Filter Forge , the Photoshop plug-in that lets you build your own filters, is now available for the Mac as well as Windows. Filter Forge consists of a node-based editor used for assembling a series of mathematical operations into a filter. The tool is available in a variety of editions, ranging from $6 (!) to $209 (regularly $299). $69 gets you access to the nearly 6,000 filters already generated by users.
I briefly tried Filter Forge a year or so ago, and while it was Great Stuff, it was also painfully slow to use on the hardware I had back then. Now, with a very fast quad-core CPU, it’s still often a bit slowish — but because of the amazing render quality and staggering range of insanely unique textures and patterns it makes possible, I’d say this software could quickly become invaluable to graphic designers and 3D artists. So I’m buying the mid-range version for sure — and I might well be lured into trading up later!
So thanks, John, for featuring this technology — I think Filter Forge is strongly deserving of both your moral support and our plunking-down-of-pennies.
That plug-in is awesome—I highly recommend it. I used it on this print ad for the neon text effect:
http://alanvalek.com/blog/2009/03/12/neon-grooves-ad-flip-skateboards/
I had to do an inner glow on the text first so it had some meat to grab onto, but it does a fantastic job. I’d go for the premium version because it can take advantage of multiple processor cores. It’s kind of a slow plug-in but some of the stuff it does is pretty gnarly so I forgive it LOL.
Speaking of excellent plugins for rendering snazzy effects within PS, I have long loved PathStyler, which can render amazing bevel effects based on vector paths. Some samples are here: http://www.shinycore.com/products/pathstyler/examples.htm
No, I don’t own shares in the company, I just think it’s excellent software which deserves to be better known.
Some folks may not realize that Filter Forge also has been used to make procedural textures (one of the most amazing examples is of a chain-link fence, complete with random noise for rust, variations in thickness, etc).
In that vein, it’s also something that 3D texture artists should consider.
J,
I’ve looking for ways to speed up rendering. Is there info out there on the optimum operating system, or are there any settings I should know about?
I’m running Mac,Dual 2 GHz PowerPC G5, 2GB DDR SDRAM
Thanks,
r