2674 Auto FX Software
$299 (US) estimated Street Price
Requires Mac OS 9, full support for OS X
128 MB RAM minimum, 256 MB or more STRONGLY recommended
Why do graphic program designers want to re-engineer the
Mac interface? Why do they choose "bad" so often?
Like Kai's PhotoFactory (see
review),
DreamSuite is a feature strong program that kills itself by
straying from the standard Mac interface and becomes not fun
to use as a result. This is especially annoying because I
like what it does and am very impressed with the final
results.
DreamSuite provides 18 different effects to graphic
images. It can be used as a standalone program and can be
placed as a plugin to programs like Photoshop. It is found
as a single item at the bottom of the Filter menu. Selected,
it opens the image in DreamSuite. This is considered "Series
One" from Auto FX Software as more variations are supposed
to be coming. Effects arriving with this set include: 35 mm
Frame, Chisel, Crackle, Crease, Cubism, Deckle, Dimension X,
Focus, Hot Stamp, Instamatic, Liquid Metal, metal Mixer,
Photo Border, Photo Depth, Photo Tone, Putty, Ripple, and
Tape.
Some of these effects are just downright beautiful, such
as the Crackle effect seen in the screen shot below. Some
seem rather simple/silly such as "Tape" that allows the user
to lay graphic pieces of tape (duct, masking, and/or
transparent tape) on a photo. The effects can be done on an
entire picture or a separate layer. Text must be rasterized
prior to running an effect.
It's a good thing that RAM is cheap now, because
DreamSuite is rather unique in that it will take as much RAM
as it can get its hand on. It seems the only limitation is
what you currently have available and it will take more as
it needs. Currently it is grabbing 390 MB of my RAM as I
write this article.
Once opened, DreamSuite also takes over your computer: As
seen below in a full screenshot, you can see some of the
problems with DreamSuite. The blue buttons on the upper left
are the menus. You also lose some of the features of
MultiFinder as the upper right corner listing of what
program you are using is now gone. There are no regular
menus. If you drag the size tab on the bottom right of the
window sufficiently to the left to cover part of the photo,
no scroll bars will appear. Like I said, this program
doesn't play fair. It wants all your computer all the time.
If you want to gain access to your computer, you can
click the Zoom Box and DreamSuite will now shrink down one
menu in height. This does give access to your Application
menu, but it acts more like a back door than anything else.
If you place your mouse over a tool, a name for the tool
will appear and later an explanation will appear letting you
know what you can do with that tool. This process took
anywhere from 5 seconds for the name to appear to about 20
seconds. I'm not sure why the variation, but I'm a proud
owner of one of those new 733 MHz Macs. My Mac is not slow.
Also notice in the example below that text bleeds off the
instruction window.
Menu draw is also slow. Menus do not crisp out in a
standard fashion, they sort of crawl. Also note below that
the sub-options do not allow for numerical order. Question:
Do you know what the difference is between Crease 17 and
Crease 19? Don't worry, I don't either. I can tell you that
they are pre-set options to provide some folding, creasing,
and rumpling of the image. Fortunately there doesn't seem to
be a cumulative effect with the presets. That is, if you
perform one preset, and then select a second preset, the
effects are not a combination of the two. Separate from the
pdf instruction manual is a pdf called "Presets." This has
graphic samples of each of the presets, so there is an
opportunity to see what they are/can do. Amusingly enough,
they are also in the same numerical order as shown in the
menus (19, 2, 20, 21, ...). If you want to have cumulative
effects, you have to save the graphic after each preset.
There is a sort of a re-look feature: if you have
selected a particular setting, you can click on one of the
eight little dots seen in the circle in the full screen
shot. If you move any of the sliders/settings to fine tune
the appearance, you can click on a different button. You can
see previous settings by remembering which button you
clicked on any given attempt, but if you change the type of
effect you are using, the buttons are all erased.
There is a Revert button, but it only reverts back to the
last selection and an unaffected document isn't considered a
selection. So, you cannot go back to an unaffected document.
As I stated, many of the effects are just plain
beautiful, but I did find what I feel is a error in
rendering: In the example on the right, you can see the
right part of an image that is creased with a fold. Once
rendered, it lays on a transparent background. DreamSuite
also provides a drop shadow. If one assumes that the photo
is intended to be lying on a flat surface, the crease would
be the part that is making contact with that surface. Since
the distance from the photo to the flat surface would govern
how long the shadow should extend, the shadow should be the
smallest at the point where the crease is because that is at
the contact point of the photo and the surface. As can be
seen, the shadow doesn't take the corner/surface contact
into consideration.
I don't mean to seem I'm attacking this program, but
considering that this is not a cheap program ($299), I do
have some serious questions on how it performs. It is not
all that fun to use because of its sluggishness, and since
there is no undo, you can only experiment and play for so
long when you realize you are wasting time.
I do hope Auto FX Software comes out with a Version 2 of
DreamSuite before they bother to release Series Two with
more special effects. What I desperately hope they do with
this program is:
Return to a standard Mac interface.
Work on speeding up the program. Again, I'm not
necessarily expecting a faster rendering of the results
of any given selection, but the program seems to lumber
in areas where it shouldn't.
Add an undo. I shouldn't have to quit a program if I
don't like what it just did.
2 does not follow 19
Give me a clue as to what Crease 21 will do within
the program--I shouldn't have to be following along with
a pdf to see simple things like preset settings.
Be friendlier to other running programs.
Batch processing.
I like what programs like DreamSuite can do. I only wish
that DreamSuite was the program that could do those neat
things and be fun to use.
Applelinks Rating
___________
Gary Coyne has been a scientific glassblower for over 30 years. He's been using Macs since 1985 (his first was a fat Mac) and has been writing reviews of Mac software and hardware since 1995.
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what I feel is a error in
rendering: In the example on the right, you can see the
right part of an image that is creased with a fold. Once
rendered, it lays on a transparent background. DreamSuite
also provides a drop shadow. If one assumes that the photo
is intended to be lying on a flat surface, the crease would
be the part that is making contact with that surface. Since
the distance from the photo to the flat surface would govern
how long the shadow should extend, the shadow should be the
smallest at the point where the crease is because that is at
the contact point of the photo and the surface. As can be
seen, the shadow doesn't take the corner/surface contact
into consideration.
