Snap Art by Alien Skin : Introduction

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Snap Art
by Alien Skin

Introduction
December 26, 2006

Snap Art Introduction • Color Pencil • Comics • Impasto • Oil Paint • Pastel
Pen and Ink • Pencil Sketch • Pointillism • Stylize • Watercolor • Snap Art Conclusion

Snap Art
Host Requirements: Adobe PS CS or later, Adobe PS Elements 4 or later, or Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo XI or later
System Requirements For Mac G4 or G5 processor, 512MB RAM, MAC OS X 10.3.9 or later
System Requirements For Windows: 2 GHz Pentium 4 processor, 512MB RAM, Windows XP or later
MSRP: $149.95 ($99.95 when ordered direct and being the owner of another Alien Skin product) | Click For Best Price

The last time DigitalDingus came across Alien Skin software, was this last August working with Exposure. I enjoyed using it immensely and so I wanted to see what other new and exciting products they had. Well, they have a few. In this review, we're taking a look at Snap Art, which takes your images to another level altogether--and probably another dimension, considering the vast amount of possibilities Alien Skin is famous for with their plug-ins. Snap Art is unlike any other painting plug-in for Photoshop, because it meticulously recreates a more realistic representation of real-world art styles. Snap Art is a special plug-in for those graphics editors and photographers who want more realism to their images, while retaining the individuality of the effect itself.

Ten Extremely Comprehensive Filters To Choose From

Since this is the introduction page, I'll keep it brief, but the ten filters included in Snap Art, are very comprehensive, meaning you have several settings within each filter which will make your image unique, as well as create the realistic effect you want. The filters are:

Color Pencil

Pen and Ink

Comics

Pencil Sketch

Impasto

Pointillism

Oil Paint

Stylize

Pastel

Watercolor

Snap Art Features

Some of the major key features are listed below.

Realistic natural media effect create uniquely styled artwork
Canvas, paper, and other media textures further enhance realism
Lighting controls simulate the direction, intensity, and color of a light source
Hundreds of one-click settings offer instant results
Detailed controls allow unlimited customization
Superior edge detection preserves detail from the original image

Does Photoshop Have Similar Filters?

It is true, Photoshop does have filters located in the Sketch and Artistic filter menus, but several of those filters have not been designed for the kind of realism Alien Skin is famous for. Many of Adobe's filters are of high quality, but in my opinion, they lack realism in the artistic paint area. And when you think about it, Photoshop is not really a comprehensive program who's sole design is to make top-notch filters. Photoshop works best with 3rd party creators who spend a lot more time dealing with a specific aspect of imaging which Photoshop can take advantage of.

There's More Than One Way To Successfully Filter Your Image

There are three major options for you when creating elaborate filtered images:

Spend an enormous amount of time learning your favorite image editor
Purchase specialized tutorials which increase your learning in a shorter amount of time
Purchase specialized filter plug-ins for your image editor

In this review we're taking the last option, however, you can certainly obtain efficient results by choosing the other two options. The first option, is probably the hardest because few of us have the time to sacrifice hours a day on an image editor and getting little accomplished. The second option is another alternative which will produce results much more quickly than the first option. Purchasing tutorials by professionals who have spent thousands of hours on an image editor is a great way to get ahead of the learning curve for producing high quality results (DigitalDingus currently provides a few reviews of such tutorials and is currently working on five new titles by Software Cinema who do an excellent job in teaching users new skills). The third option is the quickest option because you do not necessarily need vast knowledge of how your image editor works; all you need to know is how your filter plug-in works, and much of the special processing is already done for you.

Complex Settings Saved Easily

What I really like about Alien Skin's software, is they allow complex steps within their plug-ins to be saved as one unique setting. In addition, unlimited settings can be saved and named for later retrieval.