DreamSuite Series Two effects focus on enhancing photographs. Here is a list of the included effects.
2 1/4 - Photo-realistic 2 1/4 film frames with unique translucency
- FilmFrame Art
Combine images together using 2 1/4, 4x5 and 35mm filmstrip collages - PlasticWrap - Make elements in a photo look like they are pressing against a sheet of plastic
- 4 x 5 - Photo-realistic 4 x 5 film frames with unique translucency
- Mesh - Weave together strips of photos in a creative mesh effect
- Puzzle Pieces - Turn your photos into puzzles with realistic pieces you can move around and layer
- Dreamy Photo - Give your images a soft, diffused and dreamy appearance
- Mosaic - Turn your images into hand crafted mosaic tiles for a beautiful look
- Tile - Cut and stack your photos into squares, circles, triangles and other shapes for a unique layered appearance
- FilmGrain - Simulate traditional high-grain films for stunning enhancements
- PhotoPress - Press photos down into the background scene for a distinctive look
- Wrinkle - Apply photo-realistic wrinkles and depth shading to your photos
- FilmStrip - Add multiple photos to strips of developed translucent film with photo-realistic shapes
- PhotoStrips - Slice and overlap image strips to form unique visual effects that add interest to any image
Summary
Combined with Series One, Auto FX's DreamSuite has produced a collection of highly realistic and inimitable effects that stand out from the pack. Designed to empower your creativity, DreamSuite offers unlimited design possibilities for both the beginner and the seasoned professional. If you require any or all of these effects, this program is unbeatable in terms of its simplicity and affordability – it does what it claims to do and does it quite well. This is a sweet set of plugins that will make any graphic designer happy.
Get special pricing, bundles, and free demos at the AutoFX site.
Photoshop CS3 Upgrade Options And Bundles From The Adobe Store
Photoshop CS3 Extended is ideal for film, video, and multimedia pros and for graphic and web designers using 3D and motion. Get the full version for US $999, or upgrade for US $349. The standard version of Photoshop CS3 is available for US $649, or as an upgrade for US $199.
Photoshop Extended is also available as part of Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium ($1,799/$440), which combines all-new CS3 versions of Photoshop, Flash Pro, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, InDesign and Acrobat 8 Pro. International options are available at Adobe's UK Store, Europe Store, and Australia Store.
Exclusive Special Offer - Fluid Mask 2.0 - $189
Fluid Mask 2.0 is based on breakthrough segmentation technology inspired by the way the eye, optic nerve and brain perform visual processing. When an image is loaded, Fluid Mask's segmentation engine analyses the distribution of colors, finding the natural groups within the image. Together with information calculated about edges, gradients and textures, a model is constructed which divides the images into objects.
Vertus Software is offering Fluid Mask at the special 'friends and partner' discounted rate of just $189 - PLUS free upgrades for the next 6 months.
This is an exclusive offer to visitors of PhotoshopSupport.com. To qualify, visit the Fluid Mask Discount Price page. Find out more about Fluid Mask on our special Fluid Mask Page.
Exclusive 20% Discount On Select Total Training Products & Bundles
To redeem our exclusive discount coupon, use promotion code save20pss in your shopping cart. You could save hundreds of dollars. Use this special link to see the full offer.
Total Training for Adobe Photoshop
Learn Adobe Photoshop with 21 hours of interactive Adobe Photoshop tutorials. This is training for real-world situations and includes additional tips and techniques used by the pros.
Regular Price: $299.99 (take 20% off with coupon)
SiteGrinder 2 - Photoshop Plugin
There often seems to be a strict division of labor within the world of web design and development. Creative professionals tend to stick to the Photoshop domain, while those well-versed in scripting are left to the task of implementing their work. Indeed, the two realms are quite different from each other, to which any of us even vaguely familiar with either can easily attest.
Essentially, Photoshop is a no-holds-barred design studio, offering the artist a seemingly endless array of creative options. On the other hand, HTML, CSS, Java and the like follow strict rules of engagement, requiring the developer to take any number of esoteric concerns into consideration in order to ensure that designs are properly displayed on the web.
Turn Photoshop Into A Complete Web Design Tool
SiteGrinder 2 seeks to bridge this gap between design and development. Basically, this program turns Photoshop into an easy-to-use and fully functional web design tool. With SiteGrinder 2, designers will now have the freedom to totally let their creativity loose and then, without skipping a beat, transfer their designs to the web. Bringing esthetic concerns together with more practical considerations, this program is an amazingly powerful tool that would make a fantastic addition to any web designer's bag of tricks.
Generate Your Web Pages Directly From Photoshop
By generating web pages directly from Photoshop, you'll be able to spend much more time on the creative end of the spectrum, since you'll know right off the bat how well particular designs will translate to the web. No more going back to the Photoshop drawing board after getting a phone call from your development team, telling you that what you had envisioned doesn't have a chance of being displayed on the web. You can immediately visually and interactively test your designs, which permits you to then make changes to either esthetics or functions while it's still relatively early on in the design process.
Pricing and Availability
Mac OS X and Windows versions of the SiteGrinder unlockable demo are available now via download. SiteGrinder 2 can be ordered from Media Lab's online store.
Photoshop Book - Photoshop CS2: Essential Skills - By Mark Galer And Philip Andrews
An inspirational and user-friendly guide to creative image editing, Photoshop CS2: Essential Skills provides direction for photographers and designers alike who have ventured into the realm of the 'digital darkroom.' The book offers a progressive curriculum to guide you through Photoshop with a series of clear, step-by-step projects designed to place knowledge into a practical context.
Whether you simply want to retouch an image, create a glamour makeover or create a highly sophisticated montage - this book will give you the essential skills to complete the work to a professional standard.
The accompanying CD-ROM and website, www.photoshopessentialskills.com, offer additional teaching and learning materials which form a library of indispensable supporting resources including:
• All of the images used in the text
• Over four hours of QuickTime movie tutorials to support the practical projects
• A range of presets (including layer styles, curves, shapes and gradients)
• Camera RAW files
• Free extra chapters in e-book form.
For a free sample chapter see our How To Sharpen An Image In Photoshop tutorial.
Photoshop CS2: Essential Skills (Amazon.com - save 34%)
