Essential Plug-ins Bundle




Andromeda Software, Alien Skin, Digital Element & nik multimedia
Announce The Essential Plug-in Bundle!

This bundle includes:

Four of the top Adobe Photoshop™ Plug-in developers have partnered together to create and offer a value-driven bundle of products being marketed as The Essential Plug-ins Bundle. The bundle includes seven professional Photoshop™ plug-in programs for Mac OS X/9.x and Windows systems. The value of these products, when purchased separately, is $913.90. The Essential Plug-ins Bundle is being offered for $199.00 (US). Each of the products included are the latest full versions of the most creative and technical tools used by digital artists, designers & photographers.

photo-i - Review

The bundle has only just arrived, I had intended to do an in-depth review on the collection, but as the offer expires on 15th June, I thought I would just give a brief overview to give you time to place your order - should you want to take advantage. I have only been using this software for the last two days (DHL sat on this for two weeks before letting me know it had arrived in the UK), so please forgive me if I have missed some of the finer points on the plug-ins.

Digital Elements - AURORA.

This plug in generates interesting looking skies and water backgrounds. It is simple to use with plenty of options to tailor the scene the way you want. I have found several uses for this already. The scenes are convincing and don't look like the usual computer generated pictures we are all familiar with. There are several presets to get you started, but creating your own is easy enough. The filter interface has many options including, sun, moon, cloud height, colour, waves etc. Great fun to use but can be slow on large images.
Digital Elements Aurora 2.1
8/10

Nik Color Effect Pro (classic) & Color Effect Pro 2.0 (upgrade)

When I first looked at these filters I thought the same effects could be achieved in Photoshop without too much work, but the more I used these filters the better they seemed to get. The Classic bundle contains 19 effects which include several Graduated filters, contrast, blur, sunshine, old photo etc. The filter I liked best was the Monday morning, perhaps its because I know that feeling well.

The second set has a few extra filters including a b/w conversion, contrast filters, bicolor graduations etc. On its own this set would be limited but together with the classic set the filters become a must have. The interface changes depending on the filter being applied and is very easy to use without having to look at the on-line manual.

Nik Color Effects Pro Classic - Monday Morning
Nik Color Effects Pro 2 Design - Bicolor Filter
8/10

Alien Skin Splat!

The one feature that Photoshop lacks is a tubes-image spray paint brush. Paint Shop Pro, Painter, Photo Paint and Picture Publisher all have this facility. Although the uses for this brush are limited they are great fun to use on the occasional image. The Splat filter lays down a mass of small images at random, or creates borders of images etc. The best way to use this filter is to create a selection using a new layer and then fill the area with the Splat. I would have like an option to be able to paint directly on a image with a paint brush, as in Paint Shop Pro. The interface is easy to use with plenty of predefined "Tubes" and there are instructions in a PDF file on on how to create your own custom sets. The filter will grow on you the more you use it.

Alien Skin Splat - Autumn leaves tube
7/10

Alien Skin Image Doctor

The second offering from Alien Skin is an image doctor kit. With this filter you can fix JPEG artifacts, remove spots (zits), smart fill and repair scratches. The filters worked very well especially on the spot removal in my screen shot, but a lot of these repairs could be done with a clone tool or the Healing brush in Photoshop. A weak offering from Alien Skin.
Alien Skin Image Doctor - Spot Lifter filter
6/10

Andromeda EtchTone and Screens filters.

These two filters are aimed at design studios, they create a screen over an image. From a photographers point of view, you can create some interesting effects but nothing that is going to make your pictures earth shatteringly different. Recommended for designers, photographers may have more fun with some of the other offerings in this bundle.

Andromeda - EtchTone filter
Andromeda - Screens filter
7/10

The overall quality of this bundle is fair, it seems like there has been some stock clearance going on. At $199 you are not being done but purchase at the full asking price of $913 and you won't be getting good value for money. The two highlights of this package are Nik Color Effects Pro and Digital Elements Aurora 2.1, these two itemes alone make the bundle deal worth considering.

Overall 8/10

 

© Vincent Oliver 2004 www.photo-i.co.uk
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