Getting Started

Welcome

Welcome to Eye Candy 5: Textures (Textures), a set of 10 plug-in effects for Photoshop and other compatible graphics host programs.

What’s New

This section lists the new filters, features, and improvements added to Textures.

New Filters

Textures adds four new effects to the Eye Candy family of filters:

• Brick Wall—Simulates six brick patterns.

• Diamond Plate—Produces a reflective, stamped metal surface.

• Reptile Skin—Creates snake and lizard skin.

• Stone Wall—Creates realistic stone and mortar effects.

Interface Changes

Several interface improvements appear in Textures:

• Improved Settings management—settings are now accessed under the Settings tab. You can create, manage, save, share and backup settings.

• UpToDate—a messaging system we will use to communicate with our users. See the UpToDate Messages section for more details.

• Intra-product navigation—switch from one Eye Candy 5 filter set to another from within the Textures user interface.

Changes to Existing Filters

Besides the aforementioned user interface changes and new filters, Eye Candy veterans will notice the following updates to pre-existing filters:

• Animal Fur—formerly Fur, Animal Fur now simulates six fur patterns.

• Marble—adds two new styles of marble reproduction.

• Swirl—offers options to swirl a solid color chosen in the user interface, as well as to align swirls with original image details.

• Texture Noise—formerly HSB Noise, Texture Noise adds three new texture patterns and the option to add texture to a solid color chosen in the user interface.

• Weave—adds three new woven patterns.

• Wood—breaks wood into planks to simulate hardwood floors and more.

UpToDate Messages

The UpToDate messaging system keeps you informed about the latest Alien Skin Software products, special offers, software updates and other news.

When you receive a message, an unobtrusive visual cue announces, "Click here for new messages from Alien Skin Software." Click this link to read your new messages. See the interface example below:

Customizing UpToDate Preferences

Receiving messages is optional. You can specify the intervals at which your UpToDate system checks for messages. To customize your UpToDate message preferences, use the following instructions:

1. In any Textures filter, Click Edit > Preferences.

2. Select the frequency at which you would like the UpToDate system to check for new messages. If you don’t want to receive messages, select Never.

Windows users: If you have a dial-up Internet connection, you should select the Ask me before making an Internet connection option. If not, your computer will make unexpected phone calls.

Macintosh users: If you have a dial-up Internet connection, deselect the Ask me before making an Internet connection option. You must establish an Internet connection before receiving UpToDate messages.

3. Click OK.

Seamless Tiling

Every filter in Textures comes equipped with a Seamless Tile option. Seamless tiles are rectangular images that fit together like a puzzle when lined up next to each other.

Note: Seamless tiles should only be used for specialized jobs, such as desktop wallpaper, Web backgrounds or 3-D graphics. Don’t use this feature unless you have to.

To get the best results when creating seamless tiles, you should follow a few simple guidelines:

• Seamless tiles are always rectangular. Don’t try to ram a square peg in a round hole.

• Don’t use tiny tiles. Small tiles create obvious repetitive patterns in tiling applications.

• If you intend to use seamless tiling, select the Seamless Tile option before you tweak the effect. If you don’t, the filter may need to stretch the texture disproportionately.

When you select the Seamless Tile option, certain features will be disabled or severely constrained. For example, Wood tiles cannot have knots and rotation controls snap to major angles, like 45 or 90 degrees.

Eye Candy 5 Release Schedule

Eye Candy 4000 is being upgraded in three parts, the first of which is Eye Candy 5: Textures. Each upgrade will contain 10 filters. The other two upgrades to Eye Candy 5 will be released separately by the summer of 2005.

Host Requirements

Textures is a plug-in; you must use it with one of the following compatible host programs.

Macintosh Hosts

• Adobe Photoshop 7 or later

• Adobe Photoshop Elements 2 or later

• Macromedia Fireworks MX 2004 or later

Windows Hosts

• Adobe Photoshop 7 or later

• Adobe Photoshop Elements 2 or later

• Macromedia Fireworks MX 2004 or later

• Jasc Paint Shop Pro 8 or later

System Requirements

Macintosh Systems

• 500 MHz PowerPC G3 processor

• 256 MB RAM

• Mac OS X 10.2.6 or later

Windows Systems

• 1 GHz Pentium III processor

• 256 MB RAM

• Windows 2000 or Windows XP

User Interface

Menus

Command menus are accessible when you launch any Textures filter. Macintosh users will see the menus in place of their usual menu bar. Windows users will see the menus at the top of the filter preview window.

Edit Menu

This menu allows you an unlimited number of Undos and Redos. If you experiment with the sliders, and find that you prefer a previous group of settings, simply use the Undo command in the Edit menu, or use Command + Z (Control + Z on Windows machines) to back up as many times as necessary.

The Edit menu also allows you to copy, cut, paste and delete values from parameter fields.

Filters Menu

This menu allows you to switch between filters in the Textures user interface. Photoshop users note that if you switch between filters in the Textures preview, the Actions, History, and Last Filter Used functions record the filter you initially selected.

View Menu

This menu allows you to zoom the preview in and out. To display the preview at 100% magnification, select Actual Pixels. See the Keyboard Shortcuts section for more options.

Help Menu

The Help menu leads to local documentation and online Web pages. Clicking Help > Filter accesses filter-specific documentation. The same assistance can be reached by pressing F1 (Windows) or Help (Macintosh).

To access a Table of Contents for the online help, click Help > Contents.

User Interface Window

Slider Controls (A)

Slider controls and radio buttons appear along the left side of the filter window. These controls perform most functions in our filters. Refer to the filter chapters for detailed slider descriptions.

Thumbnail Navigation (B)

Click and drag the movable red box to move the preview to any spot in the selected layer.

Move, Zoom and Show Original (C)

The Move (hand), Zoom (magnifying glass) and Show Original buttons are found above the preview window.

Click the hand to enable the Move tool, then click and drag to move around the preview image.

Click the magnifying glass to enable the Zoom tool. Click in the preview window to zoom into your image; Command + click to zoom out (Alt + click for Windows users). Double-clicking the Zoom tool at any time resets the preview window to 100% magnification.

The Show Original button toggles the preview between filtered and unfiltered versions of your image. Click and hold the button to view the unaffected image. Release the button to preview the effect.

UpToDate Message Indicator (D)

When you see this visual cue, you have a new message from Alien Skin Software. See the UpToDate section for more details.

OK and Cancel Buttons (E)

Clicking the OK button applies the filter with the current settings. Clicking Cancel closes the filter window without applying the effect.

Mouseover Help String Area (F)

Elements in each filter have mouseover help text. Whenever you move your cursor over a user interface element, a short description appears in the bottom left corner of the window.

Preview Window Area (G)

Preview the effect on your image here. The preview area can be resized by clicking and dragging any corner or edge of the filter window.

Progress Bar (H)

The rectangle to the left of the magnification indicator displays the percentage of rendering completed.

Magnification Indicator (I)

The current level of magnification is shown to the right of the render status bar at the lower right corner of the filter window.

Using Settings

The Settings tab in each filter window allows you to create, manage, download, share and back up your favorite filter recipes.

To use a setting, simply click the Settings tab and highlight the desired setting in the list.

Saving Settings

To save a setting:

1. Adjust sliders to taste.

2. Click the Settings Tab.

3. Click the Save button.

4. Type a name for your new setting into the Save Setting window.

5. Click OK.

Renaming Settings

To rename a setting:

1. Click the Settings Tab.

2. Click Manage.

3. Highlight the setting that you want to rename.

4. Click Rename.

5. Type in the new name.

6. Click Close.

Deleting Settings

To delete a setting:

1. Click Manage.

2. Highlight the setting you wish to delete.

3. Click Delete.

4. Confirm that you want to delete the setting by clicking Yes.

Exporting Settings

When you export a setting, Textures packs your filter recipe into a tiny file, which you can share with friends. You can also use the export feature to back up settings that you can’t live without. To export a setting:

1. Click Manage.

2. Highlight the setting you want to export.

3. Click Export.

4. Navigate to the location where you want to store the settings file.

5. Click OK.

Importing Settings

Textures provides two ways to extract and route settings to any installed Eye Candy 5 filter set. The first method, is the simplest way to import shared or archived settings:

1. Find the setting that you want to add to Textures.

2. Double-click it.

3. Click OK.

You’re done.

If you prefer doing things the hard way, use the following method:

1. From within the Textures user interface, click the Settings tab.

2. Click Manage.

3. Click Import.

4. Navigate to the location where you’ve stored the setting.

5. Click Open.

6. Click Close to exit the settings management interface.

E-mailing Settings

To email a setting:

1. Click Manage.

2. Highlight the setting you wish to e-mail.

3. Click E-Mail.

4. If your e-mail client is compatible with our settings manager, a message will pop up like magic, with the setting attached. Yay!

Eudora, Outlook, Microsoft Entourage (Mac), Apple Mail and Outlook Express work great. Netscape Mail is not compatible with our e-mail feature.

Resetting Settings to Factory Default

Every filter has a Factory Default setting. Clicking this setting resets the current filter parameters. You can also press the F5 (Windows) or Command + R (Macintosh) key to reset the filter.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut Function

Macintosh

Windows

Next Editable Text Field

Tab

Tab

Previous Editable Text Field

Shift + Tab

Shift + Tab

OK

Return

Return

Cancel

Escape

Escape

Undo

Command + Z

Control + Z

Redo

Command + Y

Control + Y

Cut

Command + X

Control + X

Copy

Command + C

Control + C

Paste

Command + V

Control + V

Next Filter

Command + ]

Control + ]

Previous Filter

Command + [

Control + [

Zoom In

Command + +

Control + +

Zoom Out

Command + -

Control + -

Actual Pixels

Option + Command + Zero

Alt + Control + Zero

Restore Default Settings

Command + R

F5

Load Last Used Setting

Command + L

Ctrl + L

Save Setting

Command + S

Ctrl + S

Switch to Move Tool (hand)

H

H

Switch to Zoom Tool

Z

Z

Zoom In (with zoom enabled)

Mouse Click

Left Mouse Click

Zoom Out

Option + Mouse Click

Alt + Mouse Click

Zoom to Actual Pixels

Double-click Zoom Tool

Double-click Zoom Tool

Increase/Decrease Slider by 1

Up /Down Arrow

Up /Down Arrow

Increase/Decrease Slider by 10

Shift + Up/Down Arrow

Shift + Up/Down Arrow

Access Online Help

Command + / or Help

F1