Post 1 of 7

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I was wondering if any of you have been using Photoshop with the PaintFX 64-bit plug-ins. Specifically, going back and forth from 8-bit to 16-bit depths in the use of Photoshop's gaussian blur and other filters. How's that going?

Also, if anyone has a nifty guassian blur cheat for FilmFX, I'd love to hear it. I'm just not getting what I need from FilmFX's blur tools. Then again, I'm a novice with FilmFX, so maybe I'm missing something.

Thanks much...

Post 2 of 7 responding to post 1

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In what way is FilmFX's blur falling short?

cheers

Peter

Post 3 of 7 responding to post 2

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Hello, Peter:

I paint a circle in Photoshop and apply a gaussian blur to it: a blurred circle.

I paint a circle in FilmFX and apply a blur to it (via the Geometry tab): a blurred square with a diamond shaped center.

The FilmFX paintbrush "Softblur" is lovely, but takes care (time) to apply.

But my question is not really in critique of any specific flaw in FilmFX; as a novice to this program, I am not competent to offer any critique. Rather, I was wondering if any users have had experience with the PaintFX plug-in for Photoshop in a production environment.

My dilema is that I work across platforms. My Photoshop is on a Mac, my Satori on an IBM. Before I drop 600$ on an NT Photoshop in pursuit of the perfect 64-bit canvas, I was wondering what other's experiences had been with that particular set-up. To wit: can one use absolutely everything in Photoshop and absolutely everything in PaintFX durring one seamless session, or are there losses to be considered.

Thanks so much, hope you can offer some insight.

K.

Post 4 of 7 responding to post 3

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I don't have Photoshop or any other apps that fully support PaintFX so I can't help you there.

But I have experienced the same problems with blur. I assume that it has something to do with the vector nature of Satori. This problem (if we choose to call it that) is not a problem with images as much as applying blurs to geometric shapes. For example, apply gaussian blur to a sqaure in Photoshop or similar pixel based app and you get a square with slightly rounded edges (depending on the value you use of course). Do the same in Satori and you get a square with some blurring around the edges and some visible spikes/lines jutting out of the ends. Blurring a second time seems to fix this. So, when I blur in Satori, I use several smaller valued blurs rather than one large valued one.

I have mentioned this problem to Spaceward and also sent them screen captures of some examples. Hopefully a future release of Satori will deal with this.

Adam.

Post 5 of 7 responding to post 4

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Thank you, Adam. I'll give the multi-blur process a try.

Kurt

Post 6 of 7 responding to post 5

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Kurt, I think in general there are obvious advantages to having Satori and PS installed on the same system, whether PaintFX existed or not.

PaintFX is ultimately a basic interface between applications which, to my knowledge, doesn't inhibit the performance or features of either.

To be truthful, after I upgraded my system from 95 to NT, I didn't bother re-installing PaintFX as I always fire up FilmFX first and only rarely turn to Painter in the course of my work. However, reading your posts has reminded me of it's existence and I think I'll bang it back on.

Adam's spot on with the blur tip, but remember you can also modulate most filter effects by using the opacity slider on Actions/Shape tab.

cheers

Peter

Post 7 of 7 responding to post 6

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I don't use the Photoshop / Satori combo a lot, but one of the drawbacks that I have found is that if you move a layer in Satori, and then re-import to PS, the layer resets to its origin. (X=0, Y=0) This can be irritating to have to work around. I guess you have to decide on which app is going to do what in your project, before you start out. I.E. Plan your workflow! Does any body know of other quirks?

All the best, Michael