Creative. Intuitiv. New.

ArtEffect 1.1

"Do you know Photoshop on Mac or PC ?"

ArtEffect is the first art program that gives the Amiga artists the power they need to do their ArtWork.

ArtEffect unites painting and image processing under a particularly productive user interface. We emphasise on productive functions which are quick and simple to use in your daily work. However not only beginners will like it but also the professionals who are looking for high quality and who want to get the job done quickly and efficiently.

ArtEffect is not "just another" graphics program for the Amiga. ArtEffect is not oriented towards the current "standard" programs on the Amiga, but rather to the classic programs for professional image processing such as Photoshop (TM) and for creative painting like Fractal Painter (TM).

Proven concepts and ideas of these classic products were merged with the uncontested advantages of the Amiga. You see the result before you. Naturally these are only advertising statements if they are not supported by facts. Here then is the demo version of ArtEffect, which giving you an opportunity to convince yourself of the advantages.

This picture shows ArtEffect's tidy User Interface with the Toolbar (left side), another view of the picture (left side) and one filter window. The lower area shows the brush manager, the context sensitive options requester and the colour manager.

Professional Image Processing with ArtEffect

Processing scanned images and graphics of all kind has been the Amiga's domain ever since the machine appeared. Nevertheless the products available for the Amiga have not been widely recognised by the graphics world during recent years. ArtEffect is the first program to provide productive image processing functions under a uniform and effective user interface in the typical Amiga style.

Selection Functions

Particularly important are the functions to select certain areas of an image for processing. Of course some filters are often applied to the entire image, but when dealing with image errors it is necessary to select a particular area. So one can retouch a scanned photo in a narrow area without influencing the quality of the rest of the picture.

ArtEffect offers a wide range of selection functions (they are also known as mask functions) such as: rectangle, circle, freehand and specialities like colour selection, running masks and "Magic Wand" (selection of connected areas with similar colour). With this all cases of selections of certain areas can be done quickly and easily.

More than 30 Effects

ArtEffect offers more than 30 different effects with countless options. All effects are used the same way and they all have the same user interface. Each effect has e.g. a Preview in which the effect is applied to an image section. The range can be zoomed in and out. A progress bar shows the progress of the operation. The options are very extensive so every effect can be adapted to your personal wishes.

List of all effects

Colour Filters

Antique
Dynamic Range
Colour Correction
Colour Space Process
Histogram Equalisation
Negative
Posterise
Solarise
Threshold

Blur Filters

Gaussian
Strong Gaussian
Blur
Strong Blur
Smooth

Sharpen Filters

Sharpen Fine
Sharpen Coarse

Stylise Filters

Displace Pixels

Edge Find
Laplace
Oil Paint
Relief
Wax Paint

Distortion Filtrs

Caricature
Twirl
Curl

Pixelate Filters

Median
Mosaic
Polar Mosaic
Segmentate Picture

Special Filters

BumpMap
Convolution
Mirror Picture
Shift Picture

Natural Painting with ArtEffect

While most of the paint programs will only be able to paint in full colour with full intensity and density, "natural painting" means to simulate natural drawing tools like paintbrush, crayon, airbrush, chalk, coal, oil colour.

Coal, chalk, paintbrush, crayon, oil colour

To do a good job on simulating all these drawing tools ArtEffect offers many controls for mode, opacity, intensity, density, roughness, form etc. All values are freely adjustable. With it the transparent colour of a water colour brush looks very realistic and also harsh chalk can be simulated excellently.

Painting on different materials

ArtEffect still goes one step further and even offers simulation of different materials. You can paint on canvas, wood, stone, marble etc.

Attributes of Painting Tools

The properties of the three basic tools stencil, brush, airbrush can be redefined completely. Form, intensity, density, roughness, transparency, opacity, pressure sensitivity (only on graphic trays) and Fade Out can be adjusted freely. With all these properties, natural drawing tools can be simulated very well and without any fringes.

The properties of the tools are stored in the brush manager. Image sections (brushes) which are needed more often may be stored here as well.

Strong Effects of ArtEffect

Perfect Retouch of Images

Scanned pictures often have scratches, specks of dust or similar distorsions. With Median filter one can remove these automatically, but the image will however loose its sharpness. It is better to retouch only the respective area. The tools "Smear" and "Smooth", but also "Lighten" and "Darken" are used often and with pleasure. These tools only work in the area coverd by their tip and so they can be used with great precision.

Other effects like "hue", "saturation" and "luminance" may also be used this way.

Endless Possibilities with Masks

Masks are one of the most productive functions of ArtEffect. Therefore we have provided several possibilities of defining them. Thus masks are also selections and masking is the same as selecting.

1. Rectangle Masking: The fastest masking function is the masking of rectangles.

2. "Magic Wand": This is certainly the most powerful function for masking. One click with the Magic Wand will select/mask all connected pixels of the same colour.

3. Colour Selection: With it all pixels of the same colour anywhere in the whole picture are selected.

4. Stencil Masking: The stencil option also has a mask mode, allowing you to work with very fine details.

A very special thing are running masks. These are masks that get increasingly permeable (oblique). It can be used for sophisticated effects.

The many Extras of ArtEffect

• ArtEffect is a pure 24-bit art package. All operations and manipulations will always be carried out in the highest possible quality.
• All functions of ArtEffect are very fast. Some time-critical filters are even optimised for higher processors.
• ArtEffect can display multiple Views of the same picture.
• A special light table allows pictures to be overlayed.
• A special perspective tool supports the creation of perspective drawings.
• The pantograph lets you copy one part of a picture to another place of the same one or to another picture. Many effects can be used by this operation.
• Further important features are: Zoom, Pipette (for colour selection), lasso (for freeform selections), colour interpolator, undo function.
• ArtEffect offers many loaders/savers (IFF, JPEG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, BMP) but also the Amiga datatypes and the new 24-Bit datatype.
• ArtEffect offers an efficient 24-bit printer driver that uses the standard Workbench drivers. There is additional support for the printer enhancers TurboPrint and Studio.
• ArtEffect supports the graphic tray Wacom ArtPad II (a special driver is needed!). With the graphic tray all drawing modes become pressure sensitive. This is very important for natural drawing.
• ArtEffect can be extended externally by a flexible Plug-In interface. With it 3rd party companies can offer new functions. There is also a special GUI for these Plug-Ins, so programming them is very easy.

ArtEffect's GUI

Operation of ArtEffect is very intuitive. This was a primary design goal for this product. The GUI is a very important part, because if it is not good, you will not be able to use the full power of the program.

ArtEffect uses a unique GUI for all its parts. Different managers help you to control the different options. They can stay open so they show you the tool's current status.

Because of the well thought-out user interface most of the functions of ArtEffect can be used without having to look into the manual. The positions of all windows and managers are stored and show up next time you start the program.

(These features are subject to change without notice!)

NEW FEATURES

• localised (German, English)

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

• any Amiga model
• AmigaOS 3.0 or higher required
• ECS or AGA system or CyberGraphX software
• Hard disk
• a minimum of 2 MB RAM (with limitations), 4-8 MB RAM are recommended.

LIMITATION OF THE DEMO

• can not save and print
• some loaders/savers are missing (only iff and jpeg are available)
• the word "DEMO" will be written into the picture every 10 steps

Summary:

real drawing tools
different brush points
sensational drawing functions
special effects
efficient mask mode
different grounds
light table
different colour models
many tools for picture manipulation
special effect filters with preview
loading/saving modules
support for graphic tray drivers (Wacom ArtPad)
24-bit printer driver support (Workbench, TurboPrint, Studio)