Alien Skin upgrades Snap Art with new features, better algorithms

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Snap Art 3 product packaging. Rendering provided by Alien Skin Software LLC.

Alien Skin upgrades Snap Art with new features, better algorithms
By Mike Tomkins
(Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - 18:01 EDT)

Alien Skin Software LLC has today announced the release of a new version of its Snap Art plugin, which lets users turn their photographs into artworks simulating a wide variety of styles.

Alien Skin Snap Art 3, available immediately, makes quite a range of changes over the previous release. The user interface has been overhauled, and Snap Art 3 groups all its filters into a single interface, so that photographers no longer need exit Snap Art to change media types. New presets such as a crayon filter have been added, and the stroke algorithms have been updated to provide better stroke placement with sharper edges, ensuring people are more clearly recognizable in the final artwork. It's also now possible to brush finer detail back into specific areas of an image using a detail mask function, where Snap Art 2 offered only oval focus regions.

Snap Art 3 offers over 150 presets in eleven main categories -- color pencil, comics, crayon, impasto, oil paint, pastel, pen & ink, pencil sketch, pointillism, stylize, and watercolor, alongside which there's a favorites category that groups some of the most popular effects from the other categories. Each preset can be refined to control the look of the effect, as well as the image tone, lighting, and vignetting, and the canvas type on which the effect should be overlaid. It's also possible to save your own effects as user settings, view a variety of split-image modes showing the original and retouched versions of the picture, and even to upload an image to Flickr directly from the plugin, with the current settings applied.

Pricing for Alien Skin Snap Art 3 is set at around US$200, and owners of previous versions may upgrade for around $100. Customers who've purchased Snap Art 2 since April should automatically receive a free upgrade to the new release. Snap Art 3 requires at least Adobe Photoshop CS4, Photoshop Elements 7, or Photoshop Lightroom 2, and is available on both the Windows XP SP3+ or Mac OS X 10.5+ platforms.

Original Image

Oil paint (fine brush) filter

Pastel (vivid) filter

Stylize filter

Comics filter

Color pencil (landscape - colorful) filter

Pencil sketch (landscape - more detail) filter

A comparison of some of the preset effects possible in Alien Skin Snap Art 3.
Images copyright 2011, Michael R. Tomkins. All rights reserved.

Original Source Press Release:

Alien Skin Software Ships Snap Art 3 Artistic Natural Media Plug-In for Photoshop

Photos are quickly turned into paintings or sketches that look handmade. New intelligent stroke placement creates clean edges and natural stroke patterns. New tools make it easy to mark areas that should get more detail.

RALEIGH, N.C., July 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Alien Skin Software today announces the immediate availability of Snap Art® 3, the new version of its artistic natural media plug-in for Adobe® Photoshop®, Photoshop Elements, and Photoshop Lightroom®. Snap Art turns a photo into a beautiful work of art that looks completely handmade. You make the creative choices while Snap Art takes care of all the tedious work of drawing brush strokes.

"I think our Snap Art fans will be impressed with how much more natural the results are in version 3," said Tom Welsh, the designer of Snap Art. "The new interface makes it extremely easy to create custom artistic effects."

Beauty
Snap Art can render hundreds of styles and media, such as oil paint, watercolor, pencil sketch, and newly added ones like crayon. It is easy to try different styles until you find the perfect look to capture the natural beauty of the subject.

Snap Art mimics the techniques of human artists, such as layered brush strokes and enhancement of important edges. Version 3 uses more refined stroke placement, making the subject natural and recognizable.

With Snap Art 3's improved realism, portrait photographers can offer elegant paintings as a premium service. Once a Snap Art creation is printed on canvas and framed, it looks like a handcrafted work of art.

Ease of Use
Using Snap Art simply requires a creative idea, not hand-eye coordination or technical training. Simply browse the presets to find a style appropriate for your photo. You can tweak a few sliders to customize the look, but most of the time this is not necessary.

If you do want more control, the new detail mask lets you quickly mark areas where you want the subject to be clearer. This lets you make a portrait absolutely perfect for crucial jobs like wedding portraits.

The Snap Art 3 interface has been completely redesigned for better ease of use. All the presets are now in one place for easier browsing. The preview is also progressively rendered to give faster feedback.

Pricing and Availability
Snap Art 3 is available through www.alienskin.com for $199 USD. Owners of Snap Art 1 or 2 may upgrade for $99 USD. Free upgrades were automatically sent to everyone who purchased Snap Art 2 directly from Alien Skin Software in April 2011 or later.

Host Requirements
Snap Art 3 is a plug-in and requires one of the following host applications:

Adobe Photoshop CS4 or later
Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 or later
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 or later

System Requirements
Microsoft Windows users must have at least a Pentium 4 processor or compatible and Windows XP SP3 or later. Apple Macintosh users must have an Intel processor and Mac OS X 10.5 or later. A monitor with 1024x768 resolution or greater is required.

About Alien Skin Software
Alien Skin Software makes Photoshop plug-ins for photographers and graphic designers. We distill advanced math and cutting edge research into simple tools that render beautiful pictures. Our reputation for bug-free software and fast, friendly tech support has grown worldwide since 1993. For more information, visit our website at www.alienskin.com.

Snap Art, Alien Skin Software, and the Alien Skin Software logo are registered trademarks of Alien Skin Software, LLC. Adobe, Lightroom, and Photoshop are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Snap Art 3's user interface, showing a masked-out (pink) area on the mountain where extra detail will be retained.
Screenshot provided by Alien Skin Software LLC.

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