Images on this site were compressed using e-Vue MPEG4 technology in 2001, which was groundbreaking at the time for its DRM component and higher compression than JPG, however e-Vue is no more — we are transitioning these images to JPEG for 2004.
If you're a long-time Photoshop plug-in aficionado, you will likely have come across or have been using a version of Alien Skin's image filters for some time. Their Black Box filter set, released back in 1994 was the first plug-in to provide easy-to-use drop-shadow effects to both selections and type. In 1997, the filters were updated, and renamed Eye Candy 3, and included a new perspective shadow effect, and enhanced bevel tools.
Today, with many of the common effects like drop shadow, inner/outer bevel, and glow built-in to Photoshop, Fireworks, and the like, new plug-ins need to do much more to be considered useful. The all-new Eye Candy 4000 plug-in filter package updates the "classic" Alien Skin effects, while adding a toolbox of cool new features.
The first thing you will find when using one of the new filter options, is that the preview window is finally full size, allowing much more effective option settings. Also new is that many of the common file related tasks, such as loading or saving configurations takes place in the main Apple or Windows menus, and not sub-menus in the filter. This makes much more sense, and makes the options area less cluttered and more specific.
Some existing filters have been combined: Drop Shadow and Perspective Shadow are now called ShadowLab . In practice, this new filter works well for image selections, but is a bit cumbersome with type. I found it difficult to achieve my desired results with a type selection, versus the similar tool in a competing product from Extensis. The Inner Bevel, Outer Bevel, and Carve filters have been combined into the Bevel Boss. The new bevel profile editor, and over 12 control parameters including inclination and bevel hight scale really allow you to just about anything you can image with bevels.
New filters include textures like marble and wood, which are a huge time saver if you do any kind of bitmap-based illustration and need to fill areas with textures without having to import texture libraries. The marble is particularly good, without the fake fractal look of the old KPT marble filters. The wood is acceptable, but I would have liked an integrated blur and refraction option to simulate varnishes more accurately.
The Chrome gives the best metallic type effects I've yet seen in a filter. Drip is a very cool filter that mimics dripping paint or ink effects. Melt provides distortions simulating the effect of heat applied to a selection. Corona gives you easy solar flares, gaseous clouds, and astronomical effects.
Overall, there are 24 filters. Some, like Chrome, Drip, Fire, Smoke, and Fur provide truly startling and unique effects, where others like Weave will have limited usefulness.
Marked improvements in the program come from new features such as a color gradient editor in several filters, seamless tiling is an option in many of the filters that benefit from the option, and unlimited undo/redo let you really go wild and then save what you like. Real world absolute paramter units now match Photoshop, so if you have "percentage" selection in your preferences, you can use percentage in the filter option sliders in place of "pixels." This is useful if you build an image at 300dpi, then scale it to 72dpi for the Web. By using a percentage for the effect, the bevel or shadows (or whatever) would look the same at the smaller size, yet remain editable.
Examples of many cool effects possible in Eye Candy 4000, including fire, smoke, drip, and textures like marble and wood.
Eye Candy 4000 is compatible with most Macintosh and Windows applications that support Photoshop 4x compatible plug-in filters. It has been tested compatible with Adobe Photoshop 6 and MacOS 9.1, as well as Macromedia Fireworks (all filters work as "live effects"), Canvas 6 or higher, JASC Paint Shop Pro 5 or later, Corel Photo-Paint 8 or later, and Adobe ImageReady.
The 92 page manual includes excellent descriptions and examples of every filter and how to use each filter option, as well as a 4-page full-color section in the back with practical uses.
Eye Candy 4000 is a useful and creative addition to any compatible imaging program, providing unique effects that would be difficult to implement otherwise. Its only drawback is the price, which seemed a little bit high considering the diminished value of some of its key filters, which are now built-in to most imaging tools (bevel, glow, and shadows). For existing Eye Candy 3 owners, it's an essential and worthwhile upgrade.
Christopher Simmons has been a professional graphic artist since 1980 and has been using Photoshop since version 2. He is president of Neotrope, which offers both print and Web design as well as brand marketing services. E-mail him at cs@digitalauthor.com. A version of this article appeared in the May 2001 edition of Micro Publishing News.
