Review: Filter Forge

Are you fed up with wasting your time scouring the web for a specific texture or pattern, only to be left empty-handed? Well, Filter Forge provides a sophisticated set of presets and adjustment options so you can just create what you want and then import this into your Photoshop projects. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Well, that’s because it is.

Filter Forge complements your Photoshop workflow and will excite as well as satisfy photomanipulation and 3D-based designers. The whole idea of creating your own textures may seem complicated, but Filter Forge makes this simple even for design enthusiasts.

From the off, the Filter Forge interface is easy to judge. First of all, you can select your desired style from a list of predetermined categories. These include tangible examples, such as Organic, Techno and Stone. Each of these provides its own set of styles, which in turn serve up multiple sub-presets. From here, you are able to choose from some delectable effects as your creative starting points.

Once you have established which effect is suitable for your project, you can get to work on it by selecting the Filter Forge Settings options. Here, you can control a whole host of creative attributes. Color 1 and Color 2 options allow you to establish the two tones of your effect. Altering the Color Variation slidebar establishes your tonality; the lower the amount, the flatter the tonal effect will be, and vice versa.

The Frequency option will establish the exposure in your produced texture or pattern, thus establishing the illusion of depth. This is an important factor for 3D-based and photorealistic artists. Roughness sets the contour of your image effect. Decreasing the value of this option will produce complementary effects for those looking to create smooth and synthetic effects in their projects; vice versa suits those looking for more textural and organic outcomes.

Below these filter-specific controls are the Global Parameters. These settings are common for all filters and include Size, which establishes the scale of the entire filter output. This is extremely useful when establishing whether a smaller detailed or sprawling texture effect is more suitable, which is great for figurative artists working with portrait and full-profile stock. The Variations slider does as exactly as you would expect, producing random variations of the filter’s look.

Activating the Seamless Tiling option will result in Filter Forge producing a pattern from your effect with no visible seams. This is great for producing patterns for texturing backgrounds and creating website backdrops. Filter Forge textures and patterns are not reliant on external bitmaps, which means that any effect that you create can be rendered in any resolution without losing detail. This is a real godsend for those working with large file sizes.

But where Filter Forge truly excels is in its Filter Editor options. Here, you can personalise effects further through node-based components. These have multiple inputs create one desired output. There are three types: map components, curve components and control components. Each component type performs a different class of tasks and includes Blur, Levels, Curves, Color Swatches and many more. Master these and you’ll be making unique, attractive examples in no time.

Summary: The basic settings provide competent results, but invest time in the Filter Editor options to really master this software. In general, an entertaining and extremely valuable resource for digital artists.

Score: 8/10

Details:

Manufacturer: Filter Forge
Web: www.filterforge.com
Price: Standard Edition $199 (approximately £95); Professional Edition $299 (approximately £143); other
versions available
Spec: PC: Windows 2000/XP/Vista, Pentium III 733MHz or better, 128MB RAM, 50MB free hard disk space
Mac: Mac OS X 10.4 and higher, G4, G5 or Intel CPU, 256MB RAM, 80MB free disk space
Screen resolution of 1,024 x 768 or higher
Internet connection in order to access the Filter Library and submit filters