Alien Skin Does it again! Another killer Photoshop Filter Application! Well, outside of the name, which to me, really doesn’t fit the quality of this fine plug-in for Photoshop, this is one fine combination of frames, textures, edges, borders, and mosaics. I must admit that for the longest time I have been looking for refined borders for some of my digital pictures, and I could not be happier with what is provided by, dare I say it, Splat. The name sounds like a cheap little program for kids, but it is far from it. I wonder if Alien Skin, the producers of Splat would mind me renaming the program to some other name for this review? … Border Magic or ….oh never mind, but mind you here is a refined program with lousy name… The filters for this program are excellent.
Here are the choices of filters as they are placed in Photoshop: I particularly like the frame filter, which places very distinguished wooden frames of the type you buy for quite a bit of money in a very good frame shop, on your graphic or photo. Choosing from a frame below, of which there are quite ample choice after seeing a sample below: Here are some samples of the different choices of frames, and note their elegance: You then bring the frame into a preview box where you have a smaller view of the graphic you wish to place a frame around. You can make the frame just about any size you wish, and the thumbnail image above the preview window allows you to move the preview anywhere in your image with a single click.
The movable red box displays the area of your image visible in the preview window: Here is the finished result around an old icon: Another of the filters is the border stamp. Note the varied choices that you have and as in the frames, you can preview the border: Then in the preview window, you can view the stamp you have chosen and manipulate it with a great deal of flexibility to give a rim of flowers around a picture: Another filter is the fill stamp. Using the same principle, instead of placing flowers around the border of a picture, you can place them all over the picture. As with the other filters, there are plenty of choices for various themes: The patchwork filter allows for various forms of cross-stitching to be added to a picture, giving the feeling that it was hand sown: The final filter is the resurface filter, again with many variations, but with the definite result that you can change the texture of the photograph: And again, here is the result:
This is an excellent set of filters, very flexible, and you can achieve quite dramatic results from the use of the filter with your photos and graphics. I highly recommend this program.
- None Photoshop 5.0 or later
(You can save Frame and Stamp Files in Photoshop 6.0 or later)
- None Paint Shop Pro 5.0 or later
(You can use Paint Shop Pro Picture Tubes from Version 6.0 and later)
- None At least 32 Megabytes or greater of physical RAM
- None At least 50 MB of free space on hard drive. The full installation requires 300 MB Splat! is available directly from Alien Skin Software for US$99. The sidegrade price for registered users of Eye Candy 4000, Xenofex, and/or Eye Candy for After Effects is US$69. Splat! is available worldwide through normal distribution channels and academic pricing is available as well
An excellent way to set new standards in the photoshop venture because both Xenofex and After Effects come at a reasonable price as $69 is quite ok when it comes to professional ventures and photoshop cs6 mac is the latest one to establish its credentials in the market in a big time way without being too difficult to understand.
