Flaming Pear Vibrant Patterns Guide

What it does

How to install

Controls

Things to try

Versions

Questions

Vibrant Patterns

What it does

Vibrant Patterns generates interesting patterns.

How to install

Illustrated installation instructions are online.

To use this software, you need a paint program which accepts standard Photoshop 3.02 plugins.

Just put the plug-in filter into the folder where your paint program expects to find it. If you have Photoshop, the folder is Photoshop:Plugins:Filters or Photoshop:Plug-Ins. You must restart Photoshop before it will notice the new plug-in. It will appear in the menus as Filters->Flaming Pear->Vibrant Patterns.

Most other paint programs follow a similar scheme.

If you have Paint Shop Pro: you have to create a new folder, put the plug-in filter into it, and then tell PSP to look there.

PSP 7:

Choose the menu File-> Preferences-> File Locations... and choose the Plug-in Filters tab. Use one of the "Browse" buttons to choose the folder that contains the plug-in.

The plugin is now installed. To use it, open any image and select an area. From the menus, choose Effects->Plug-in Filters->Flaming Pear->Vibrant Patterns.

PSP 8, 9, X, and XI:

Choose the menu File-> Preferences-> File Locations... In the dialog box that appears, choose Plug-ins from the list. Click "Add." If you are using PSP 8 or 9, click "Browse". Now choose the folder that contains the plug-in.

The plugin is now installed. To use it, open any image and select an area. From the menus, choose Effects->Plugins->Flaming Pear->Vibrant Patterns.

Controls

When you invoke Vibrant Patterns, a dialog box will appear:

Quick start |  |  |
If you just want to see some effects quickly, click the dice button until you see something you like; then click OK. Using the dice is the easiest way to use Vibrant Patterns. If you want to hand-tune your own effects, it helps to learn the controls, which are explained below. |  | dice |

Controls |  |  |

The patterns are made using three sinusoidal oscillators. They make waves of color that combine in a complicated Moiré pattern.

Since there are three oscillators, some of the following controls are repeated three times:

Mixer: Determines how much the oscillator contributes to the overall pattern. The higher the number, the more it will interfere with the other oscillators.
Setting the control to 0% turns the oscillator off.

Sharpness: Determines the sharpness the oscillation. If set to 0% you get a pure sine wave. Other values clip the signal (vertically, not horizontally).
There is a sharpness control for each oscillator. There is also one (underneath the preview) that works on the entire image

Invert: Phase inversion of the signal generated by the oscillator. It's like Invert on a Photoshop image.

The two unmarked sliders: Control the frequencies of the oscillator (and the interference between them). Low frequencies at 1, high frequencies at 200.

a vibrant pattern

Mirror: Increases symmetry by choosing one wedge of the pattern and reflecting it everywhere. |  | mirror |
Weave: Sums the oscillations rather than multipling them. |  | weave |
Density: The number of color transitions. |  | higher density |
Hues: The range of hues for the colors.. |  | different hues |
Colors: Color variations of the hues. |  | different colors |
Symmetry: Lets you choose 2-, 3-, 4-, or 5-fold symmetry. |  | symmetry 3 |
Zoom: Changes the scale of the whole pattern. Aspect: Makes the pattern 'square'. If you start with a rectangular selection and then turn Aspect off, the pattern will be squashed to fit into the rectangle. |  | zoomed in |
Smooth: Produces smooth instead of stepped color. |  | smooth vs. stepped |

Other controls |  |  |

Dice The dice choose a random effect. Click as much as you want to see different effects.

Reset Gives you the "factory settings."

Export to PSD Renders the result to a a .psd image file, which can have custom dimensions.

Glue mode popup menu Lets you combine the result with the underlying image in various ways. Modes other than "normal" produce special effects. The next-glue button advances to the next glue mode.

Info Briefly explains of the controls.

Make Gallery Builds a web page showing all the presets in a folder that you choose.

Send to photo manager Sends the result to iPhoto (on Macintosh).

Plus, % and minus buttons: These zoom the preview in and out. Drag the preview to move it.

Load preset Boss Emboss comes with some presets, which are files containing settings. To load one, click this button and browse for a preset file.

Save preset When you make an effect you like, click this button to save the settings in a file.

Undo backs up one step.

OK Applies the effect to your image.

Cancel Dismisses the filter, and leaves the image unchanged.

dice

reset

export to PSD

next glue
info
make gallery
send to photo manager

load preset

save preset

undo

Memory dots |  |  |

Although you can save your settings permanently to files, you can also stash settings in memory dots.

Click an empty dot to stash the current settings in it.

Click a full dot to retrieve its settings.

Hover the mouse over a dot to see what it contains.

Option-click to erase a dot on Macintosh.

Right-click to erase a dot on Windows.

If a dot is orange, your are currently using that dot's settings.

Dots remember their contents until you erase them. If you'd rather make a temporary dot that forgets when you exit the plug-in, control-click it. Temporary dots are square.

When you start the plug-in, it puts the starting settings in a temporary dot. That way it's easy to start over without exiting.

On Mac, you can drag-and-drop settings files from the central memory well.

memory dots

empty
full
current
temporary

Things to try

• There are a lot of controls. Use the dice and checkboxes to drive.
• If you reset both the hues and colors, you will produce a grayscale image. You can then colorize this image with your favorite gradient-color tool, such as Wavy Color.
• Create a vibrant pattern then use it for a fill. The patterns tile nicely if they are mirrored.
• Use the pattern as a bump map.
• Use the pattern as a displacement map for the Displace filter.

Version History

Version 1.4 May 2008

Adds convenience features to the interface. The Mac version is resizable.

Version 1.35 June 2007

Fixes a Macintosh problem where the plug-in could have bad settings or crash when installed on a machine for the first time.

Version 1.3 February 2007

Universal binary for Macintosh. Works as a Smart Filter in Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh. Fixes a Windows problem where the plug-in wouldn't remember its registration when it was installed in one user account but activated in another.

Version 1.2 June 2005

More glue modes. Faster. Larger previews in the file chooser.

Version 1.1 May 2004

More glue modes. Works with 16-bit-per-component color.

Version 1.04 December 2003

Recordable as a Photoshop action.

Version 1.02 September 2003

Adds more glue modes and the next-glue button.

Version 1.0 March 2003

The first release in this form.

The Furbo Filters were originally developed by Craig Hockenberry.

Questions

Answers to common technical questions appear on the support page.

For bug reports and technical questions about the software, please write to support@flamingpear.com .