As I said earlier, some filters are included with Paint Shop Pro, and others are available from third parties. Most, if not all, of the companies that write plug-ins are on the Web, and some offer free demos of their plug-ins. Plug-ins range from free (or nearly free) to shareware (priced from $15 to $25) to commercial products (priced from $50 to $200 or more). The Web addresses of several companies mentioned in this chapter follow: -
Alien Skin at http://www.alienskin.com. Alien Skin makes the very popular Eye Candy plug-in. -
Auto F/X at http://www.autofx.com. Auto F/X makes plug-ins such as Page Edges, Photo/Graphic Edges, Typo/Graphic Edges, The Ultimate Texture Collection, and more. -
Flaming Pear at http://www.flamingpear.com/. Flaming Pear is the creator of BladePro, a relatively new but increasingly popular plug-in that enables you to add textures and bevels to objects. -
MetaCreations at http:www.metacreations.com. MetaCreations, widely known for its 2D and 3D imaging products, also produces Kai's Power Tools (KPT). KPT is a collection of awesome filters that enable you to create gradients and textures and manipulate images. -
Wacom at http://www.wacom.com. If you're lucky enough to own a Wacom graphics tablet, you should also have a copy of PenTools. This product, which ships with every tablet from Wacom , offers a collection of cool effects that work with your pen and tablet. I won't cover all the filters available on the market (there are just too many, with more coming to market weekly, it seems). Whole books could be written on the subject. I won't even cover each separate filter in any given package (again, there are just too many). However, I will show you some of my favorites, give you an idea of how to use them, and suggest what you can accomplish with them. |