Software Reviews
Filter Forge.
Reviewed by d.a.w DESIGN
Filter Forge (www.filterforge.com) can work as a Photoshop plug-in or a standalone application. Filter Forge is for producing and applying filters and textures to your images.
Filter Forge allows computer artists / designers to build their own filters. Filter Forge includes a visual filter editor and a free online library of user–created filters to which anyone can contribute. Filter Forge produce’s a wide range of adjustable and editable textures and effects which are seamlessly tiled, resolution–independent. Filters include metallic surfaces, rocky surfaces, organic, distortions, abstract textures, repeating patterns, color corrections, photo filters and more.
To open Filter Forge as a standalone application (windows) go to the Start button > All programs > Filter Forge, To open Filter Forge as a plug-in for Photoshop, open Photoshop and go to Filter > Filter Forge.
To use the User Interface you simply pick a filter from the huge library of filters which you download from the Filter Forge library (for free, once you've bought the program), and either load a selected image of your choice to apply your filter to, or use one of the texture filters. Registered users have access to well over 6,000 filters and textures.
The User Interface.
Figure 01 – The Interface.
Categories and Filters
This area contains the list of pre–installed filters and filters downloaded from the Filter Library. The filters are combined into categories which fall into three main groups: Texture filters which generate textures and don't need a source image, Effect filters which modify an existing source image, and finally Favorites and the My Filters category which stores filters made by you.
Filter Controls
Filter Controls is a tabbed area allowing users to adjust filter settings, save or restore presets of these settings, adjust the lighting and view the information about the filter.
• Presets tab allows you to save and apply presets ('snapshots' of filter settings).
• Settings tab lets you adjust and randomize filter settings.
• Lighting tab controls the lighting (it is available only for filters that support it).
• About tab shows filter information, author, popularity data and a link to the filter's web page.
Preview
• This area lets you preview the image generated by a filter.
• To pan the preview, hold and drag the right mouse button; or, when the preview cursor is in the Hand mode hold and drag the left mouse button.
• To zoom the Preview in and out, use the mouse wheel.
• You can also switch to the Zoom cursor.
• Clicking the Actual Pixels button sets the zoom level to 1:1 so that the image pixels correspond to screen pixels directly.
• The Show Border checkbox allows you to see the image border on a seamlessly tiled filter.
• The Show Original checkbox is useful for comparing the filter result to the original unmodified image.
• The preview size can be reduced to make the rendering faster – choose View > Preview Size > Reduced from the menu.
• The preview is automatically reduced for large images. This can be turned off in Interface Options.
Download Link
The download link above the preview lets you download filters from the Filter Library. All filters in the Library are free to download and use.
Apply / Save Image As Button
The Apply / Save Image As... button saves the result produced by a filter. When Filter Forge is running as a plug–in, the Apply button sends the resulting image to the host application. In the standalone mode, the Apply button is replaced by the Save Image As... Button which saves the rendered image as a graphic file.
Filter Editor
The Filter Editor button opens the Filter Editor, a visual node–based environment where you can build custom filters by connecting components into a network. All filters in Filter Forge were made in the Filter Editor and are fully editable.
• To edit an existing filter in the Filter Editor, press Ctrl/Cmd +E, or click the Filter Editor... button and choose Edit this filter.
• To create a new filter from scratch, press Ctrl/Cmd+N, or click the Filter Editor... button and choose Create a new filter.
• All user-created filters are saved to the My Filters category.
• Downloaded and pre–installed filters cannot be modified directly. When you edit them, the Filter Editor creates a copy in My Filters.
Filter Editor is where you create filters from components. Unlike the 'painting' approach common to all bitmap–editing applications, the Editor uses a 'node-based' approach – instead of modifying your image one step at a time like you do in bitmap editors, in Filter Forge you 'describe' what operations and in what order must be performed to produce the desired image. The operations are represented by components and the order of operations is defined by connections between them.
Figure 02 –Filter Editor.
• To pan the Workspace, drag it with the right mouse button. To zoom, use the mouse wheel.
• The Preview shows the output of the selected object.
• The Properties pane lets you adjust the properties of the selected object.
• To add components to the filter, drag them from the Components Bar to the Workspace.
Components
Components are the basic building blocks which you connect together to create a filter. Many components perform familiar operations such as blurs, color adjustments, distortions, and blending. Each component can have multiple inputs, but only one output.
Figure 03 –A closer look at a component..
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