September, 2007
I was not acquainted with Fluid Mask by Vertus before I began this review. I found it a bit challenging. I wasn’t exactly sure where to start. Thankfully Vertus provides a multitude of video tutorials on their site. These can be viewed directly on the site or downloaded as an .flv file. The FLV player is needed to view them however. Vertus provides the download information for this player.
This is a stand alone program than can also be used as a plugin for Paintshop Pro, Quark and Photoshop CS2 or CS3. It is not compatible with any other versions of Photoshop.
With highly defined edge recognition abilities, Fluid Mask 3 is able to separate the simplest to the most complex backgrounds without damaging or altering the original image. An edited image can be saved as a working file, to resume editing at a later time..
This is a quick cut out I was able to complete after viewing 2 of the tutorials.
This program is capable of very high end results. After a bit of practice and following the tutorials provided on the site I was on my way to removing complex backgrounds fairly effortlessly.
Let’s examine the Fluid Mask 3 Palette.
The palette is easy to understand and maneuver around.
All the tools are located to the left of the palette and can be undocked and moved around. The Keep tools are green. The Delete tools are red and the Blending tool is blue. Each color represented respectively on the canvas. The palette expands to 3 different sizes depending on the size of the image you are working on. The original image is displayed in the right hand corner. Under the original image you will find the fine tuning bars for edge finding and blending.
The gray area on the canvas is where I applied a patch to bring out more of the hair detail on the cat. When a patch is applied the color workspace and patch properties windows will appear. This is where you can remove specific colors and fine tune the blending and edge properties within the patch area.
In this blow up of one of the patch areas, the cat is seen before and after I fine tuned the blending. As you can see, now the hair pops out in much more detail.
Here is the final result before and after the blending was completed:
For a beginner, time and patience will be needed, but if you make use of the easy to follow tutorials, things will progress much quicker for you. For the expert, Fluid Mask 3 can take a complicated mask and produce stunning results.
Pricing: $239.00
Company Website: www.vertustech.com
Requirements:
Windows
- Intel® Pentium® 4 class CPU or later or AMD Athlon XP or later; Dual core recommended
- Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista™
- 320MB of RAM (1GB recommended)
- Product activation available via an Internet connection or e-mail
Macintosh
- PowerPC® G4 or G5 or Intel® processor
- Mac OS X v.10.3.9, or 10.4.9 or later
- 512MB of RAM
- Product activation available via an Internet connection or e-mail
Copyright (c) 2007, Amy Feulner, All Rights Reserved
