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FEBRUARY 19, 2004 Synthetik Studio Artist 3.0
MSG filters And, finally, we come to the major new category of effects in Studio Artist 3.0: MSG filters. Unlike most of the other features in Studio Artist, MSG filters are not created within the program itself, though they do have some modifiable parameters. They're created in an external application that Synthetik has not yet released many details about. But for Studio Artist users, it amount to a nearly endless supply of potential third-party effects. As it stands, Studio Artist 3.0 ships with hundreds of the things, so you won't run out any time soon.[an error occurred while processing this directive]MSG (or "Modular Synthesized Graphics," for those of you taking notes for the quiz later) is a new category of tools that includes one-click actions for creating effects on your images. What kinds of effects? As far as I can see, any kind. The ones included with Studio Artist range from sketch effects all the way down to weird texture overlays. Here are some examples of the effects placed over a source image that contains an alpha channel.  The way MSG filters work in Studio Artist is fairly simple. You switch over to the MSG category in your presets, select the filter you want to use (which is represented visually and accessible through a pull-down menu) and click the Action button. Whatever parameters are available for a given MSG filter can also be adjusted in a separate MSG panel, with real-time feedback of the effect for the changes you make.  The MSG filters are a welcome addition to Studio Artist and something that will be enjoyable to watch develop over the years. They represent yet another massive collection of methods for manipulating your image in an already expansive application. Vectorization Also completely new in Studio Artist 3.0 are tools for vectorizing raster images. You've seen things like this before in programs like Adobe Streamline, Macromedia Freehand and Creature House Expression. Basically, vectorization tools let you import a piece of raster artwork (such as a photograph), simplify it and output the result as editable vectors. And the same holds true for the Vectorizer in Studio Artist. But, once again, Synthetik couldn't just let it go at that. So you wind up not just with basic vectorization, with an attempt to reproduce the original image as closely as possible, but also several vectorization styles--colorization (from a palette or source image), color simplification, pattern creation, etc. You also get the ability to create your own vectorization presets or use any of the 30-odd presets included with the program.  Also unlike other vectorization applications, in Studio Artist, you're not limited to a measly 40 to 256 colors in the conversion process. The example below was vectorized using 2,000 colors in about four minutes (on a dual 1 GHz G4) and 8,000 colors (eight minutes).  Ever seen a conversion like that before? No? That's because other vectorization schemes are limited in the number of colors they can produce, probably owing to concerns about slow performance, memory or other issues that can result from having that many vectors on screen at once. And, with Studio Artist, you could conceivably crank things up even higher, though I have no idea what you'd ever be able to do with that many paths. (You will need to increase the colors, however, if you source image has a wider color palette than the one I used--a sky background, for example.) So vectorization in Studio Artist is used as both an effect--for creating cartoon styles, fracture effects or what have you--and a conversion utility for those who need to their raster images converted to EPS. Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next Related sites: • Animation Artist • AV Video • Creative Mac • Digital Animators • Digital Media Designer • Digital Post Production • Digital Producer • Digital Video Editing • DV Format • Film and Video Magazine • The WWUG Related forums: [an error occurred while processing this directive] 
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