"Dreams inspire our creativity. They give us hope and move our lives. They dwell in our imagination and feed us with purpose"…. Auto FX has software to enhance your images and explore your creativity. One of my favorite collections is the Auto FX Photographic Edges. I have the 10,000edge collection. I use it all the time to add that extra special something to the image edges. Dream Suite it the latest software release from Auto FX. Dream Suite Series 1 is a collection of 18 premium visual effects that is fast becoming one of my favorite collections of effects. I have been working with a lot of photos lately and several of the effects have enabled me to create the exact effect I was looking for; aged photos with realistic photo borders.

To the left is the original image I worked with. The effect I chose to use on it was the 35mm color 4. Remember that there are 17 other effects to choose from and that each effect is completely customizable. By using the Effects Control Tab, Surface Controls Tab, Environment Controls Tab, and the Lighting Controls Tab, (available in most of the effects) there are countless numbers of possibilities that you can do with each of these effects. The tools are designed to make it easy for the user to work with but the applications itself is working with many tasks to create the effects being applied to the project. This may process may take a bit of time to complete because of the all the selections that it is applying and yet it has yet to crash or slow down on me while it is working. The application works very well on my overloaded system! A new release came out after I received the first version, it runs on less memory (1/2 what the first version used), loads twice as fast, and renders faster.

This is the interface for the effects. The interface itself is also customizable. It has a large selection of colors that can be applied to it. You can make it match any color scheme that you like! What a nice feature to include. I’m not often unhappy with the color of something but I really like knowing that I could change the color scheme if I didn’t like it. In this image on the left, the flower photo that was opened in Jasc Paint Shop Pro, is now open in the Dream Suite work space. The Effects button has been selected, the menu selection list for the 18 effects is open, 35mm was selected, and then the last menu is the list of options for that effect. Next we will look at the Controls tabs that can be adjusted to customize and look that you would like to add to the effect.

In this shot you can see that the 35mm effect has been applied to the flower photo. At this point, the image can be left as is and okay clicked to apply this effect as is or adjusted to change numerous features. To experiment with other options, any of the features on the four control tabs can be applied. They can also be saved so that the exact same effect can be repeated at a future time. To save the first effect to revert back to and then make other adjustments, click on a memory dot. Then if you don’t like the changes you just made you can return to the first effect that was applied. Looking at the shot of the interface, there is a row of buttons on the top left and the three circular options on the right of them. The memory dot feature is in the center of those three round buttons. At any point, when you are changing the image effect settings you can return to the beginning effect by clicking the first memory dot. You can also save other features that you may like on other memory dots and then return back to that place.

This is the control tools panel. There are many features here that can be changed to create nearly any look you want. The shot here does not show the entire set of options. You can see a long slider bar along side the Surface Controls sliders that scrolls down the control panel with even more items to work with. . Shown here under the Effect name, are the controls. Not every effect has these four options. Several of the features available under these tabs are – Effect Controls: Frame Age, Image Age, Frame Color, Curl Shading, Edge Height, Corner Rounding, Bevel settings and more. Under The Surface Controls: Surface Sheen, Sheen Width, Surface Dirt, Reflective, Reflection Bar – PurpleDawn, Gold, Steel, Graphite, Silver, BlueNoise, Blue Silk, Color Twirl, CrabClaw, etc. (colors) – Hue, Saturation, Luminance, Softness, Orientation Settings, Refractive, Texture Options: Canvas, Dimpled, Cloth, Asphalt, Brain Coral, Egg Shell, plus others – Surface Strength, Imprint Size, and another Orientation selection. The Environment Controls include adjustments for Glassiness, Hue, Saturation, Luminance, and more. The Lighting Controls adjust the light color, ambient light, glare strength, direction, etc. Each of adjustments made on these tabs can be viewed by clicking the Render Button on the upper portion of the interface. The light sources and shadows can be added in an unlimited number and each of them can have independent controls. As you can see by the vast selection of controls, every aspect of the effect can be customized to create a unique look.

There are also other tools on the right of the panel that give you more photo manipulation options. The top button is the Transform tool. Use this to select, move, rotate, stretch, and scale the effect/35mm frame. Beneath that is the Cone Effect tool, then the Transform Photo tool. This tool is used to select, move, scale, stretch, and rotate the photo inside the effect frame. The bottom button is the Load Photo tool. It is used to load a new image inside the effect. The Surface controls tab is the second option in the tabs (icons) across the top of the tool interface. On the top of the control panel, the effect selected is shown.

This is the finished effect. The original photo of the flowers is now inside a 35mm frame. It has a silver-blue finish. We use greyscale images in the newsletter so you don’t get to see the colors. The photo inside the 35mm frame can be sized and move to select any area not just center the image inside the frame. The effects possibilities are limitless. To make the image look older another effect can be added or the selections on the tabs can be used to age the frame. To age the entire image, a second effect would need to be applied. The effect applied here is very realistic. The photo looks like it was always part of the frame that surrounds it instead of having the frame applied as an effect to enhance it. Another great look with these images is to layer several of them one on top of the other, rotate each slightly, so that only a corner or section is showing and it will look like several images laying together in a pile.

35mm                             Instamatic

Chisel                             Liquid Metal

Crackle                            Metal Mixer

Crease                             PhotoBorder

Cubism                            PhotoDepth

Deckle                             PhotoTone

Dimension X                     Putty

Focus                               Ripple

Hot Stamp                        Tape

The file formats supported (loading & saving) are: .psd, .tif, .bmp, .jpg, .png, and .gif. If the file is saved in a .psd which is the Photoshop extension, it will export the effect onto a layered document with full transparency. The software also has live updating, will run on single or dual processor machines, Mac or Windows.

Effects, filters, or whatever term you apply to the element that changes your images from the ordinary to the extraordinary, Dream Suite will take you there. I highly recommend this or any other product that I have used from the Auto FX line. On a personal note, my evaluation copy of Dream Suite Series 1 did not come in a box like the software would normally be sold to consumers. It came in a folder, many things I get come this way. Most folders are not particularly interesting from a graphics point of view. This folder was beautifully done. The actual CD which is pastel shades and very pretty, was set into a clear window and the rest of the design was on the folder cover, it completed a beautiful dragonfly. The inside has great images of the effects and again beautiful use of colors. Detail like this is what draws our attention to products and shows that the company goes the extra mile to make all the packaging creative and appealing to their customers. Well done, Auto FX! I hope I see this design on the box of an upcoming release in the series. Dream Suite Series 1 retails for $299.

Click Here to view images I made using the Dimension X Effect

Other Examples

Cracks & Aging

Crease

Deckle and Deckle Tear

Instamatic & PhotoEdge

Ripple

Putty

Chisel    PhotoBorder    Tape

Liquid Metal    PhotoTone    Dimension X

[ Back ] [ Up ] [ Next ]