PLUG-IN MODULES aren't just for Adobe Photoshop anymore. Video programs such as Adobe Premiere and Adobe After Effects take advantage of plug-in architecture in order to let you create advanced special effects as well as add soundtracks to video. But if Photoshop is your bag, there's still plenty to choose from.
Final Effects 3.0. Not content with conquering the world of Photoshop plug-ins with Kai's Power Tools, MetaTools (nee HSC Software) has released a cluster of filters for Adobe After Effects 3.0. Final Effects contains more than two dozen modules for creating such special video effects as shattering glass, falling rain, exploding stars, bouncing balls, and drifting smoke as well as for adding distortion and transition effects such as vortex, lens, and tile. Production-oriented modules let you composite images onto one layer, create masks on images without an alpha channel, and alter the color value of each channel. $695. 805-566-6200.
AudioTrack. Adding sound to video is easier to do with Waves' AudioTrack, an audio-processing plug-in that works with Adobe Premiere, DigiDesign's SoundDesigner II and Pro Tools, OSC Deck 2.5, Opcode's Studio Vision 3.0, and others. The Power Macintosh-native plug-in offers several of the top features of Waves' high-end DSP cards, such as a four-band graphic equalizer, a compressor/expander, and stereo and mono modes. $300. 423-588-9472.
plugINFINITE. And if you have more plug-ins than you can handle (hint: your Mac takes 15 minutes to launch Photoshop), you're a candidate for plugINFINITE, a plug-in manager from BeInfinite. This application lets you create sets of plug-ins so you load only the filters you need at any given time. You can also use it to rename plug-ins and reorder them according to your work flow. $29. 800-554-6624 or 510-420-0417.
Picture This
CANNED PHOTOS of people at play usually make me gag, but PhotoDisc's new People and Lifestyles, Volume 28, CD-ROM is refreshingly different. First off, it features an ethnically diverse cast -- not just bland blonds grinning. Second, the scenes seem natural and unforced, not cloyingly posed. 336 RGB TIFF images (72 and 300 dpi). $299.
But if artifice is what you're looking for, check out PhotoDisc's The Fine Art Series of historical prints, posters, and paintings. Choose from turn-of-the-century magazine drawings in American Fine Art and Illustration, Renaissance masterpieces in European Paintings, art deco advertisements in European Posters, and views of the world circa 1600 in Antique Maps and Illustrations. 100 RGB TIFF images (72 and 300 dpi). $149 each or $499 for all four through March 31. 800-528-3472 or 206-441-9355.
For a more contemporary feel, although with a decidedly retr flair, Classic PIO Partners' CD-ROMs of Hollywood props fill the bill. The latest disc in the company's Photographic Image Objects library is Classic Entertainment, Volume 1, featuring items redolent of the Gilded Age of cinema -- starlets' dressing tables, popcorn machines, 3-D glasses, movie cameras, and so on. Ready, Mr. DeMille. 40 RGB TIFF images (72 and 300 dpi) with channel masks. $70. 800-370-2746 or 818-564-8106.
People and Lifestyles, Volume 28
American Fine Art and Illustration
Classic Entertainment, Volume 1
European Paintings
Fine Print
Updated Monthly
SIFTING THROUGH piles of information about publishing and graphics is hard enough, but keeping up-to-date with all the software that helps you do your job is even harder. En-ter Design Tools Monthly. A kind of Reader's Digest for publishers, this newsletter condenses pithy product information, hands-on tips and tricks, and industry news -- all culled from magazines such as this one. Thanks to Jay J. Nelson's crisp editing, the information is concise and provides pointers to the original text for more-in-depth reading. You can also subscribe to its software-updater service. Each month, you receive a floppy with the latest updates and bug fixes to popular programs -- a recent disk contained Connectix's RAM Doubler 1.6 updater, for instance -- as well as a bunch of shareware and freeware, including utilities, fonts, QuarkXPress XTensions, and so on. The newsletter costs $99 for one year and the disk service is $129; order both for $198. (Prices for international subscribers are $129, $159, and $258, respectively.) 303-444-6876.
