DreamSuite Series Two is the latest addition to this suite of absolutely fabulous effects. This series has 12 effects and with the purchase of this product before June 30^th, 2002, you get 2 more free effects, Dreamy Photo and Mosaic. When the first series of the DreamSuite was released, I was amazed at what could be done with them and how many effects were in the collection. Then the Gel Series came out and I thought it couldn’t possibly get any better but it has! Series two has more effects for enhancing images that are so beautiful and creative that I feel like I am in DreamSuite heaven. The creative minds at AutoFX are certainly on a roll and with each release, the effects get more and more spectacular.

I have added images to the bottom of the page so that you can see how the effects look in full color and in a larger format than we can put in the newsletter.  There’s no way that you can possibly appreciate the effects in black and white. And if you are interested in graphic design, you should see them in their natural state. I could write volumes about how wonderful these effects are but they must be seen for you to fully appreciate what these products can do. Some of them are unusual; others are simply breathtaking.

DreamSuite Series Two installs as a stand alone product and can be plugged into any Photoshop compatible application. It works with Windows 98, NT, 2000. Me, and XP. I am using it with Windows XP Professional. (It’s also available for the Mac) Installation is extremely simple, just click and follow the set up instructions. I had no problems with the installation and was using the effects in just a few minutes. I installed it, opened up Paint Shop Pro, selected the AutoFX plug-ins, and it was available along with the DreamSuite Series One and the Gel Series.

The User Interface is the same in all of the new AutoFX product releases. It’s a very nice, updated design and all of your tools are available on the left side. The interface is also customizable. If you don’t care for the default color, you can change it to one of many pastel options. I have described this interface in the two other reviews in the series and will try to keep this brief. You have a zoom tool, memory dots (select a dot before making changes and then you can return to that point by clicking on the dot), and a pan tool, followed by the DreamSuite choice selection (if more than one of the series is installed you will find them all available on this menu), below that is the tool interface with all of the selections available for the effect. These tools will vary from effect to effect. By adjusting any of these settings, you have innumerable possibilities to add to or alter the look of each effect.  Each image you create can be your own unique design by making a few adjustments with the tool options. The majority of the effects have choices of effects controls, surface controls, environment controls, and lighting controls. The effects are so easy to work with that you can begin to work with them immediately and produce stunning effects in not time at all.

Each effect also has presets selections except for the plastic wrap effect. You can let the effect add the default setting to an image, choose from any of the presets, and then edit either of these selections, save them and add it to the presets for even more choices the next time you use the effect. There’s nothing very difficult about working with these effects. They can be freely experimented with and the results are outstanding. I found that with two of the effects where applying a mask was required that I could not apply it and return to the application (I was using it as a plug-in in this instance) however by saving the image in the open DreamSuite window it saved exactly as I was viewing it. I didn’t download the guide and manual due to the size (over 13 megs each) and my slow connection to the internet so this may be more fully explained in their guides. I know that in their other manuals there were very detailed how to’s. The two effects were PlasticWrap and PhotoPress. In PlasticWrap you select a portion of the image and then add the effect. (The image of my son in a Halloween Costume) The same holds true for the PhotoPress effect. (The pansies) In the Plastic Wrap example, I drew a mask (looks like a line of marching ants) around the face of the Halloween mask, then when I applied the PlasticWrap effect it made the image look as though the head was pushing against the plastic wrap. In the PhotoPress, the purple pansies have a mask drawn around them, then the effect was applied to make the pansies look as though they were pressed down into the background of the image.

DreamSuite Series 2 Effects: