Sometimes, I review products which achieve their intended purpose, and my review stands as a simple testimonial to the functionality of the program, or the inclusiveness of a book. Other times, my review process leaves me excited and wide-eyed, and I’m left utterly amazed at what I can now do or what I have learned from the process. AlphaPhotoFX plug-ins bundle for Photoshop by Alpha Plugins (www.alphaplugins.com) is both the former and the latter. Some of the included filters are quite run of the mill, however, some are quite incredible, making this six-filter bundle a powerful package of tools.
The first filter in the bundle is called, “Alpha Strip”. Of all the filters in this package, this is actually the one I find least impressive. This filter causes patterns of black shapes to appear on your layer. The options of squares, lines, circles, or wavy lines are given. From there, you can modify their thickness, their frequency, perspective, various scales, and center point. Unfortunately, this filter does little more than that. Once you finish modifying your filter, you will also find that none of the options allow for an anti-alias. Though this really isn’t a problem for the straight lines and squares of the filter, it does leave much to be desired when it comes to circles and curved lines. It looks too pixilated, and it is something that the user needs to fix after the filter’s rendering. An anti-alias option in this filter would’ve been wonderful. I would’ve loved to have seen this filter with a lot more functionality than it currently has. For instance, since all this filter does is place black shapes on top of a current layer, why will it not render onto an empty layer? If this filter would only render itself onto an empty layer, it would give the user the opportunity to load selection, current layer, and then easily modify it in any manner they choose. In order to modify this filter’s elements, one must go through the process of selecting each individual piece, or judging the best way to get that selection for each project. The User Interface also leaves much to be desired. There’s so much effort into making the buttons look cool that they are a little difficult to read.
The next filter is the “Digitalizer”. The best way to describe this filter is to picture the binary grid computer screens from “The Matrix”. It renders your filter into a grid of numbers, subtracting the negative space. This filter works wonderfully with blending modes. I also like that it has a UI which closely resembles the regular Photoshop filters – it keeps the process less distracting. There are two things that seem to be lacking in this filter. It does not have a zoom feature, so if your project is of any scale, you cannot see a good representation of how the final product will appear. I would’ve also loved the ability to type a message and have it appear in sequence with this filter, but at least you can design it to include any characters you wish, any font. All in all, this can be a very useful font, especially in electronically-themed designs.
The “Engraver” filter is also quite neat and versatile. In a way, it makes your layer appear to be a lithograph of sorts, and allows you to apply various patterns to your layer. There are many different ways to tweak the final appearance, and over a dozen different line patterns to choose from. The UI is very easy to understand, and the effects are pretty impressive.
The “Fire3” filter isn’t quite as easy to use, and to be quite honest, I can’t completely figure out how it works. It appears to be a filter for added animation and advertises itself as such, but it doesn’t create animation in ImageReady. The filters have some nice effects in regular graphic projects, but they take a very long time to apply. This filter adds fire effects to the layer. There are so many controls to tweak the fire’s image that it makes it difficult to use. If you plan on trying this filter, make sure you’ve got ample time to fiddle with it to get it to produce the results you’re looking for.
The last two filters are certainly my favorite, and are the cause of many “oohs” and “aahs” on my part. The first one is called, “Ice Pattern”. This filter renders icy fractal patterns in various styles. The effects are absolutely gorgeous, and they can add an elegant touch to digital art.
The final filter is called, “LensProIII”. This enables you to create glass-like objects on your layer, including crystalline effects and diamond facets. Not only are they highly customizable, but they’re high-detail and gorgeous. The designer can also, in many settings, add a reflected image to the surface of the glass. It is very realistic looking and quite lovely.
If the entire review was over the last two filters, it would certainly be a five-star review. Unfortunately, this package contains six different filters. There are a couple of them which I really don’t anticipate to be highly useful. There are also some great discrepancies between the UI on all the filters. Some of them try to follow standard Photoshop format, and some of them try so hard to be cool and fancy that they’re difficult to use. I would mind it less if they all followed the fancy format than a mixed interface. The lack of consistency makes it feel as though six random filters created by six different people were bundled together as-is and sold as a product without a beta test. Also, in implementation, some of these filters take an excessive amount of time to render.
All things considered, this is a filter package certainly worth having. Some elements are worth excitement, and some, not so much. In the less impressive filters, the lack of a decent anti-alias lowers their usability. But, I anticipate a long working relationship with “Digitalizer”, “Engraver”, “Ice Pattern”, and “LensProIII”.