By Prince McLean and Kasper Jade at AppleInsider. Not much news on After Effects yet, but we're keeping an eye out!
"The fifth major release of Adobe's Creative Suite package (CS5) for graphic, video and web design professionals will finally see Photoshop for Mac emerge as a 64-bit application while several of suite's other component applications adopt Flash tie-ins aimed at keeping content developers reliant on the company's embattled multimedia platform."
Creativepro.com gives Alien Skin Software's Eye Candy 6 for Photoshop a 9.5 out of 10 rating!
"Eye Candy 6, the latest collection of real-world filters from Alien Skin, lets you produce a huge range of natural and man-made textures and effects quickly and easily. From glistening chrome to realistic fire and smoke, from animal fur to snow and icicles, Eye Candy makes the process both fast and enjoyable."
Sale Pricing (Note: Prices have been revised to reflect 30% discount)
Tiffen Dfx Digital Filter Suite for AE, FCP, or Avid - $419.97 (reg. $599.95) Hosts to choose from: After Effects v2, Final Cut Pro v2, Avid Editing Systems
Tiffen Dfx Plug-in for Photoshop or Aperture - $209.97 (reg. $299.95) Hosts to choose from: Photoshop v2, Apple Aperture v2
Digital Anarchy ToonIt v2.5.1 for Photoshop. is out this week. This is a free update for existing users, just download the demo. It should recognize your serial number. ToonIt v2.5 had a bug so please update asap.
There are new outlines styles, more presets, and an improved UI so you can work faster.
ToonIt for Photoshop is also on Sale through Feb 7th, 2010. Get it for just $99, regularly $159!
Digital Anarchy Releases a Free, Feature Filled Update to ToonIt! Photo for Photoshop, Elements & Aperture
Version 2.5 Adds New Outline Styles, SuperSmart Blur Option, and Interface Improvements to Popular Cartooning Software
San Francisco, CA - January 13, 2010 -
Digital Anarchy, a leading provider of cost-effective software for photographers and Photoshop artists, today announced a free update to their popular ToonIt! Photo plugin. ToonIt! 2.5 creates cartoon-like images from photographs, freeing artists from time consuming techniques such as hand painting and masking. A believable cel-shaded 'toon' effect is automatic, and users have a great deal of control to customize the cartoon with different paint styles, shading and outlines.
The feature-packed 2.5 update expands ToonIt!'s cartoon outline effect with three new styles: Woodcut Outlines, Conte Outlines and Scratchboard Outlines. A new option called Supersmart Blur has been added for more stylization of the cartoon color fields. ToonIt 2.5 has an improved interface with its controls rearranged into more intuitive groups. Minor UI elements for workflow improvement have also been added.
"We are very proud of the reception that ToonIt! has found in the Photoshop and photography market," said Jim Tierney, president of Digital Anarchy. "We feel it's a great product but there were some additional features that we had wanted to add before ToonIt! 2.0 was released in December 2008. A year later, we have completed those features and are happy to give them to folks who already own the product, as well as ship an improved product."
New & Improved Features for ToonIt! 2.5 include:
New Outline Effects: Woodcut Outlines, Conte Outlines and Scratchboard Outlines provide three new options for stylizing the line quality of the cartoon.
New Color Blur Option: The new Supersmart Blur has been added for more stylization options of the cartoon color fields.
Improved Interface: The ToonIt! interface has been rearranged with its controls placed into more intuitive groups for a better workflow.
Toggled Preview: A Caps Lock disable command gives the option of turning on/off the ToonIt! preview, which makes the design process faster.
New Cartoon Presets: The Preset Manager now ships with more cartoon presets to make the tooning process fun and easy.
About Digital Anarchy
Digital Anarchy is a privately owned company operating out of San Francisco, Calif., that creates high-quality creative software for broadcast designers, 2D animators and professional photographers. These tools solve a wide range of design issues, from creating background design elements to masking out bluescreens for commercial still photography. Digital Anarchy products work in conjunction with host applications from companies like Adobe and Apple. For more information, please see the company’s website at www.digitalanarchy.com or call 415-586-8434.
Digital Anarchy is a registered trademark of Digital Anarchy Inc. All other brand names, product names, service marks, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.
New version of award-winning software suite offers six essential tools that help photographers achieve better results faster, now includes new presets and frames from National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) instructors
Portland, OR - onOne Software, Inc., a leading developer of innovative, time-saving solutions for professional and advanced amateur photographers, today announced the immediate availability of Plug-in Suite 5 for Adobe Photoshop. Designed to solve the most common problems facing photographers in the areas of color correction, enlarging, masking and professional photographic effects, the Plug-in Suite 5 combines full versions of six essential software tools in one affordable package: FocalPoint 2, PhotoTune 3, PhotoFrame 4.5 Professional Edition, PhotoTools 2.5 Professional Edition, Genuine Fractals 6 Professional Edition and MaskPro 4.
With support for Photoshop CS2, CS3 and CS4 the onOne Software Plug-in Suite 5 now includes the new onOne Panel which provides quick access to all products, Windows 64 bit support and the ability to access select plug-ins from within Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 and Apple Aperture 2.1. Plug-in Suite 5 is available for electronic download immediately and physical boxed copies will be shipping by December 5, 2009.
"We are excited to announce the immediate availability of Plug-in Suite 5, our biggest product update and release in over 4 years," said Craig Keudell, president of onOne Software. "This release is the culmination of working closely with both professional and enthusiast photographers to ensure that Plug-in Suite 5 continues to solve the most common problems they face by providing high quality, easy to use products at an incredible value. We are particularly pleased about partnering with NAPP to include content from some of the biggest names in the Photoshop community."
Plug-in Suite 5 includes full versions of the following onOne Software products:
FocalPoint 2 - Like bringing the camera lens inside Photoshop, this new version of FocalPoint 2 gives photographers the best way to add the most realistic depth of field and selective focus control to any image after it is photographed. Photographers now have an incredible amount of flexibility and control over the look of the blur with FocalPoint 2's new blur algorithm, FocusBrush, Lens Presets, featuring 18 from Rafael Concepcion from NAPP, and multiple FocusBug features.
PhotoTune 3 - Getting great color doesn’t have to be so hard. This new ver'sion of PhotoTune 3 uses patented eye-fidelityTM technology, originally developed by and licensed from imsense to optimize the dynamic range, color and sharpness of images so that they look more true-to-life. The improved Wizard offers fast color and tone correction in as little as two steps while giving pro users direct access to advanced and innovative controls. SkinTune, which represents two years of research and analysis of thousands of skin tones, now offers one-click color correction of portraits and the option to correct just the skin in an image.
PhotoFrame 4.5 Professional Edition - With PhotoFrame 4.5, you can add the perfect finishing touch to your images with over 100 exciting new professionally designed frames, backgrounds, textures and layouts, featuring content from NAPP’s Cory Barker and professional photographer Kersti Malvre. With one thousand design elements like film edges, borders, textures, backgrounds and adornments, PhotoFrame 4.5 Professional Edition even has complete layouts where users can simply drop an image in and they are done. It is the easiest and fastest way to add an authentic darkroom touch with a film edge or to create beautiful albums or scrapbook pages.
PhotoTools 2.5 Professional Edition - PhotoTools 2.5 is the highly acclaimed Photoshop plug-in that allows photographers of all skill levels to maximize the full power of Photoshop with it’s ability to preview and combine Photoshop Actions in a single, intuitive interface. Designed by photographers for photographers, PhotoTools 2.5 Professional now includes a new MaskingBug control based on the FocusBug control from the award-winning FocalPoint plug-in. The new MaskingBug allows photographers to create high-quality masks to selectively apply effects to images. With over 30 new creative effects, including presets from NAPP's Rafael Concepcion, for a total effect library of 280, photographers can easily find, combine and save the results to create images that truly stand out.
Genuine Fractals 6 Professional Edition - The industry standard for enlarging photos, Genuine Fractals 6 enlarges images up to 1,000% while maintaining sharp edges and important image details. Genuine Fractals 6 now includes an automated gallery wrap feature and output options for tiling an enlarged photo. No other resizing plug-in is as widely used by more professionals than Genuine Fractals.
MaskPro 4 - For those times when you need to extract a subject from a photo, Mask Pro 4 uses a color-based method that allows users to easily remove unwanted backgrounds from your photos. Mask Pro’s unique Color Decontamination technology allows users to get realistic results by maintaining transparency in hard to mask objects like hair, smoke and glass in a fraction of the time using traditional tools.
Availability
The new Plug-in Suite 5 is available now to new users for $599.95 and to existing users of previous versions of the Plug-in Suite for $199.95. Purchased separately the products would normally cost $1,300. Customers who own any one or more of the products in Plug-in 5 will be able to upgrade as well by visiting http://www.ononesoftware.com/upgrade/. For more information on the Plug-in Suite 5, please visit http://www.ononesoftware.com/.
About onOne Software
onOne Software, Inc. a leading developer of innovative software tools for photographers, develops time-saving software solutions for professional and advanced amateur photographers. onOne Software solutions have been created to help photographers spend more of their time behind the camera taking pictures instead of the computer workstation. Such solutions include a wide range of easy-to-use plug-in enhancements for Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Photoshop Lightroom, Apple Aperture, Apple iPhoto and iPhone applications. Founded in 2005, onOne Software is a privately held company located in Portland, Oregon. For additional information, visit http://www.ononesoftware.com/ or call 1-888-968-1468.
Sale Pricing (Note: Prices have been revised to reflect 30% discount)
Tiffen Dfx Digital Filter Suite for AE, FCP, or Avid - $419.97 (reg. $599.95) Hosts to choose from: After Effects v2, Final Cut Pro v2, Avid Editing Systems
Tiffen Dfx Plug-in for Photoshop or Aperture - $209.97 (reg. $299.95) Hosts to choose from: Photoshop v2, Apple Aperture v2
Topaz ReMask for Photoshop is specifically engineered to supercharge the masking and extraction workflow for photographers and designers within Photoshop. Other masking tools - both within Photoshop and other third party filters - require intricate brushing, sampling, and refining for a detailed mask. Topaz ReMask, on the other hand, does all the heavy lifting while requiring a minimum of user input.
Speed! Topaz ReMask is much faster at extracting even complex subjects than any other method currently available. This is partly because there's only a small amount of required user input, but mostly because its technology is so adept at creating masks automatically.
Just exactly how fast is Topaz ReMask at masking? Take a look:
Accuracy! The hardest subjects for masking tools are those with complex backgrounds, faint edges, and fine detail like fur or hair. The unique algorithm that Topaz ReMask uses specialize in extracting "difficult" subjects without spending all day doing it.
Workflow! Topaz ReMask flawlessly integrates into a Photoshop workflow because it doesn't make a trip to an external app - there isn't even a new user interface to learn! It works immediately on the layer mask directly within Photoshop. This reduces the learning curve and saves processing time, which is part of what makes it so fast and simple to use.
Topaz ReMask only exists because of very recent developments in image extraction techniques.
Like many Topaz products, Topaz ReMask's capabilities are only made possible through the very latest developments in image enhancement technology. A masking tool like Topaz ReMask would be literally impossible back in 2007, for instance.
ReMask works by analyzing the information in the user-created tri-map and comparing it to the original image to accurately determine what to keep and what to remove in the image.
Topaz DeJPEG is the best way to enhance JPEG picture quality by eliminating JPEG artifacts, fuzziness, and image blur. The intuitive but powerful tools in Topaz DeJPEG ensures that each JPEG image looks as good as it can possibly be. Now it is included in the Topaz Photoshop Bundle. It's a $270 value but you can get it for just $149.99!
Alien Skin Software just released a free update that packs a bunch of new features into Blow Up 2. Don't be fooled by the tiny version number 2.0.3 because there is juicy stuff in there. Go to the Blow Up 2.0.3 update web page to download it.
Blow Up now appears in the Filter menu. An even easier way to start it is through the slick new Photoshop CS4 Startup Panel. The panel resizes your image to standard paper sizes with a single click, including ISO sizes like A4. There is a new performance slider in the preferences panel for optimizing Blow Up for processing speed or memory use.
Blow Up 2.0.3 also installs a Gallery Wrap Panel for Photoshop CS4. Although this panel is installed with Blow Up, it does not rely on Blow Up to work. So, even if you don't intend to use Blow Up, you can install it and then just use the free Gallery Wrap Panel.
Lightroom 2.5 and Camera Raw 5.5 are now available on Adobe.com and through the updaters in Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2 (choose Help->Updates).
Camera Raw 5.5 replaces the original one that was installed with Adobe Photoshop CS4; Adobe Photoshop Elements 7; and Adobe Premiere Elements 7 software. Visit the Camera Raw page for a complete list of supported cameras.
Lightroom 2.5 update includes additional camera support for several new camera models including the Nikon D3000 and Olympus E-P1 as well as several fixes for issues introduced by previous Lightroom 2 releases. Buy Lightroom 2.5 here
New Software Effectively Utilizes both Lightroom Edit-In and Export Features,Rounds out Support for Leading Image Editing and Workflow Applications
Alexandria, VA, August 27, 2009. Imagenomic announced today the release of Portraiture 2 for Adobe Lightroom. This latest Portraiture 2 product edition from Imagenomic delivers all of the productivity benefits of fast and accurate skin retouching to the Lightroom user community, and complements earlier introductions of Portraiture 2 for Adobe Photoshop and Apple Aperture.
Portraiture 2 versions for Lightroom include native 32 and 64-bit support for Windows Vista, and support for the latest Mac Intel platforms and OSX releases for Apple computers. All of the familiar features and controls that have made Portraiture 2 popular with Photoshop and Aperture users are now available in the new Lightroom edition. Lightroom users also benefit from two Portraiture workflow usage modes, using both the Edit In and Export techniques for individual and batch image editing and processing.
“Lightroom users make up an important part of our customer community, and this latest version of Portraiture 2 is designed to meet their demands and expectations,” says David McDonell, CEO of Imagenomic. “We have spent considerable time and effort to ensure that Portraiture 2 works seamlessly within the Lightroom workflow, and that it conforms to our highest technical and performance benchmarks for all Imagenomic products; this latest release meets these stringent criteria and we anticipate that the Lightroom community will agree," McDonell added.
This latest Portraiture 2 edition is available for immediate use on a free, 15-day trial basis from the company's website. For new customers, the Lightroom edition is available for purchase at $199.95. For registered users of Portraiture 2 for Photoshop or Aperture, the Lightroom edition is available at the discounted price of $99.95. See www.imagenomic.com for additional details.
Imagenomic is honored to announce that Portraiture 2 has been recognized by American PHOTO magazine with a 2009 Editor's Choice Award in their July/August issue. You can read more about what the editor's had to say about the software by visiting www.imagenomic.com to find the link to American PHOTO online. About Imagenomic Imagenomic is the creator of the award-winning Noiseware, Portraiture and RealGrain software product series for digital photography. Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, Imagenomic LLC is a privately held, independent software vendor specializing in digital imagery enhancement solutions.
Using our proprietary, patent-pending algorithms, the company is focused on creating high performance software tools for retouching, noise and artifact removal, sharpening and other image correction and enhancement processes. Imagenomic's products have been acclaimed by a global customer community and industry peers for their superior processing speed, picture quality and overall ease-of-use. For more information, visit us online at www.imagenomic.com
Topaz Detail manipulates image detail and sharpness without creating any edge artifacts. Sharpen without oversharpening, accentuate details without increasing noise, and add dynamism to photos without making them look fake.
Truly artifact-free edge manipulation has only been made possible by some very recent advances in image processing. All other sharpening and detail manipulation techniques up until this point either produce edge halos or drastically increase the noise levels in the image. Topaz Detail does neither, which makes it perfectly suited for stunning but completely natural image enhancement.
Push details and sharpness as much or as little as you like with Topaz Detail because it's the first detail manipulation product available that don't create halos or other artifacts. This unique trait makes Topaz Detail ideal for sharpening purposes and for naturally accenting photo detail. Most photographers find that their shots look crisper and richer with the greater feature definition and depth that Topaz Detail brings. For example, Topaz Detail especially shines on features like mountains, buildings, and wedding dresses.
The great thing about this filter is that now enhancing detail and image clarity no longer means sacrificing realism. Give your photography that elusive extra "pop" easily and naturally with Topaz Detail.
Cartoon Bubble is designed to create basic speech bubbles to go along with ToonIt Photo or any time you need to make your photos talk! It creates simple ellipse and rectangular speech bubbles that can be any size. You can adjust colors, fonts, outline thickness, and position. It's a great way to make your ToonIt images start speaking.
You don't need to be an owner of ToonIt, anyone can download it free and use it. It works on Windows and Mac and any recent version of Photoshop. Click here to go to the download page:
Grant Friedman at the Colorburned site has been kind enough to share these awesome looking Photoshop brush textures, great for grunge looks. Check them out!
Topaz DeNoise v3 brings noise reduction to a whole new level in Photoshop with a unique algorithm that specifically focuses on eliminating noise while optimally preserving detail.
Existing Topaz DeNoise 2 customers can receive their free Topaz DeNoise 3 upgrade on our downloads page, which will provide a new installation and key.
Topaz DeNoise 3 takes a completely new approach to noise reduction that is different from any other method currently available. The underlying algorithm behind DeNoise 3 examines the entire photo when processing and can therefore eliminate noise while preserving and even enhancing important image features- unlike other software which may often blur and soften detail. Topaz DeNoise 3 also includes highly effective color noise handling.
Many photographers find Topaz DeNoise 3s superior noise reduction and detail preservation invaluable to take full advantage of their camera's potential. Focus on the photography and let Topaz DeNoise's advanced algorithms handle the noise issues.
Topaz Clean v2 is a new Photoshop plug-in from Topaz Labs that combines feature-preserving smoothing, edge smoothing, and texture control into one filter designed to provide refinable artistic image manipulation.
A longtime well-respected member of the DPReview Retouching forum, artist Kent Christiansen finds the texture and edge accentuation features in Topaz Clean particularly interesting:
The first image depicts the original photo taken by photographer vidal. The second image was created by Kent using the SkinEven preset in Clean 2. Notice that while the distracting blemishes are completely removed, the minute skin detail is well-preserved. The third image was stylized using Kent's own AnimeSim preset. In his words, "Clean 2 has a variety of effects. The 'skineven' preset can be used as a one click fix but the sliders allow maximum flexibility from the original look to 'high fashion' and everything in between."
Like most other Topaz filters, Topaz Clean 2 is applicable in a variety of creative ways.
Alien Skin Snap Art 2 s a Photoshop plug-in that turns your photography into beautiful works of art with a single click. Forget about buying a pen tablet and taking classes to learn how to use complicated painting software. Snap Art does all the hard work of rendering thousands brush strokes to gives results that are indistinguishable from handmade art.
The Power of Film and TV Design is Now Available for Photoshop Artists and Photographers
San Francisco - April 7, 2009 - Digital Anarchy, a leading provider of cost-effective special effects software for Adobe and Apple products, has released today announced the release of a popular 3D design tool for use in Adobe Photoshop. Co-developed with Zaxwerks Inc, 3D Invigorator for Photoshop allows artists to easily create incredibly complex 3D objects, logos and text.
"The product has long been known as the best 3D title creator and logo modeler for any 2D visual designer or special effects artist," said Zax Dow, president of Zaxwerks. "I have wanted to offer this kind of control to the Photoshop community for a long time, and Digital Anarchy is the company to do this for us."
Already known as the industry standard software for creating 3D text and logos in film and television, 3D Invigorator starts with Adobe Illustrator outlines or text generated within Photoshop, gives the object depth, and then sculpts the graphic into a 3D masterpiece. Photoshop artists can use the vector tools in Invigorator for real-time changes to their 3D objects. They can also access its built-in text engine to transform True Type and Type 1 fonts, and take advantage of Photoshop features like Smart Objects and Smart Filters.
"3D Invigorator has been a must-have tool for Film and Television designers for years." said Jim Tierney, president of Digital Anarchy. "We think Photoshop designers will find it opens up a whole new world of creating 3D text and objects."
The practical and creative features of 3D Invigorator include:
3D Text Creation: Use the built-in text designer to create beautiful 3D text objects.
Sculpted 3D Edges: Sculpted edges add important details to 3D objects. Get complete control over how the 3D text or objects extrude and what their edges look like.
Import Illustrator Files: Any Illustrator file can be extruded into complex 3D shapes for an easy way to start the design.
Rendering Styles: Create different looks with a wide variety of rendering styles, including wireframe, cartoon, flat shading, and raytracing.
Full 3D Environment: Rotate the Objects and Camera in 3D space to view the 3D design from any angle, or move individual elements into new arrangements.
Material Presets: Over 100 different material presets give easy options such as gold, chrome, glass, lacquer and puffy surfaces.
Material Creation: If the presets don't provide the desired effect, users can design their own materials using the built-in tools or by importing custom files.
Custom Lighting: Lights can be aimed in any 3D direction for creative flexibility. Create custom lighting like an art deco style, mood lighting, rim lights, high keys or color washes.
Pricing & Availability
3D Invigorator for Photoshop is regularly priced at USD $199, and will be available for an introductory discount of $149 through April 30, 2009. The product works in Photoshop CS2 and higher, although CS3 or CS4 are recommended for use. 3D Invigorator runs supports on Macintosh OS 10.3.9 and higher, and runs natively on Intel Macs and PPCs. The product supports Windows 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, Vista 32-bit and Vista 64-bit systems. Demo filters and samples are available at www.digitalanarchy.com.
About Digital Anarchy
Digital Anarchy is a privately owned company in San Francisco that creates high-quality creative software for professional photographers, Photoshop artists and graphic designers. Since 2001, our tools have solved a wide range of design issues, from masking out bluescreens for commercial still photography to generating custom lighting effects. Digital Anarchy products work in conjunction with Adobe Photoshop, PS Elements, and related design applications. For more information, please see the company's website at www.digitalanarchy.com or call 415-586-8434.
About Zaxwerks
As the world's leading innovator of 3D title and logo technology, Zaxwerks develops software for the digital video, broadcast, film, web and print markets. Customers include ABC, Firestone, Dallas Cowboys Football, TBS SuperStation, Fox Sports, Tech TV, Pixar, Bank of America and many other post production facilities and TV stations around the world. Zaxwerks is a privately held software company with headquarters in Temple City, California.
Oak Park, CA March 31, 2009 - Digital Film Tools releases zMatte v3, a full featured blue and green screen keyer for Adobe After Effects and Photoshop, Apple Final Cut Pro and Avid Editing Systems.
zMatte is a full-featured keyer that is the result of our experience in creating countless successful blue and green screen composites. Using proprietary matte extraction techniques, zMatte quickly and simply creates mattes with minimal parameters even if you are dealing with fine hair detail, smoke, or reflections. It is easy to use, yet provides the needed tools when faced with good, bad, or ugly shots -- tools such as multiple matte creation, automatic spill suppression, sophisticated matte and edge manipulation, and color correction.
zMatte includes a complete set of keying plug-ins comprised of: Color Suppress for removing blue or green spill light; DeArtifact to clean up compression artifacts in DV and HD footage; Edge Composite to color correct, blur or mix only the edge of the key; Framer Averager for smoothing out film grain and video noise; Holdout Composite to matte the usually problematic smoke, fire and explosions; the zMatte Keyer to handle the heavy keying tasks; Light Wrap to bring background color into the foreground element; a Matte Generator used to key images not meant to be keyed; Matte Repair to fix common matte problems; Matte Wrap for retaining the definition of the matte edges while creating a smooth blend of transparency starting at the edge of the matte changing to fully opaque moving inward; and Screen Smoother to smooth out unevenly lit blue and green screens.
Digital Film Tools brings together the unbeatable combination of superior software designers, motion picture visual effects veterans, video editors and photographers. Add three Emmy Awards and experience in creating visual effects for hundreds of feature films, commercials and television shows and you have a recipe for success. Created for rigorous production demands by digital artists for digital artists, zMatte is available for download or purchase at:
Lisbon, Portugal - March 12, 2009 - FaronStudio has launched PixPlant, a new texturing tool that creates high quality seamless 3D textures from plain photos.
Starting from a photo, PixPlant creates a seamless texture and then generates high quality normal, displacement and specular maps which can be fine tuned in an interactive 3D preview.
Because it works from plain photos, PixPlant adds an unlimited choice of realistic textures for 3D projects: users can pick an interesting real world image, run PixPlant and get a perfect seamless 3D texture in a few clicks.
Available in standalone and Photoshop plug-in versions, PixPlant reduces to almost zero the time and repetitive work of preparing tiling 3D textures and backgrounds. With PixPlant photos can quickly be turned into usable 3D textures, adding realism, variety and value to 3D projects.
PixPlant includes the following benefits for 3D visualization, architecture and games:
Quickly create unique seamless 3D textures, horizontally and/or vertically tiled.
Based on real-life photos, PixPlant generates realistic textures without the complication of procedural texture generation tools.
Generate and fine tune normal, displacement and specular maps for highly realistic 3D texturing. source: FPR
"We're very pleased with PixPlant's new capability of crafting seamless 3D textures from almost any photo in a few clicks." - said Jorge Diogo, FaronStudio's Director. "PixPlant has the potential to save a lot of time on any project that includes 3D texturing."
PixPlant is available now for Windows (Mac version available soon) as standalone and Photoshop plug-in.
Plug Into Your Creative Layer With Swift 3D PS plug-in for Photoshop CS4. It accomplishes simple 3D tasks in seconds with remarkable results and places your 3D text, extrusions or models back into Photoshop as 3D layers for further manipulation with their toolset and filters.
Swift 3D PS is a fun and easy-to-use Photoshop plug-in that will have you exploring entirely new hemispheres of Photoshop CS4 Extended. It accomplishes simple 3D tasks in seconds with remarkable results and places your 3D text, extrusions or models back into Photoshop as 3D layers. These layers remain fully editable by Swift 3D PS, even after Photoshop's array of layer styles and filters are applied. Swift 3D PS offers the same powerful capabilities of our standalone product, but works within the confines of the Photoshop environment.
Swift 3D PS introduces a very simple but extremely powerful Boolean primitive to our modeler, which allows you to combine or punch holes through objects using other 3D objects in your scene. It's all non-destructive, allowing easy editing and unlimited possibilities!
On March 26th & 27th, Photoshop World at Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA, is open to the public. Mingle with the biggest names in the industry and see the newest in Photoshop-related technology! Sign up for a free Expo pass (valued at $20 per person) at Photoshopworld.com.
We're a bit blown away by the great response we've had on the $99 or less plug-ins, so we decided to wander off the path of video plug-ins and add some Photoshop and Aperture Plug-ins to the section. Check out plug-ins from Alien Skin, Digital Film Tools, Frischluft, META/DMA, Luxology, XAOS and more!
New Filters for Apples Aperture Allow Photographers To Add Lighting and Cartoon Effects to Their Images
San Francisco, CA - February 4, 2009 - Digital Anarchy, a leading provider of cost-effective special effects software for Adobe and Apple products, today announced the release of two software products for use in Apple's Aperture. Knoll Light Factory generates lighting effects that dramatically enhance the natural or man-made lighting in photographs. ToonIt! Photo creates cartoon-like images from photographs, freeing artists from time consuming techniques such as hand painting and masking. Both products are currently available for Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.
"Customers have responded tremendously to our Photoshop plugins and asked if they could get the same functionality for Aperture," said Jim Tierney, president of Digital Anarchy. "This release gives photographers and digital artists a great way of working with images that theyre managing in the Aperture environment.
Aperture gives photographers the ability to manage large groups of images and work with RAW files. By using image processing filters like ToonIt and Knoll Light Factory directly in this environment, it is easy to design with multiple images and compare the results side by side. The Aperture workflow can be a huge time saver when dealing with Digital Anarchy effects and empowers photographers by giving them complete creative control.
Knoll Light Factory is a powerful tool for enhancing stock photos, wedding/portrait photography, and landscape photography. The plugin creates extremely realistic lens flares and other lighting effects, including sun rays, street lamps, headlights, candle flames, light rays, and glows. These lighting elements and vibrant graphic effects are not available natively in Aperture, and go far beyond the standard lens flare found in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Light Factory has been used in many feature films and television shows, and was originally written by John Knoll, Academy Award winning Visual Effects Supervisor at Industrial Light and Magic, to create the Photon Torpedoes in Star Trek First Contact.
ToonIt! Photo analyzes photographs and then creates flat regions of color and outlines that produce a cel-shaded cartoon look. A believable toon effect is almost automatic, and Aperture users have a great deal of control to customize the cartoon with different paint styles, shading and outlines. One of the key features of ToonIt! is its ability to translate the details of the human face and form into a believable cartoon. This process is great for turning a sequence of photographs into a graphic novel or cartoon sequence with very little work involved.
The products are available for Aperture 2.0 and higher. Both products run on Macintosh OS 10.4, 10.5 and higher, and are native to both Intel and PPC systems. Aperture is a Mac-only application. For Windows/Vista use, Knoll Light Factory and ToonIt! are available as separate products for Adobe Photoshop.
About Digital Anarchy
Digital Anarchy is a privately owned company in San Francisco that creates high-quality creative software for professional photographers, Photoshop artists and graphic designers. Since 2001, our tools have solved a wide range of design issues, from masking out bluescreens for commercial still photography to generating custom lighting effects. Digital Anarchy products work in conjunction with Adobe Photoshop, PS Elements, and related design applications. For more information, please see the company's website at www.digitalanarchy.com or call 415-586-8434.
Now I know this would not affect any of our customers, but maybe you know someone who might be using cracked software. Do them a favor and send them here.
Adobe Photoshop Plugin is Essential and Fun for Creating Believable Cartoons From Photographic Images
San Francisco, CA - December 9, 2008 - Digital Anarchy, a leading provider of cost-effective software for Adobe and Apple products, today announced the release of ToonIt! Photo 2.0 for Photoshop. ToonIt! reliably and easily creates cartoon-like images from photographs, freeing artists from time consuming techniques such as hand painting and masking. The filters use advanced algorithms from Toonamation Inc to create cartoon shading and outlines in Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.
ToonIt! for Photoshop analyzes photographs and then creates flat regions of color and outlines that produce a cel-shaded cartoon look. Photoshop users have a great deal of control that makes customizing the ‘toon' effect easy with different paint/toon styles, shading and outlines. The Effects Palette adds various special effects like outlines, enhanced shadows, color effects, and halftone effects. The Style Creator has 12 different algorithms that can be used to create the underlying cartoon or painterly style. A Preset Manager and Preview Window give further options to control the appearance and behavior of the cartoon.
Jim Tierney, CEO of Digital Anarchy, said, "ToonIt! has been incredibly popular for video applications. The photographers and print designers who've seen it have asked us repeatedly when it will be available for Photoshop. We're excited to finally release the product for still images because there's no better way of creating cartoon images."
One of the key features of ToonIt! is its ability to translate the details of the human face and form into a believable cartoon. People are typically most difficult to 'toon' because most people know what facial features and expressions should look like. ToonIt! is able to identify areas that should be shaded as one color and uses sophisticated edge detection to draw outlines. This creates very consistent, pleasing large features in the face and body while also retaining smaller details like hair and eyes. The filter allows photographers and designers to quickly create the effect on a wide variety of images without time consuming experimentation and masking.
Stan Schwartz, co-founder and President of Toonamation, said, "Since its initial release, ToonIt! has been well known for high quality cartoon effects. We've been working to extend its capabilities with a variety of new painted and graphic design effects that are equally visually compelling and that render just as cleanly as our originals. We're proud to offer to them you now, packaged together as Photoshop ToonIt!."
This product release follows the popularity of ToonIt! Video 1.0, a cartooning plugin set for video applications like After Effects and Final Cut Pro. While ToonIt! Video was sold to another development company in August 2008, the successful partnership between Digital Anarchy and Toonamation will continue to bring new and interesting products to the photography and graphics market.
Great features in ToonIt! Photo 2.0 include:
Beautiful Variety of Styles. Create a number of sophisticated looks including Flat Cartoon, Graphic Novel, Comic, and Pen & Ink using the 12 different algorithms and dozens of controls.
Outlines Only: Unparalleled edge detection creates stunning effects that simulate drawings, etchings, brush painting, and woodcuts.
No Hand Masking or Rotoscoping: Each toon effect is generated automatically. While there are customizable controls in the plugin, no manual work is needed to achieve desired results.
Customizable Looks: With 50+ parameters available to adjust the plugin results, there are many possible approaches to get the best result for different types of imagery.
64-bit Support: Works with Windows Vista 64-bit (Vista x64) and Photoshop CS4 64-bit.
Works In Most Photoshop Modes: Supports RGB, CMYK, and Grayscale in 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit.
Pricing & Availability
Regularly priced at USD $159, ToonIt! Photo 2.0 will be available for USD $129 through December 22, 2008. The filters work in Photoshop 7.0 and higher, including CS4 64-bit, and Photoshop Elements 5.0 and higher. ToonIt! for Photoshop supports Macintosh OS 10.3.9 and higher, and runs natively on Intel Macs and PPCs. The product supports Windows 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, Vista 32-bit and Vista 64-bit systems. Demo filters and samples are available at www.digitalanarchy.com.
About Digital Anarchy
Digital Anarchy is a privately owned company in San Francisco that creates high-quality creative software for professional photographers, Photoshop artists and graphic designers. Since 2001, our tools have solved a wide range of design issues, from masking out bluescreens for commercial still photography to generating custom lighting effects. Digital Anarchy products work in conjunction with Adobe Photoshop, PS Elements, and related design applications. For more information, please see the company's website at www.digitalanarchy.com or call 415-586-8434.
Adobe Labs posted a new item today, Configurator, which is a utility that enables the easy creation of panels (palettes) for use in Adobe Photoshop CS4. Sounds useful.
Digital Anarchy is fully focused on their Photoshop plug-ins and have some new tutorials on their site which use Knoll Light Factory for Photoshop.
Creating Volumetric Light (pops) - We all know the look of a beam of light bursting through the clouds or coming from the top of a dusty (and otherwise dark) cave. Usie Knoll Light Factory in conjunction with some of Photoshop's built-in filters to create this look very easily.
Blurring Elements (pops) - On high resolution images, Knoll's light flares sometimes show thin lines that don't look realistic. This tutorial talks about ways to deal with this problem and produce natural looking lens flares. This movie may take a few minutes to load.
The San Diego LightWave Users Group will have two exciting presentations this Saturday. The meeting will feature presenters Stephen Burns and Roger Cotton who will dedicate their presentations to the new features in Photoshop CS4 for the LightWave 3D artist.
One of the most significant upgrades in CS4 is its 3D engine. Come and see how the new 3D features will revolutionize your workflow when it comes to integrating your 3D LightWave object into Photoshop CS4 3D layers.
Furthermore, we will focus on creating and editing UV maps in LightWave by Roger Cotton. Come and discover the importance of using UV maps and how to effectively create them in LightWave to control the texturing of your model. Finally, Stephen Burns will present how effective Photoshop CS4 will utilize LightWave UV maps and allow you to edit them with all of Photoshop's traditional painting tools.
This is a not to miss meeting. Details on the location and time are as follows:
Date: Saturday November 15, 2008 Time: 11:00 am - 2:00 pm
Free Update of Knoll 3.0.2 is the First Digital Anarchy Product to be Released for Vista x64
San Francisco, CA - September 24th, 2008 - Digital Anarchy, known for its high quality creative software in the Photoshop market, today announced the full compatibility of their popular Knoll Light Factory plugin with Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Windows Vista 64-bit (x64). Photoshop CS4 64-bit is streamlined to take advantage of the faster performance and better memory handling that Vista x64 supports. Digital Anarchy’s Knoll plugin, which enhances the lighting in Photoshop images to produce dramatic or natural effects, takes advantage of that speed and performance increase with version 3.0.2.
Jim Tierney, president of Digital Anarchy, said, "Photoshop CS4 is a big release for Adobe and Vista x64 offers the potential for greatly accelerated performance. The performance bar keeps being raised with the ever increasing size of digital images and incredible but processor intensive new CS4 features like Smart Filters. Making certain that our entire product line for photo manipulation performs well in Photoshop CS4 has been an important priority for us."
Digital Anarchy's other Photoshop products have been fully tested to support Photoshop CS4 in both Mac and Windows 32-bit environments. These Digital Anarchy plugins will be updated for the Windows 64-bit environment in Q1 2009.
Knoll Light Factory 3.0.2 for Photoshop CS4
Improved performance: Version 3.0.2 supports 64-bit Windows (Vista x64).
Better usability: Version 3.0.2 has UI improvements and bug fixes.
Photo-realistic lighting effects: Used in films and TV to produce realistic lens flares and lights.
Real-Time Preview: The main Preview Window now supports real-time manipulation, as well as the ability to resize and zoom in/out.
100+ Light Presets: There are now 110 great starting places when looking for that special flare.
16-bit Color Support: Light effects now render out to higher bit depths, which reduces banding and outputs better looking glows and gradients.
Mac Intel compatible: Full support of all new operating systems.
All sales and support questions for Knoll Light Factory for Photoshop CS4 should be directed towards Digital Anarchy at digitalanarchy.com. All improvements, except Vista x64 support, are supported in Photoshop 7.0 and higher.
About Digital Anarchy
Digital Anarchy is a privately owned company in San Francisco that creates high-quality creative software for professional photographers, Photoshop artists and graphic designers. Since 2001, our tools have solved a wide range of design issues, from masking out bluescreens for commercial still photography to generating custom lighting effects. Digital Anarchy products work in conjunction with Adobe Photoshop, PS Elements, and related design applications. For more information, please see the company's website at www.digitalanarchy.com or call 415-586-8434.
Major improvements include Windows 64-bit Photoshop support, new presets, user interface improvements, and bug fixes
Topaz Adjust V2.5, the popular creative exposure Photoshop plug-in, has just been released for both Windows and Intel-based Mac. All Topaz Adjust customers are entitled to upgrade to this new version free of charge.
With this release Topaz addressed more major requests from users:
Included the newest 'Topaz DeNoise' technology to remove noise while maintaining details. It is especially useful when creating highly detailed images since noise also tends to be amplified in this case.
Improved adaptive exposure algorithm for more range of creative adjustment.
Included full support for Photoshop CS4 64-bit processing (64-bit Windows only) that will help when processing extremely large photographs. Added 'smart filter' functionality to support non-destructive editing.
Three new presets and better preset sharing. Each preset is now saved as a single file, which you can easily email and share with friends.
Improved usability and stability. For example, Topaz Adjust will now remember its size and location for the next time you call the filter. You can also now directly type in parameters instead of just dragging the sliders.
The Windows installer now automatically installs for Photoshop 7/CS/CS2/CS3/CS4 and Photoshop Elements 1 to 7. The Mac installer now automatically installs for Photoshop CS3, CS4, Elements 6 and Elements 7.
I've been away a lot lately, traveling and I did a brief stint in the hospital due to a ruptured appendix. Not fun, but while I was away, I've missed posting a few news items and tutorials. Here's a quick rundown Adobe news items, blog posts, tutorials, and more from the past couple of weeks. Enjoy.
Popular Image Processing Tool Boasts Up To 10X Faster Performance; Now Available as Standalone Version
San Mateo, Calif. - Oct. 6, 2008 - Luxology® LLC, an independent technology company developing modern 3D content creation software, today announced the immediate availability of imageSynthTM 2, the newest version its popular image processing tool. Featuring up to ten times faster performance, imageSynth 2 allows artists to quickly process existing images into new seamless textures, synthetic images and backgrounds, and generate super high-resolution images from low resolution sources. imageSynth 2 is now available in both a standalone version and as a plug-in for Adobe® Creative Suite® 4. For more information or to purchase please visit www.luxology.com/store/imageSynth.aspx.
"imageSynth has become a favorite plug-in for the Photoshop community due to its ease of use and the smooth - almost magical - results users get when processing input images," said Brad Peebler, president and co-founder of Luxology. "imageSynth 2 is a real workhorse - processing even print resolution images into new, tile-able images at amazing speed."
"Since its creation, there has been no substitute for imageSynth - it fills an essential need for game developers and DTP professionals alike," said Gary Bouton, noted PhotoShop author and artist. "There's no other Photoshop plug-in that even comes close for manually building high-resolution seamless tiling textures."
The imageSynth software allows users to quickly create a new synthetic image based on areas of interest that are identified in one or more source images. imageSynth can handle a wide range of image subjects, and is especially useful when working with ‘noisy’ images such as crowds or beach pebbles. The royalty-free images that imageSynth creates are unique derivations and will tile together seamlessly, making them ideal for use as backgrounds, brushes or texture maps.
New and improved features in imageSynth 2 include:
Native performance improvements will process images up to 10 times faster than previous version
New algorithm is threaded for use on dual-core systems
Improved memory management enables handling of larger scenes
New control over chunk size and orientation
Pricing and Availability
imageSynth 2 is available now for USD $99. Existing imageSynth users can upgrade for USD $49. imageSynth works with Adobe Photoshop CS3 or higher and also includes a new standalone version. imageSynth users are welcome to use it on both the PC and the Mac as needed. To view sample images created with imageSynth, please visit http://www.luxology.com/whatismodo/imageSynth/.
About Luxology
Based in San Mateo, Calif., Luxology® LLC is an independent technology company developing next-generation 3D content creation software that enhances productivity via designer-friendly tools powered by a modern underlying architecture known as Nexus®. Founded in 2002 by Allen Hastings, Stuart Ferguson and Brad Peebler, Luxology is home to some of the top 3D engineering expertise in the industry. More information on Luxology, its flagship product modo®, and a gallery of customer created images is available online at www.luxology.com.
Abalone FaceShop lets you rotate any face in Photoshop in real 3D! The FaceShop PS Plug-in can be used to alter angles of people's faces in photographs. It is easy to use, and does not require a long learning curve. This application may appeal to both graphic artists and amateurs who need to alter photographic images. Works with recent Photoshop editions, Elements or the new CS3.
Toolfarm has built the Adobe Creative Suite 4 Upgrade Mega-Matrix which makes it easy to find out which upgrades you need. There are a couple of upgrade paths for each product so we've made it simple and clear and all in one spot!
Are product names getting longer and longer every year or is it just me? :-)
Lightroom 2.1 is out but they would like that people continue to test it, so if you use it and find a bug, please help 'em out and post it to their User to User Forum. They've fixed several bugs and stability issues and added support for new cameras too.
Tiffen announces its Dfx version 2.0 Digital Filter Software
Now offers an incredible two thousand filters and effects!
Based on the success of its original award-winning Dfx Digital Filter software that revolutionized the digital filter market, Tiffen now introduces Dfx version 2.0.
Steven Tiffen, company CEO commented. "We are very excited about the release of Tiffen Dfx version 2.0. It affirms our on-going commitment to the software category, as we extend our reach into the digital imaging marketplace with innovative new products."
The new version now features multiple masking and layering capabilities with its Photoshop and Aperture plug-ins, previously only offered with the Stand-alone edition, plus more than 1,000 new filters and effects including: Ambient Light, Close Up Lens, Dot, Eye Light, Flag, Gobo, HFX® Star, Haze, High Contrast, Ice Halos, Rainbows, Sepia, Sky, Soft Contrast, Soft Light, Warm Center Spot, Warm Polarizer, Water Droplets, Wide Angle Lens and 812® Warming.
Professionals and enthusiasts alike can now choose from a palette of more than 2,000 standard, exclusive and special effect filters that simulate Tiffen's award-winning optical equivalents. These can all be quickly and easily customized, then saved to a filter library for later use. An exclusive new feature with Tiffen Dfx version 2.0 plug-ins for Photoshop/Elements and Aperture owners is multiple masking and multiple layering capabilities without having to exit the plug-in each time.
This revolutionary new feature, speeds workflow and extends the already incredible capabilities inherent with Dfx Digital Filter software.
Unlike other software that professes to offer you selection technology that is precise, our exclusive EZ Mask, one of seven mask types, allows users to create precise multiple masks with just a few quick strokes.
And, with our multiple layering, users can quickly and simply add multiple filters on a single Photoshop layer. In addition, filters and masks can be easily copied and moved between Dfx layers.
Creative control no one else can even come close to, and there's still more!
Tiffen Dfx version 2.0 now includes foreign language support for French, Spanish, German and Japanese in the Adobe Photoshop, Apple Aperture and Stand-alone editions.
Current owners of original Dfx editions will be able to upgrade to the corresponding Dfx version 2.0 edition and should visit the Tiffen website for complete details.
Cutting edge algorithm enlarges photos while keeping them clear and sharp. New user interface simplifies cropping and resizing. Batch processing saves huge amounts of time when working with large numbers of photos.
Raleigh, NC - August 29, 2008 - Alien Skin Software today announces the immediate availability of Blow Up® 2, the new version of its photo resizing plug-in for Adobe® Photoshop® and Photoshop Elements.
Blow Up 2 takes the complexity out of preparing photos for printing with a user interface that intelligently handles resizing, cropping, and sharpening. The sophisticated enlargement algorithm produces photos dramatically sharper and more detailed than any other method.
"Blow Up 2 makes even clearer enlargements now, but the biggest improvements are in ease of use," said Tom Welsh, designer and lead programmer of Blow Up 2. "We looked for tedious or confusing aspects of every stage of photo cropping and resizing and built intelligence into Blow Up 2 to take those hassles out of the photographer's hair. With the addition of presets, Smart Cropping, adaptive sharpening, and built-in batch processing, Blow Up 2 takes the pain out of high quality photo resizing."
Beauty The already crisp, clear output of Blow Up is even better now that it provides more control over simulated natural texture and film grain. These effects help to keep enlargements looking natural rather than computer generated. New controls that clean up JPEG compression artifacts and sharpen edges allow enlargement of low quality source images.
Brains Blow Up 2 has intelligence built into every feature, so photographers don't have to deal with most technical details. As a preset is chosen, Smart CroppingTM centers the crop area over the most interesting part of the photo, and Auto RotateTM adjusts the preset to match the orientation of the photo. Sharpening adapts to match the degree of enlargement and paper type.
Resizing With Less Hassle The most dramatic improvements to Blow Up 2 are in the new user interface that simplifies and speeds up all aspects of preparing photos for printing. Cropping and resizing at the same time are easily handled by presets for common output sizes. The Blow Up 2 built-in batch processing is an easy single step, which is more straightforward than Photoshop's usual multi-step procedure.
Technology Blow Up 2 takes advantage of multi-processor and multi-core systems to make rendering as fast as possible. Blow Up 2 can handle the most sophisticated images demanding professionals can throw at it, including CMYK color space, 32-bits/channel HDR images, and output up to 300,000 pixels on a side.
Pricing and Availability Blow Up 2 sells for $249 USD with an upgrade price of $99 USD for registered users of Blow Up 1. Online or physical delivery is available through the Alien Skin website at www.alienskin.com. A real live human (imagine that!) can take orders or answer questions at 888-921-SKIN (7546). Blow Up 2 is also available worldwide through stores, catalogs, and resellers. Free upgrades are available to purchasers of Blow Up 1 who purchased after July 26, 2008.
Host Requirements Blow Up 2 is a plug-in and will require one of the following: Adobe Photoshop CS2 9.0.2 or later, Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0.1 or later (Macintosh), or Adobe Photoshop Elements 5 or later (Windows).
System Requirements Microsoft Windows users must have at least a Pentium 4 processor or compatible and Windows XP or later. Apple Macintosh users must have a PowerPC G5 or Intel processor and Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later. A monitor with 1024x768 resolution or greater is required.
About Alien Skin Software Alien Skin Software makes Photoshop plug-ins for photographers and graphic designers. We distill advanced math and cutting edge research into simple tools that render beautiful pictures. Our reputation for bug-free software and fast, friendly tech support has grown worldwide since 1993. For more information, visit our website at www.alienskin.com.
Topaz Adjust is updated to v2.3, which fixes stability and preview speed issues.
Topaz Labs has just released a free update to Topaz Adjust, their Photoshop creative exposure plug-in. We've make it much more stable, snappier, and easier to work with. It also has four additional presets. Unfortunately only the Windows version has been updated, Mac users will have to wait another week. Get it here.
Among other things, the new Topaz Adjust substitutes a scaled-down image when zooming below 100% and automatically disables noise reduction. This helps to keep the memory usage lower and updating speed faster. Check the Release Note on the site for more details and other changes.
Also: for those of you who use Flickr: a user recently created a Topaz Adjust group for everyone to share photos, comments, and tips. Be sure to join if you use Topaz Adjust!
Sale of Video Products Allows Company to Fully Concentrate on Photoshop and Professional Photography Markets.
San Francisco, CA - August 4, 2008 - Digital Anarchy, known for its high quality creative software in both the broadcast and Photoshop markets, has announced today the sale of their full video product line to Red Giant Software. For seven years, Digital Anarchy has made a name for itself by delivering innovative software for visual effects, video editing and 2D animation in the film and television industry. Effective Monday, August 4th, the company will transfer sales and support of 12 plug-in products for host applications that include Adobe After Effects, Apple Final Cut Pro, Avid systems and Autodesk systems.
This asset sale will allow Digital Anarchy to focus on their other core market, Photoshop plug-ins for photographers and digital artists. Since 2004, the company has released tools that help professional and hobbyist photographers to uniquely create a fully digital portrait studio. The company has recently focused on software that provides custom graphic effects, and plans to release new innovative products by the beginning of Q4 2008. Digital Anarchy is also considering development for related host applications like Adobe Lightroom and Apple Aperture.
Jim Tierney, president of Digital Anarchy, said, "We have been a leader in the After Effects and related markets since 2001, but have decided to focus on the Photoshop and digital photography markets. We’re excited about some of the opportunities there and are looking closer at current customer needs. Developing more creative and productive technology to service the wide variety of Photoshop artists and digital photographers is an important part of our strategy moving forward. In making this decision, it was important that we find a company who would take excellent care of our current film/video customers, and we think Red Giant Software is that company."
Photoshop Products Kept; Video Products Sold.
The sale of its video products will not affect Digital Anarchy’s Photoshop customers. Digital Anarchy has retained its full Photoshop product line and will continue to provide the quality software and support that the company is known for. These Photoshop products are: Primate Chromakey, Backdrop Designer, Knoll Light Factory, and Texture Anarchy. All sales and support questions for Photoshop products should be directed towards Digital Anarchy at www.digitalanarchy.com.
Digital Anarchy has sold the following video products: 3D Assistants, Data Animator, Anarchy Toolbox, Geomancy, Psunami Water, Text Anarchy, ToonIt!, Microcosm, Color Theory, PlasmaFX, Chaos Stock and Knoll Spark Pack. Already a recognized video plug-in company, Red Giant Software has rebranded and reissued some of the Digital Anarchy products, and pulled others off the market temporarily for future re-release. All sales and support questions for video products should be directed towards Red Giant Software at www.redgiantsoftware.com. Existing Digital Anarchy customers will be fully supported for product upgrades, updates and changes.
About Digital Anarchy.
Digital Anarchy is a privately owned company in San Francisco that creates high-quality creative software for professional photographers, Photoshop artists and graphic designers. Since 2001, our tools have solved a wide range of design issues, from masking out bluescreens for commercial still photography to generating custom lighting effects. Digital Anarchy products work in conjunction with Adobe Photoshop, PS Elements, and related design applications. For more information, please see the company's website at www.digitalanarchy.com or call 415-586-8434.
About Red Giant Software.
Red Giant Software LLC (www.redgiantsoftware.com) is a San Francisco-based company that develops professional tools for digital video production. Products are available as plug-ins for popular video editing and effects applications, including After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Motion, Premiere Pro, and Avid. All tools are based on production-proven technology developed by visual effects veterans.
Major Software Upgrade Further Simplifies Photography Workflows
(San Jose, California - July 29, 2008) Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the immediate availability of Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 2 software, the photographer's essential toolbox for managing, adjusting and presenting large volumes of digital photographs.
With new enhancements such as dual-monitor support, radical advances in non-destructive localized image correction, and streamlined search capabilities, Lightroom 2 is a compelling upgrade that simplifies photography from shoot to finish. As Adobe's first application to support 64-bit for Mac OS X 10.5 Macintosh computers with Intel® processors and Microsoft® Windows® Vista® 64-bit operating systems, Lightroom 2 also provides improved memory performance for dealing with large scale images.
"A worldwide community of photographers provided valuable insight and feedback, as part of the Lightroom 2 public beta program, ultimately helping us deliver a better product," said Tom Hogarty, senior product manager for Lightroom and Camera Raw at Adobe. "We've considered their requests which helped us develop useful features that make it easier than ever for our customers to quickly refine, enhance and present brilliant photographs."
Photoshop Lightroom 2: Smarter, Faster and More Accurate The enhanced Library module in Lightroom 2 helps streamline and accelerate photographers' workflows. With the ability to visually organize images across multiple hard drives, Lightroom 2 and its powerful Library Filter Bar makes it easy for users to quickly find the images they need. The Suggested Keywords feature helps photographers keyword their images by making intelligent suggestions based on their own previous efforts. New dual-monitor support allows users to expand their workspace, giving them flexibility to edit and organize images in a way that maximizes an additional display.
In the Develop module, the new Local Adjustment Brush lets photographers fine-tune specific areas of an image to precisely adjust color, exposure and tonal range without affecting other areas of the image. The new Graduated Filter expands the toolbox in Lightroom, allowing for edits to larger areas by applying gradually diminishing or increasing adjustment effects such as exposure, clarity, and saturation, alone, or in any combination. Lightroom 2 also helps photographers print more efficiently by quickly arranging photos of multiple sizes on one or many pages with flexible and customizable templates to maximize paper and ink.
Intelligent algorithms automatically determine optimal sharpening for screen or print, producing crisper images faster. Developers can further extend the Lightroom workflow with Web, Export and Metadata Software Development Kits available at the Adobe Developer Connection, http://www.adobe.com/devnet/.
Ground-Breaking Innovation in Raw Technology New raw technology gives photographers access to flexible camera profiles. Camera profiles are the visual starting point for the raw processing workflow, but image preferences vary for every photographer. To minimize surprises, Adobe is supplying default camera profiles that closely emulate the visual looks that photographers are used to seeing from their favorite camera, while also providing the ability to create highly customized profiles to suit different tastes. Camera profiles are available for immediate download on Adobe Labs (http://labs.adobe.com ) for use with Lightroom 2 and Camera Raw 4.5, along with the DNG Profile Editor for the community to test and create their own profiles.
The Adobe Camera Raw 4.5 plug-in and DNG Converter 4.5 are also now available on Adobe.com and support over 190 camera models including the Olympus E 420 and E 520 models.
"One of the big reasons why Lightroom has become such a phenomenon among serious photographers is that Adobe built it with the input of a very vocal user community," said Scott Kelby, president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP). "Adobe really listens to the issues and challenges today's photographers face and they've built a complete solution that not only meets the needs of photographers; it really feels like it was made just for us. The enhancements to Lightroom 2, combined with the power of Photoshop, give photographers the ultimate freedom to produce professional images quickly."
Pricing and Availability Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 is available now through the Adobe Store at www.adobe.com/store in English, French and German with the Japanese language version planned to be released at a future date. The estimated street price is USD$299 for new users with an upgrade price of USD$99 for registered users of qualifying Lightroom customers. Recommended system requirements are Macintosh OSX 10.4, 10.5 1 GHz PowerPC G4 or G5 or Intel® based processor, or Microsoft Windows® XP SP2 or Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise, Intel Pentium 4® processor, 1 GB RAM and a 1024x768 resolution screen. Additional information on product features, upgrade policies, pricing, and language versions is available on www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/.
About Adobe Systems Incorporated Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information - anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.
Creativepro.com gives Alien Skin Software's Eye Candy 6 for Photoshop a 9.5 out of 10 rating!
From Tues, Feb 9th through Tues, Feb 16th, 2010, save 30% off Tiffen individual products (no bundles, electronic download only).
Digital Anarchy ToonIt v2.5.1 for Photoshop. is out this week. This is a free update for existing users, just download the demo. It should recognize your serial number. ToonIt v2.5 had a bug so please update asap. 
New version of award-winning software suite offers six essential tools that help photographers achieve better results faster, now includes new presets and frames from National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) instructors
Alien Skin Software just released a free update that packs a bunch of new features into Blow Up 2. Don't be fooled by the tiny version number 2.0.3 because there is juicy stuff in there. Go to the Blow Up 2.0.3 update web page to download it.
Topaz Detail manipulates image detail and sharpness without creating any edge artifacts. Sharpen without oversharpening, accentuate details without increasing noise, and add dynamism to photos without making them look fake. 
Topaz DeNoise v3 brings noise reduction to a whole new level in Photoshop with a unique algorithm that specifically focuses on eliminating noise while optimally preserving detail.
Topaz Clean v2 is a new Photoshop plug-in from Topaz Labs that combines feature-preserving smoothing, edge smoothing, and texture control into one filter designed to provide refinable artistic image manipulation.
Topaz Simplify 2, a Photoshop plug-ins for creating painting, drawing type of artistic effects from photos, was released on Friday. Download a free trial here.
The Power of Film and TV Design is Now Available for Photoshop Artists and Photographers
Oak Park, CA March 31, 2009 - Digital Film Tools releases zMatte v3, a full featured blue and green screen keyer for Adobe After Effects and Photoshop, Apple Final Cut Pro and Avid Editing Systems.
Lisbon, Portugal - March 12, 2009 - FaronStudio has launched PixPlant, a new texturing tool that creates high quality seamless 3D textures from plain photos.
We're a bit blown away by the great response we've had on the $99 or less plug-ins, so we decided to wander off the path of video plug-ins and add some Photoshop and Aperture Plug-ins to the section. Check out plug-ins from Alien Skin, Digital Film Tools, Frischluft, META/DMA, Luxology, XAOS and more!
San Francisco, CA - February 4, 2009 - Digital Anarchy, a leading provider of cost-effective special effects software for Adobe and Apple products, today announced the release of two software products for use in Apple's Aperture. Knoll Light Factory generates lighting effects that dramatically enhance the natural or man-made lighting in photographs. ToonIt! Photo creates cartoon-like images from photographs, freeing artists from time consuming techniques such as hand painting and masking. Both products are currently available for Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. 
Major improvements include Windows 64-bit Photoshop support, new presets, user interface improvements, and bug fixes
San Mateo, Calif. - Oct. 6, 2008 - Luxology® LLC, an independent technology company developing modern 3D content creation software, today announced the immediate availability of imageSynthTM 2, the newest version its popular image processing tool. Featuring up to ten times faster performance, imageSynth 2 allows artists to quickly process existing images into new seamless textures, synthetic images and backgrounds, and generate super high-resolution images from low resolution sources. imageSynth 2 is now available in both a standalone version and as a plug-in for Adobe® Creative Suite® 4. For more information or to purchase please visit www.luxology.com/store/imageSynth.aspx.
Abalone FaceShop lets you rotate any face in Photoshop in real 3D! The FaceShop PS Plug-in can be used to alter angles of people's faces in photographs. It is easy to use, and does not require a long learning curve. This application may appeal to both graphic artists and amateurs who need to alter photographic images. Works with recent Photoshop editions, Elements or the new CS3.
Toolfarm has built the Adobe Creative Suite 4 Upgrade Mega-Matrix which makes it easy to find out which upgrades you need. There are a couple of upgrade paths for each product so we've made it simple and clear and all in one spot! 
If you still have questions, don't hesitate to contact us.
Cutting edge algorithm enlarges photos while keeping them clear and sharp. New user interface simplifies cropping and resizing. Batch processing saves huge amounts of time when working with large numbers of photos. 
(San Jose, California - July 29, 2008) Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the immediate availability of Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 2 software, the photographer's essential toolbox for managing, adjusting and presenting large volumes of digital photographs.
