The Effect system is a new feature in version 2 of Photogenics that permits more complex image processing effects than are possible through paintmodes, and also has the advantage of working with the Virtual Image system.
Effects are modules, not unlike the GIO system (so look out for more effects on Aminet, via PD libraries, on magazine coverdisks, etc.) which can be loaded and applied to an image. There are three ways to use an effect:
The effect is only applied to the selected area. This works slightly differently for normal buffers and for Virtual Images.
On a normal buffer, any area that is covered by the current paintlayer will be affected. So to apply the effect to a rectangular area of the screen, select the filled rectangle paint tool, draw a rectangle over the area you wish to affect (but do NOT fix it), and Apply Selected the effect. This becomes far more useful when you use a tool such as the Air Brush to select the area. You can spray paint over an area of an image, and use the Plasma effect (for example) to produce a Plasma image only within the area you selected (and smoothly blended into your original image). The potential for this is almost limitless!
On a Virtual Image the selected region is the rectanguar region you can mark with the mouse. You cannot use normal draw tools to select a region on a Virtual Image.
Not all effects can be applied to a selected area of a Virtual Image, although they all can be applied to a selected region of a normal buffer.
Another extremely powerful and unique new feature is the ability to apply certain effects to the paintlayer. This means the paintlayer, which you can build up with the normal draw tools, the Add Text option, etc. can be manipulated as a seperate layer without affecting the original 24-bit image underneath.
Circles and other paint tools can be made smooth by applying a Blur effect to the paintlayer.
The Plasma, Noise and Paper effects are examples of effects that can generate patterns into the paintlayer for you. Try generating a plasma into a paintlayer, changing the paintmode to 'Paint' and the colour to white to get a superb cloudy effect over your image. Now try Perspective effect or Wave on the paintlayer! Try doing this stuff with your crummy old paint program! :-)
View information on the Effects themselves...