Full disclosure: I adore Alien Skin software products. That being said, this product is in line with previous experiences and more reason to like the company. The problem is, where to begin? You could compare it to Photoshop’s installed filters as some are similar. The basic list in Snap Art 2 is: Color pencil; Comics; Impasto; Oil Paint; Pastel; Pen and Ink; Pencil Sketch, Pointilism, and; Watercolor. Sound similar? Well, that’s where the similarity ends.

The first thing I noticed about Snap Art 2 (which I’ll refer to as SA for the rest of this review, and Photoshop as PS) is how fast it is; the filters in PS generally require some patience to render. My experience with most PS filters is that, when you preview it, if you don’t like what you see there, you most likely won’t like it using any of its settings. SA has so many variations that you'll probably like most of what you see. For instance, here is the original image and with SA's water color filter in use:

Let’s take Colored Pencil, for instance (below). In the screen capture below are the three PS controls offered with filters. The labels may change, but it’s almost always three with the occasional drop-down box. You have to like the sheer number of filters PS has, but it’s always struck me as a trade-off between power and variety given how weak many of its filters are. How some of the PS filters are used (stylistically) is still a mystery after all these years, which makes them useless to me.

SA’s controls are in the Filters menu but, when clicked, opens in a window of its own. The screen shot below shows the controls you see on starting SA.

Notice the tabs above the slider controls on the left; they are labeled Settings, Basic, Colors (where Saturation, etc., reside), Canvas and Lighting.  Below are the Canvas and Lighting tabs; below that are the Settings and Basic controls. Remember, these are all for the Colored Pencil tool, and each of the other tools has a similar depth and breadth of controls:

One of my favorite features is the Focus Region adjustment which operates like an effects mask. In the capture below left, it’s cranked up to its max; note the handles you can use to make free-form adjustments by stretching and rotating. In the center picture, notice the top left button (darkest of the four) above the picture. It’s been clicked allowing you to see the original with (or without) the Focus Region’s rings, and with the filter off. The picture on the right shows where a second focus region was added to further define the flower. You can add as many as you wish to carve an irregular shape out of the filter.

There are so many variations that it can be a bit overwhelming, but some effects are a bit similar. In particular, I found the Impasto and Oil Paint settings to be really close in most cases; Pastel and Water Color, too. Still, there are plenty of differences. For instance, here are screen samples of the Color Pencil, Comics and Impasto filters:

And here are Oil Paint, Pastel and Pen and Ink:

And here are the Pencil Sketch, Pointillism and Stylize filters:

You can create vast differences, too, using some of the filter-specific tools. The Canvas tab on the controls gives you a great set of substrates to launch from. On the left is the full control set under Canvas, and on the right is the set of media you can emulate:

Using this, brush strokes or other effects and modifiers let your work take on a whole new look. For instance the pic on the left below is using the Oil Paint filter and has Canvas Thickness and Canvas Zoom set to 16 and 16 (yes, the picture above shows 20 and 21- please ignore); the one on the right has them cranked to 100:

Comparing the Photoshop filters and those in Snap Art 2 might not be fair as they are entirely different and, after all, there is a broader range of filters in Photoshop. Still, that the Alien Skin ones are so very usable and versatile, it’s nice to know what the extra expense is for. I'll trade having fewer filters for more power and utility any time.

Another couple of things to note are the Settings tab, which is really a styles or pre-sets tab (create your own, too), and a preferences setting that lets you either create a new layer for the filter’s output, or not … and I’ll stop there. A tool this feature-rich deserves a test drive. They have the typical 30-day trial version on their website and quite a few video tutorials and demo videos.

All-in-all, quite a delight to use and feature-packed enough to likely allow a user to get the effects they need in one pass. PS’s filters often require two or three passes to get the effect you want. While SA won’t completely eliminate that, it is likely to be a boon to anyone’s workflow.

Frank's Checklist:

Manufacturer: Alien Skin, http://www.alienskin.com

Pros: Wealth of features; good labels on controls; fast rendering; vast number of controls and modifications to each filter; flexible masking to limit the effects; multiple masks (Focus Regions) to create irregular shapes to apply filters.

Cons: At $199, it better be good (and it is). Says it requires CS3 or better, but it installed and worked fine on my CS2 – am I missing something (besides the latest version of PS)? Works with PS, Elements 4.01 Mac or Elements 6 PC, Fireworks CS4 (or later) and Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2  - sorry, no Beryl, Aperture, etc.

Format: Plug-ins for named programs.

Installation: Simple, quick, glitch-free.

Interface: Clean, simple and straightforward. Lots of adjustments possible and limitless variations to images.

Tools: See above.

Availability: Download from  Alien Skin software or through various retailers and online shops.

1-10 Ratings (10 is best):

Power - 9

Ease of Use - 9

Features - 9

Stability - 10

User rating: Amateur through Pro – there’s something for everyone here in an easy-to-use package. Safe to recommend to a friend, and highly recommended at that.