Alien Skin: Eye Candy 6 Review

Eye Candy 6 is a set of Photoshop filters that graphic designers use to render gorgeous special effects, like Chrome, Glass, and Fire. Eye Candy effect’s are extremely realistic. Eye Candy 6 is for graphic design tasks, not for photography. However, they would look great when applied to a title or logo on top of that photograph. Eye candy 6 can handle files used in large print jobs with features like CMYK color mode and 16-bits per channel. Eye Candy 6 now takes advantage of multi-core CPUs to run fast on modern machines. Eye Candy 6 is one of the first plug-ins to work with the 64-bit version of Photoshop, which allows it to work on extremely large images.

In Photoshop all Eye Candy filters can be non-destructive because you can apply them to Smart objects / Smart Filters. As a Smart Filter, a filter’s sliders can be tweaked and it then automatically reapplies to the layer. There are 30 filters in Eye Candy 6 and there are over 1500 presets. Of course if you want to customize an effect you can, each filter has enough controls to let you accomplish anything you want.

The "Text and Selection" filters work best on an object. Theses are....

Backlight, Bevel, Chrome, Corona, Drip, Extrude, Fire, Glass, Gradient glow, Icicles, Motion Trail, Perspective Shadow, Rust, Smoke,Snow Drift

The next 15 filters are classed as "The Texture filters" these work fine on any object, including an entire image or and a blank layer.

Animal Fur, Brick Wall, Brushed Metal, Diamond Plate, Marble, Reptile Skin, Ripples, Stone Wall, Sugar, Star, Swirl, Texture Noise, Water Drop, Weav, Wood

What’s new in Eye Candy 6?

Fire Filter

The Fire filter is now more realistic. Sharp edges have been smoothed to look more natural than in Eye Candy 5.

Non-Destructive Editing

All of the filters now have the option to draw their output on a new layer. In Eye Candy 5 this feature was only available on some filters. Now all filters consistently apply their effect to a copy above the original layer. The new layer is named after the setting used. All of the filters work as Smart Filters when applied to Smart Objects in Photoshop. The filters are non-destructive.

Settings

Settings have been reorganized and now have categories. If you are new to a filter, the Settings Tour category takes you on a trip through the filter’s most interesting effects. The factory settings were completely remade. There are now over 1500 carefully designed settings that handle a wide range of common design tasks. All of Eye Candy’s presets have been improved and many more added, giving a total of 1500. Settings are grouped into categories.

Performance

The filters are much faster and can run on much larger images than before. If you have a computer with one or more multi-core CPUs, Eye Candy will take advantage of the modern hardware to accelerate it’s rendering speed. The 64-bit version of Photoshop is now supported. This lets you work on very large images and provides a small speed boost. Eye Candy 6 is one of the first plug-ins to work with the 64-bit version of Photoshop.

Panels

Panels for Photoshop CS4 or later are provided for starting Eye Candy filters with a single click and for quickly creating attractive buttons. After installation, these can be found in Photoshop’s Window > Extensions menu. The panels behave just like Photoshop’s other panels, such as the Layers panel. They can be docked with other panels or floated out of the way, to another monitor.
The main panel is the Startup Panel. It contains icons for all 30 filters. Just click one of them to start the filter rather than navigating down through the usual sub-menus in the Filter menu. This really saves time. The other panel is the Button Maker. It demonstrates how multiple Eye Candy filters can be used to draw attractive buttons. Just choose the button style and a finished button appears in your document. Both panels have links to local help files and to tutorial videos on the Eye Candy 6 Web site.

Figure 06 – The Eye Candy 6 Panel.

To see the textures of Eye Candy 6 just click on the textures tab.

Figure 07 – Eye Candy 6 Button Maker Panel.

Interface

The graphical user interface (GUI) is very easy to use with tabs, sliders and text field input boxes, making adjustment of the different settings simple and easy. Eye Candy has a large preview that can be zoomed and resized. The preview can be controlled by many of the exact same shortcut keys that Photoshop uses.

Figure 01 – The Interface.

1: Title Bar

The title bar displays the currently selected setting (see the Settings Tab chapter).

2: Navigation Thumbnail

Click and drag the movable red box to quickly move the preview around your image.

3: Preview Tools (only one at a time is active)

Click and hold the Show Original Button to see the unmodified form of the image. An easier way to do this is to simply hold down the Spacebar.

Click the hand to enable the Move Tool. Then click and drag in the preview to move around the image.

Click the magnifying glass to enable the Zoom Tool. Then you can click in the preview window to zoom in. Double-clicking the magnifying glass resets the preview window to 100% magnification. While in zoom mode, holding down the Spacebar temporarily switches to the Move Tool. Many of the same shortcut keys that Photoshop uses to navigate a preview window work in Eye Candy too.

Click the arrow to enable the Adjustment Tool. Only filters with in-preview controls have an Adjustment Tool, such as Motion Trail and Super Star. After selecting this tool, you can manipulate special controls in the preview window.

4: Preview Size Buttons

Click the 1:1 button to quickly view the actual pixels of the image un-zoomed. Click the Fit button to fit the preview in the current window.

5: Split Screen Preview

Above the preview area is a menu of options for split screen previewing. When enabled, this feature shows the original image in half of the preview.

6: OK and Cancel

Clicking the OK button applies the filter with the current settings. Clicking Cancel closes the filter window without applying the effect. The Enter key is the same as clicking OK and Escape is the same as clicking Cancel.

7: Up-To-Date Message Indicator

When you see this visual cue, you have a new message from Alien Skin Software. Click here to open a web page containing the message. Up-To-Date messages are usually announcements of updates, new products, or the monthly newsletter.

8: Tabs

The Settings Tab lets you quickly select a preset or one of your saved custom settings. Click the Basic tab to see more controls for the filter. In some filters, there may be other tabs present. You can click on each one to see more controls.

9: Preview Area

Preview the effect on your image here. Resize the filter window to make the preview area larger or smaller.

10: In-Preview Control

Different filters have different in-preview controls. Typically, all of them can be manipulated by dragging the lines and/or the control points with the mouse.

11: Progress Bar and Magnification Indicator

While the preview is being drawn, a progress bar is drawn to the left of the magnification indicator. The magnification indicator shows the current zoom level of the preview.

12: Menu Bar

Edit Menu

The Edit menu provides an unlimited ability to undo or redo changes. The Edit menu also lets you copy, cut, and paste values from parameter fields.

View Menu

The View menu lets you zoom the preview in and out. You can display the entire image in the preview window.

Help Menu

From the Help menu you can read the PDF manual. There are Help menu entries that go to the following places on the Alien Skin Web site:

Video Tutorials

Eye Candy Product Web Page

Alien Skin Software’s Home Page

Online Forums

Support Knowledgebase

Up-To-Date Messages

Also from the Help menu you can Activate or Deactivate your installed copy of Eye Candy.

ToolTip Help

Whenever you move your cursor over a user interface element, a short description appears as a tooltip.

Here’s a closer look at the Tabs.

Figure 02 – The Settings Tab.

Figure 03 – The Basic Tab.

Figure 04 – The Lighting Tab.

Figure 05 – The Bevel Profile Tab.

Conclusion:

I spent way too much time playing with different photos and applying different filter effect settings. Alien Skin’s Eye Candy 6 does have some very nice realistic filters that can be applied to your work really fast with great looking results.
I really like Alien Skin's software because it’s easy to use and you can save as many of your own unique settings as you like and use them later on different images. This plug-in should be useful for most Designer’s who don’t have time to create the effects themselves.

Suggested Retail $249.00
Discounted upgrade pricing is available for registered owners of the following products: Eye Candy 3.0 (Mac), Eye Candy 3.0 (Win), Eye Candy 4000, Eye Candy 5 Textures, Eye Candy 5 Nature, Eye Candy 5 Impact.

Alien skin offers a free 30-day evaluation that you can download today from their website.

MARKS 5 out of 5.

System Requirements:

Windows:

Intel Pentium 4 processor (or compatible).

Windows XP or later.Minimum system requirements 1024 MB RAM.

1024x768 or greater monitor resolution.

Macintosh:

PowerPC G5 processor or Intel processor.

Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later.

Minimum system requirements 1024 MB RAM.

1024x768 or greater monitor resolution.

Recommended System Requirements for Windows and Macintosh

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo

RAM: 2 GB

This product requires one of the following host applications:

Adobe Photoshop CS3 or later.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0.1 or later on Mac.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 or later on Windows.

Adobe Fireworks CS4.

Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2.

Examples

Figure 08 – After applying Perspective Shadow to the Chess piece, Marble (customized) to the Chess piece and board and Water Drops – Crime Scene (customized).

Figure 09 - After applying, texture – brick wall, text & selection – snow drift, dusting only light with customized settings. Perspective Shadow – Drop at an angle of 7px.

Figure 10 – After applying, chrome – Round, Mountains and Extrude. Texture, Wood.

Figure 11 – After applying fire – large candle (customized) and smoke – wispy large blown out candle (customized).

Eye Candy 6

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