Blurfactory (Andrew Plugins Volume 4)

The plugin set consists of 20 plugins and are generally themed blurs and smears and lines

Each plugin also comes with 77 output / blend modes such as frames and tiling and Solarization and color and pencil sketch edge effects along with 18 effect modes (blur mode, extreme paint mode, smear mode, old sepia mode and others) and 20 selection / layer transparency modes (only valid on a layer)

Installation of Plugins Set

Please place the 8BF files in the plugins folder (or plug-ins folder). Please place the documentation and any ini files (holding presets) in another folder as required. The install process is not an automatic process. I would suggest copying the plugins into a sub folder of the plugins folder such as 'third party plugins'

Photoshop ® CS 2 [c:\program files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS2\plug-ins\...]

Photoshop ® CS [c:\program files\adobe\photoshop CS\plug-ins\...]

Photoshop ® 7 [c:\program files\adobe\photoshop 7\plug-ins\...]

Paint Shop Pro ® 9 [c:\program files\Jasc Software Inc\Paint Shop Pro\Plugins]

Paint Shop Pro ® 8 [c:\program files\Jasc Software Inc\Paint Shop Pro\Plugins]

Canvas 6 [c:\program files\Canvas 6\Canvas Tools\plugins]

Painter IX [c:\program files\Corel\Corel Painter IX\Plugins]

Illustrator CS 2 [c:\program files\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS2\plug-ins]

Expression 3.3 [c:\program files\Expression 3\Plugins]

PhotoImpact 8 [c:\program files\Ulead\Ulead PhotoImpact 8\Plugins]

Please consult your application documentation for others

The presets, I would suggest, should go in a common folder with a structure such as c:\...\preset\blur\... for ease of finding the plugin presets.

The documentation, by default, is in a sub folder of the plugins, but this also can be placed, if required, in a common folder for all plugins.

Removal of plugins

Please simply remove the plugins from the plugin path. Either delete the plugins and the associated ini files from the plugins path or drag them from that folder and place in a storage folder for future use.

Serial Numbers

Please store the serial number file, generally of the format ...Serialno.txt and store this for safe keeping, or write down the details of the serial number included. This will be useful for any updates / upgrades or in contacting graphicxtras for a possible replacement CD. Please note, if you have downloaded the plugins from Shareit site, please (please) make a backup of the file set on CD or a floppy disk (s) or DVD as the download file is generally only available for a short time.

Initial Use of plugins

Please access via the filters menu of Photoshop (or your current application). The plugins appear in the AP categories such as AP [Blur] AP [Color] AP [Distort] AP [Edge] , being the basic category / functionality of the plugin

RGB

The plugins were designed for use with RGB images but they work fine in many color modes such as CMYK and grayscale and LAB modes. The plugins were designed for 8 bit color images but the plugins also work fine in 16 bit / per channel mode, though the results can vary (plugins using negatives will not work well). The plugins can be used in selections as well as on separate channels.

Buttons

The plugins come with (generally) consistent buttons along the button of the dialog for various shortcuts to modify the slider and dropdown settings.

'Xtreme' If you wish to experiment with the plugin and don't want to spend hours moving sliders and controls back and forth, simply click the 'Xtreme' button to randomize most of the settings (not all and not the most extreme of settings). Extreme can result in a wide range of experimental effects or just a blank or single color screen. The xtreme button is a good start point for trying out the plugin(s).

'Color' button randomizes only the color sliders in the bottom center of the dialog, the small red green and blue sliders. The sliders are added post effect / pre output to the image. If you want to create a red output, move the red slider to the right. To create an orange color output, move the blue and green to the left and the red to the right

'Blend' The blend (or output) button randomizes the blend dropdown. The blend dropdown includes 77 output / blend options (at present) and modifies the image accordingly. Some of the blend modes are tiling or mirror options and these work in 99% of plugins, but some of the plugins output the pixels in weird and wonderful ways and the seams of the tiles fail in these. Most of the blend mode options are color based, tweaking the final output by setting the tone or saturation or lightness or red channel and others. Each version of the plugin sets include new output options.

The plugins also come with other buttons but these are labeled relating to the plugin such as a gradient button (randomizes the gradient settings) or pattern (randomizes the pattern settings) or tweak (randomizes only a small number of value settings) or jitter (jitters left or right the current values). Most of the buttons appear on the bottom row but some also appear along the 'row' above (too many buttons..)

'Open Preset' - open a preset file. The preset file is in the same format for all plugins, so it is recommended when saving plugins, save them with the name of the plugin so you can select the required settings. In most cases, it won't matter if you select the incorrect ini file for the plugin, the settings will be set as required but in some cases, this might result in a very extreme image. Once opened and selected, the plugin ini file information will set the sliders for the required effect. The effect might vary from image to image (if the image is a lot bigger or the image is a lot darker etc, the general effect might vary)

'Save preset' - Saves all the current settings. If you are using a plugin called Noise_RandomTimes, I would suggest saving the preset (ini) file to a folder marked 'noise' and then to a file marked 'randomtimes' or 'noise_randomtimes' and ended with the effect type, say 'golden glow' 'warped' 'blue 1' etc

'Reset' - Reset to factory default

'Advanced' - All the dialogs have this button but many will appear to do nothing (the functionality has not been added but will be in the next release). The advanced settings are generally additional sliders that offer various features such as mixing or applying different effect modes such as blurs or randomization.

Note: some of the settings mentioned below will only appear if you click the 'advanced' button.

'100%' etc: Set preview to 100% (slow in some cases..) or 25% (quicker but less accurate)

Backgrounds for the plugin dialog.

The plugin will be displayed with a silver background by default. However, if you want to change the background, please copy the 'Andrewsplugins_background.bmp' file to the PATH folder

The PATH folder is not the real name of the folder, generally the PATH folder is 'c:\windows' but it can be 'c:\winnt' etc or a number of other possible settings. Please check your control panel for the current path setting in the system properties (advanced tab and environmental variables). Please consult your windows documentation for any updates to this. If it is just the c:\windows (and in XP it is), then just copy the Andrews plugin file into that folder. It is a bitmap file and can be any image. A number of variants have been supplied as well _1 _2 _3 and so on, please feel free to use these instead. You can also create your own by using the bitmap file as a template

Dropdowns or Combos

All the plugins come with a number of dropdown or combo controls (lists of functions). All the plugins come with a blend dropdown and this lists 77 blend modes. Some of the plugins come with an effect dropdown (and corresponding mode or strength setting) as well as additional dropdowns to modify the effect. If the dropdown is in the top corner of the plugin, it is a general control dropdown. Dropdowns further down generally offer variants of the effect

You can run through the dropdowns by selecting the dropdown control and using the up and down arrows on the keyboard or just display a large number of dropdown items and select the required entry

Blend dropdown / output dropdown: Controls the final output of the effect. If set to the first entry, the effect is as is without any modification (other than the color sliders). If the dropdown is set to inverse, the output effect is applied in inverse, and so on. Most of the blend options blend the effect and a color channel or effect such as tweaking the red channel or applying a solarisation or posterization to the effect. The dropdown is found next to the red / green / blue slider/trackbars at the bottom of the dialog

Some of the blend options include a border effect or frame so you get the original and the effect but only in the border.

Some of the blending or output options are tiling or mirror options and should work in 99% of cases but some of the plugins modify the pixels and source in many different ways and the complexity of the distortion doesn't allow for any tiling of the output. The tiling options include tiling from different corners (as a tiling of the left corner in some cases might lead to a blank screen or an uninteresting image)

Some of the blend options include edge or sketch like effects such as 'dark edge'

Effect Dropdown - (via Advanced) The dialogs have an effects dropdown and this changes the mode of the plugin. The basic mode (or first item) in the dropdown applies the effect as is.. a randomization or edge plugin. If you set the dropdown to tone or shift etc then the effect is used as a source for tone settings or blurs or shifting of pixels etc. The strength of the application being set by the mode slider (generally beneath the dropdown). Each effect mode uses the mode strength in different ways, so shift extreme, it is best to have a 0 or close to 0 setting but the blur or tone etc might have no effect if less than 100.

Layers Dropdown/transparency - (via Advanced) All the dialogs have a layer dropdown (click the advanced button to see it). The layer dropdown is only used if you are working on a layer or if you are working in CMYK mode. If you are in CMYK, the dropdown modifies the black element of the image. If on a layer, you can modify the layer transparency. The options include setting the transparency to the average of all the channels, use none, invert the mask, etc. Once you have applied the effect and you can then manipulate the layer via layer styles etc as normal or apply transformations or apply additional effects or add to the layer / subtract from the layer

Preview screen

The preview screen generally starts with a fairly small image (depends on the size of the original image). You can increase the zoom by clicking the zoom slider (+ and -). Hold the shift down as you click to set instantly to 100%. If you set the preview to 25% or 12%, the end result might or might not match the preview, the 100% setting is the best match but also the slowest. Some of the plugins can be very very slow at 100% setting though this depends on the size of the original file. Use the mouse to select the position in the preview by dragging the preview position.

If you right-click the preview, any sliders marked with [R] will be modified based on the position and the size of the dialog. This is more an experimental option and useful way of trying out a wide range of varying effects by right clicks to the preview screen. Some of the dropdown options work in the same way if indicated by a [R]. Some of the [R] options are based on the current color at that point or the position from the top left of the dialog.

Presets

Changed in this version to a saved ini file and opened ini file.

As mentioned above, save the current settings to a reasonably detailed named preset ini file name and use the open command to recall the settings.

Foreground and background colors

Some of the plugins (not all) use the foreground and background color settings in the current color palette to limit the color range of the effect. This is generally the case for the gradient plugins but a number of the output dropdown options take advantage of these colors to modify the output. These are indicated by FG and BG. Using different color settings can totally change the image. You can change the FG and BG in the color palette and then reapply the plugin. Some applications do not supply the BG and FG color information to the plugin and the plugin will fail in these instances or just fill the screen with black or white only

Plugins in the plugins set

"Blur - Burnt"

Burnt and shimmered image plug-in.

The burnt / out of focus effect is initially centered but the shift (x) and (y) sliders can move the blur effect center to different positions in the image (darkening the other areas). This is useful for emphasising a certain area of the image.

The effect is useful for blur effects but it can also be useful as a blurry frame plugin (as the outer pixels tend to black, the effect can be used as a source for frame plug-ins).

Blur and intensity can be used in combo to tweak the brightness of the blur effect. Interesting effects can be set by varying in the horizontal to the detriment of the vertical, or vica versa.

Combining colors and output options can also make unusual bleary blurred effects.

"Blur - CrossFocus"

Grayscale diagonalout-of-focus plugin. The plug-in creates a bleary out of focus effect. The diagonal blur is set by the diagonal (1) (2) sliders. The intensity of the blur (or brightness) is set by the intensity slider. The image and the blur is mixed using the mixing settings on a channel by channel basis.

"Blur - RGBCircular"

Blurry RGB circular plug-in. Blurry and smeary blur effect. The plugin takes the pixel and blurs to the radius supplied (on a channel by channel basis) and the blur effect is concentrated using the angle settings (again, on a channel by channel basis) The image and blur is mixed using the mixing sliders (for sharpening and surreal color shifts) note: the mixing also flips the image but this is great for some truly surreal images along with sharpening..

"Blur - Starshine"

Blur/starlight plug-in - great for sparkles and intense sunlight effects. Plugin creates shimmery starlight blurs. The radius of the blur is set by the radius slider. The intensity of the blur is set by the angle slider. The max slider breaks the distortion. Zap changes the contrast of the effect. The plug-in create unusual shimmered blur effects. Useful with images as well as text.

"Blur - TriBlur"

Triangle/square blur mix plug-in, also great for sharpening effects. Plug-in blurs the image using either a square or triangular algorithm or mix of. The strength of the square blur is set by square setting and the triangular blur is set by the triangle setting. The overall blur intensity is set by the blur. The plug-in can be used to create unusual blurry imagery. The plug-in can also be used for sharpening of images and image enhancement.

"Blur - VHFocus"

Vertical and horizontal blurring plug-in. Up-down and sideways blurring plug-in.

The plug-in generates a blurry grayscale image by default. Color can be brought back into the image by changing the mix sliders settings on a channel by channel basis. By setting the blur (vertical) to a high value the image will be spread up and down throughout the image instead of by default, across.

The blur effect can be slow. The plug-in can be used to create beautiful color blurs.

"Distort - Breakup"

Image breakup plug-in. Splits the image into blocks and places these blocks throughout the image as well as flip fragments. The number of splits is set by the quantity sliders (horizontal and vertical). An alternative breakup can be used by click the ALT checkbox. If you wish to link the horizontal and vertical settings, click the link x-y checkbox.

"Dots - Patch"

Dotty patch hatch plug-in. The number of dots are set by the quantity slider. The brightness of the image is modified by the intensity setting. The angle slider defaults to diagonal but can turn or the stretch the dots vertically.The dots are mixed using the mixing sliders. The dots can be used to create hatch patterns, subtle glows, and grids.

"Dots - Print"

Dotty print effect plug-in. The plugin features two sets of lines (at an opposing angle). The number of lines (or dots) is set by the quantity slider. The L1 grouping is mixed with the L2 grouping using the mixing sliders. The plug-in can generate many variations of dots and lines combinations by varying the L1 and L2 settings as well as the mixing combo. The intensity of the lines is set by the intensity slider. The lines combination is mixed with the original source image using the mixing sliders (R) (G) (B). The round checkbox offers an alternative dot style. As with many plug-ins, the plugin comes with a selection of buttons. The extreme sets most of the sliders (except the output options dropdown) to give a full range of possible effects from the subtle to really extreme. The color button tweaks the sliders at the bottom of the dialog and these are the output color sliders, giving the image a red or green or blue look. The tweak button just tweaks the L1 and L2 settings and ignores any color options.

"Emboss - ChangePad"

Embossed lines plug-in. The default is a set of embossed columns. The number of lines is set by the quantity slider. The lines can be converted into dots or extended dots by modifying the angle of the lines. The angled dots and lines can be coarse at certain angles.

The emboss is modified by the emboss channel sliders, these can be tweaked per channel or linked (use the link checkbox) to create varying color effect embosses. The image and the emboss lines can be mixed using the mix sliders.

The emboss effect extends beyond the zero (black) and 255 (white) settings so if you wish to clamp the settings to the black and white settings, click the clamp checkboxes (no relation to the excellent Clamp manga...). Clamping the emboss range creates subtle variants to the emboss effect, dibing a more realistic '3D' effect. The emboss comes with a selection of different emboss types and these can be accessed via the emboss dropdown. The plugin canbe used to create stunning 3D embossed as well as unusual color effects.

"Emboss - Flatlands"

Emboss images, mixed with grain / noise plug-in. The plug-in adds noise to the emboss image creating unusual embossing. The shift slider modifies the embossing height. The mixing slider blends the emboss and source image. The add (R) (G) (B) adds additional color to the emboss, generating a red or green or blue emboss. The flatness tweaks the overall emboss look, flattening the result.

"Emboss - Pads"

Emboss padding / dots / patterns plug-in. The plug-in creates dots but these dots are embossed. The emboss level is set using the emboss setting. The relative number of dots is set using the quantity setting. The image and emboss mix is set using the mix sliders.

The options slider is a variant of a dropdown and supplies a dozen or more different types of emboss dots type such as a square or grid or radial emboss option.

"Gradient - Bar"

Colorful gradient plug-in for textures / overlays / patterns - subtle to extreme gradients and many variations in between.

The plug-in effect fills the image with a colorful blend of the foreground and background palette color. The gradient center can be shifted to create a wide range of different gradients. The color sliders further tweak the underlying gradient structure.

The mode checkbox offers an alternate gradient effect based on the default.

The Link checkbox links the color sliders so any change to the red slider is reflected in the green and blue slider. By changing the foreground and background color, many different gradients can be created. The FG BG colors need to be different, green-green etc. (if the same, the end result will be a single color). The default gradient is only the starting point. Clicking the color button will add or subtract from the gradient, creating many different gradients.

The extreme button is useful for creating 100s of variant gradients.

"Gradient - Corner"

Colorful gradient plug-in for textures / overlays / patterns - subtle to extreme gradients and many variations in between.

The plug-in effect fills the image with a colorful blend of the foreground and background palette color. The gradient center can be shifted to create a wide range of different gradients. The color sliders further tweak the underlying gradient structure.

The mode checkbox offers an alternate gradient effect based on the default.

The Link checkbox links the color sliders so any change to the red slider is reflected in the green and blue slider. By changing the foreground and background color, many different gradients can be created. The FG BG colors need to be different, green-green etc. (if the same, the end result will be a single color). The default gradient is only the starting point. Clicking the color button will add or subtract from the gradient, creating many different gradients.

The extreme button is useful for creating 100s of variant gradients.

"Lines - BreakThrough"

Line dash effect (based on underlying source luminance) plug-in. The plugin creates line effects based on underlying imagery. The threshold being the primary slider for the line threshold. The number of lines is set by the lines. The angle of the lines is modified by the angle slider, creating up and down lines. The mixing sliders control the image/line mix. Criss slider adds additional line tweaking.

"Lines - LineBurst"

Intense line plug-in. The plug-in applies a smooth set of bars (and dots) diagonally across the document (by default). The number of lines is set by the quantity (though this is a relative value). The intensity or brightness is set by the intensity slider. The angle of the lines is set by the angle settings (0 sets the lines upright). The mix (L) settings mix the 'two' opposing lines, without changing this setting you would never 'see' the secondary line set but the plugin also combines a secondary set of lines to clash and polarize with the key line set. The lines can be mixed with the source using the mix sliders. Additional noise can be set via the noise slider. The plugin can create a wide selection of line, dots, and smooth screen effects.

"Lines - Waved"

Wavy line/blurred plug-in

Plug-in is a variant of the lines plugins and creates a wave line. The plugin line quantity (a relative value) is set using the quantity. The intensity of the lines is factored using the two intensity settings. The angle of the waves is modified using the angle setting, 0 for up and down (with little wave). The strength of the wave is set using the wave slider. The range is a blurring mechanism and creates a mix of waves and distortions.

"Smear - CircularSmudge"

Circular based smudge effect plug-in

Dark smudged plug-in. The radius sets the distance from the original pixel of the smudging, the angle sets the intensity or pixels smudged. The angle max reduces the effect of the angle setting and creates more broken smudged effects. The white setting controls the contrast of the image. The plug-in is useful for creating those dark cabaret 1920 nightclub looks/prints.

"Smear - Smeared"

Colorful channel offset smear plug-in

Blurry smeary shift plugin. The smeared image is shifted vertically and horizontal by the shift sliders (y) (x) respectively.

The lightness of the image is set by the intensity slider.

The smear is set on a channel by channel basis by the smear sliders. The plug-in creates weird and wonderful color shifts and smears as well as subtle color enhancements. To try a range of smear settings, click the tweak button.

As with all plugins, the output dropdown can be used to blend the smear effect with the original source image in many different ways such as tiling or mirror effects or edge and posterization effects

"Smear - Smudged"

Smudge and darken-line plug-in. The plugin emphasizes the line, darkens the line, smudging the image. The smudge direction is set by the direction sliders vertically/horizontally. The image and smudge mixing is set by the mixing sliders. The smudge strength is set by the smudge slider. Additional color can be added via the add sliders. The plug-in is wonderful for a variety of unusual line effects and image-darkening creative images.

Applications support

98 ME NT XP Photoshop ® CS 2 and CS 1 and 7 (as well as a number of other products such as PSP). The plugins should be fine in a number of products such as Illustrator ®, Canvas ™ PhotoImpact ™, Expression ™, and many others

Questions

Please contact me on support@graphicxtras.com (I might answer on a different mail account though!). If you don't receive a reply, please re-email. I answer all my mail but sometimes the mail is blocked or whatever or lost or something, and replies fail to arrive. You can also call me on the number above or fax a message if required.

Other plugins are available on the site http://www.graphicxtras.com (a collection of all the plugins in the series is also available)

Upgrades are generally available, either as free updates or inexpensive updates/upgrades and these can be obtained via the product pages on the site.

Please store the reference serial number or details of order.

Copyright

The plugins are copyright of 1996-2005 Abneil Software Ltd (Andrew Buckle). This product was released by Abneil Software ltd (UK based company)

Trademarks

Photoshop is registered trademarks of Adobe. We have no connection whatsoever with Adobe. Paint Shop Pro is registered trademark of Corel Corporation, as is Painter and Photo-Paint. Illustrator is registered trademark of Adobe. Other products mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners

Legal Agreement / License Agreement

The plugins are (c) 1996-2005 Andrew Buckle and Abneil Software ltd

The manual is for information only and is in a constant state of update and additions. The manual should not be construed as any commitment to function or use, and we can assume no responsibility for errors or any liability based on the comments made. Please let us know if you find any errors and we will try our best to update the documentation

- Plugins are non-exclusive
- Plugins can be used in multiple products on the same machine
- Plugins uses are royalty-free
- Plugins can be used on any single computer and not as a network source.
- Plugins can be used to create incredible images
- Plugins should not be used to create images that break the law.
- Plugins can be used to create logos etc but all trademarks etc must be checked by you
- Plugins can be backed up (this is definitely recommended)
- Plugins should not be copied onto a CD / DVD / Website and sold as a collection
- Plugins should not be rented etc or sold as is.
- Any copyright notices should not be removed
- Plugins may or may not work with some versions of applications (especially future releases..)
- We give a non-exclusive and nontransferable license to use one (1) copy of the product and related material
- If you don't agree with the license, you must promptly destroy / rip into shreds etc the product and docs

To the max amount permitted by relevant law, in no way shall Abneil Software ltd or our sellers/distributors be liable for damages (this includes, without limits, damages and costs for any loss of profits to the business, or disruption to your business, loss of business info, or other losses) from the use of this plugin set of or inability to create using this plugin graphics product, even if we have been told of the chance of such claims. As some areas of this planet do not allow for the removal or limits on liability for damages, the above limits may not relate to you.