|  |  |
| | What is a plug-in filter? | | A plug-in adds a new feature to a program. Photoshop, Paint Shop
Pro, and other popular paint software can accept plug-ins. Flaming Pear makes plug-ins that work with your paint software.
They create complex effects too difficult to do by hand. Plug-ins that directly change pictures this way are called "filters."
There are other types of plug-ins too; they do things like read
and write unusual file formats, or talk to a digital camera. Plug-ins are useless by themselves; they can only work together
with a host program.  | |
| | My paint program won't open the presets. | | The presets are not images, so your paint program's File->Open command can't open them. Instead,
do this: 1. From within your paint program, call up the plugin. 2. Click the "load preset" button. The button shows a triangle
pointing away from a tiny CD-ROM. 3. A file picker will appear. Open any preset file. | |
| | What do I do with .zip and .sit files? | | The software on the download page has been compressed so it will download faster. After you download
it, you need to decompress it before it can be used. Windows files are in ".zip" format. You can decompress them with
WinZip . Right-click on the file like this . Macintosh files are in ".dmg" format. These are disk images and automatically appear as little hard drives on the desktop. | |
| | How do I try-and-buy the software? | | 1. Download the software from the download page . Test it and see if you like it. 2. Then click here to order . If you like, there's an option there to pay by postal mail. 3. You will get unlocking codes in an email titled "thanks for
your payment." 4. From within your paint program, start the plugin. Click its
"register" button and type in the code. 5. You're done! | |
| | I'm having trouble with my order. | | Your registration code(s) will come in an email titled "Thanks
for your payment." Our orders are processed by Kagi , and they can be reached by email . You can also check this page which answers common questions. For specific technical problems with the software, email Flaming Pear support . | |
| | How do I tell what version I have, and how do I upgrade? | | Mac: select the plugin in the Finder and you'll see the version number in the Get Info window.
Windows: The version number is in the plugin's filename. For example, "LunarCell-130" is version 1.30.
Click for an example.
Registered users can download the latest versions anytime for
free from here . To upgrade: -Quit out of your paint program. -Find the old version of the plugin on your hard drive and drag
it to the Trash/Recycle Bin. -Replace it with the new version of the plugin. You need only replace the plugin file itself; you don't have to
replace the documentation and the presets. | |
| | What do all the controls do? Where are the instructions? | | Each plugin comes with a guide that explains all the controls
. For example, LunarCell comes with "LunarCell Guide.html". You can search your hard drive for "Guide": Windows: Start->Find Files and Folders. Mac: Use Spotlight or Fast Find. | |
| | When I look at the manuals, all the pictures are missing. | | To fix the problem, re-download the software. Then unzip it by right-clicking the file, as shown here .
The cause: WinZip makes it easy to discard the folder structure
of a zipfile, so the pictures are no longer where the HTML pages
expect them to be.
| |
| |
Does Flaming Pear make plugins for Mac OS X? |
|
Yes. Our plugins for OS X are already available here.
There is no charge for this update.
|
|
| |
The Filters menu is greyed out and I can't get any of the plugins
to work. |
|
The plugins only work on RGB-mode images. If you are using indexed
color or CMYK color, just convert the image to RGB mode.
If this doesn't help:
- Make sure the active layer is visible.
- Make sure the active layer is not locked.
- Make sure that the selected area is not completely transparent.
If it is, paint in some neutral color first.
|
|
| |
The result is blank -- it's all black or all white. |
|
- Your input image is blank, and most plug-ins cannot make a picture from nothing. Start with a picture that shows something.
- The layer mask is active, and it's featureless. Go to the Layers palette and switch out of the mask and into the actual image.
- The sliders are set to extreme values that obliterate the image. Click the dice a few times.
|
|
| |
Error: "The specified file cannot be identified as a supported
type." |
|
You are trying to open the plugin with PSP's File>Open command,
as if it were a picture. It's not a picture, so this won't work.
Instead, go into PSP's Preferences and tell it where on your hard
drive the plugin is; then the plugin will appear as a new item
in PSP's menus.
Detailed instructions for doing this are here.
|
|
| |
"One or more plug-ins are currently not available on your system," says Photoshop CS2 / Mac. |
|
Flaming Pear folders often contain both a Classic and an OS X version of the plug-in. Photoshop is complaining about its inability to load the former, but it can use the latter no problem.
Trash all the Classic versions and the message will not reappear.
|
|
| | Only some of the plugins appear in Photoshop's menus. Where are
the rest? | | If you have several dozen plugins installed, Photoshop may reorganize
them in the Filter menu. Any plugins that don't appear where you
expect them will probably be under the Other... submenu. | |
| | How do I use the Extra Textures and Extra Environments Packs for
Super BladePro? | | To use them, take the Extra Textures files out of the folder they
came in and move them into your "environments and textures" folder.
Then, inside SuperBladePro, click on the big texture graphic and
pick a texture; or click the big environment graphic and pick
an environment. These images are free. | |
| | How do I get rid of the reflections in Super BladePro? | | Turn the "Reflections" slider down to zero. | |
| | How do I just get a plain bevel in Super BladePro? | | In SuperBladePro: just click the button with the pale blue circle
on it. In original BladePro: turn Texture, Reflection, Glassiness, Iridescence,
and Tarnish to zero; use one white light; and use the normal glue
mode (it's the first one in the popup menu above the dice). | |
| | Why do my .q9q presets for Super BladePro have no previews? | | The .q9q files are actually presets from original BladePro. They
never contain previews. In SuperBladePro, there are two ways to do this:
1. Open the preset, then re-save it.
2. Or click the little pointy button underneath the big preview. Then choose "Update presets."
| |
| | How do I add previews to presets from original BladePro? | | You have to turn them into SuperBladePro presets.
In SuperBladePro, there are two ways to do this:
1. Open the preset, then re-save it.
2. Or click the little pointy button underneath the big preview. Then choose "Update presets."
| |
| | Where do I type in the registration code? | |  | |
| | What's the difference between the demo and the full version? | | The demos stop working after two weeks. There's no other difference. | |
| | What is a site license? | | A Single User License lets one person use the software. A Site
License lets all the employees of whole company or an organization,
within 160 kilometers of a central point, use the software. | |
| | How do I get the ripple in Flood? | | Left-click (don't drag) on the water where you want the ripple to be.
Then set Size, Height, and Undulation to non-zero values.
| |
| | How can I use Super BladePro presets for Windows on my Macintosh? | | Drag-and-drop the presets (the names all end with .q9q or .q5q)
and the images (names ending with .bmp) onto the SuperBladePro Converter that comes with SuperBladePro.
The presets will acquire Mac-style filetypes, and the images will
be converted to PICT format.
| |
| | SuperBladePro Converter says "Warning - <FILENAME> -8961" | | This is a "no codec error". The SuperBladePro Converter actually relies on QuickTime to convert pictures, and this error
is QuickTime's way of saying it doesn't understand BMP pictures. To solve this, make sure you have the latest version of QuickTime
correctly installed. If you go to the Quicktime website you can get the updater for free. | |
| | How do I fix the ugly text when I use the plugins under Mac OS
X 10.2.3? | | Grab the free updates from the download page -- they fix the problem. | |
| |
What settings produce clear, etched glass reflecting the picture
behind it? |
|
In SuperBladePro, do this:
1. Save a 128x128 pixels version of your background image into
a PICT file (on Macintosh) or BMP file (on Windows).
2. Within Super BladePro, click on the environment graphic, and
use the file chooser to load in your small background image.
3. For a plain metal reflection, set the Reflection slider to
100 and Glassiness to zero.
4. For a glassier look, set the Reflection slider to about 80
and Glassiness to about 75, and the Caustic to about 50.
Hint: the glass doesn't need to be clear. The glass color will
be a blend of the underlying image and the lights' colors.
5. Play with the bevel shape and height, and the texture height,
until the reflection is right.
|
|
| | The filter interface won't fit on my screen. | | The size of the filter interface can't be changed, so you need
to increase the resolution of your monitor. You may have to trade
away color depth to gain resolution. Mac: open the "Monitors" Control Panel and see if there is an
option for at least 800x600 resolution. Windows: open Start > Control Panels > Display > Settings and
choose at least 800x600 resolution. | |
| | Can I change the background color in LunarCell? | | Yes. Find the popup menu in LunarCell that says "normal" and change
it to "composite." This will merge the planet into the image you
started with. | |
| | I can't open Flaming Pear Icons in my paint program. | | The "Flaming Pear Icons," like any icons, are not stored in a
standard image format, so you need to open them another way. If you use Windows, you need an icon editor like MicroAngelo . If you use Macintosh:
-Select the icon file.
-Get Info.
-Select the icon in the Get Info window.
-Copy.
-Go to a paint program, or open the Get Info window of another
file.
-Paste. | |
| | My computer crashed and I lost the software. Can I get a replacement? | | Yes. You can download the software again for free anytime here . | |
| | How do I uninstall a plugin? | | Find the folder that contains the plugin. For example, use Start->Find or Find File to search your hard drive for "LunarCell" to find the LunarCell folder. Drag the folder to the trash/recycle bin. Quit and restart your paint program. | |
| |
I can't get the plugin to work on text. |
|
Recent Adobe paint programs handle text as editable characters and don't turn it into pixels until you ask. Before you can run any plugin filter on type, you must turn it into pixels.
1. Use the text tool to enter some text.
2. Choose from the menus Layer->Rasterize->Layer or Layer->Type->Render Layer. This turns the type into pixels.
3. Choose from the menus Select->Load Selection->[layer name] Transparency. Now the text is selected.
4. Now you can use a plugin filter.
|
|
| |
When I apply Super BladePro to text, it gives the entire area a black background. |
|
De-float the selection first.
|
|
|
