Alien Skin Software has released Eye Candy 5: Nature, a set of ten plug-in filters for Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Jasc Paint Shop Pro, and Macromedia Fireworks. Nature, as you might imagine, simulates natural phenomena, including smoke, fire, snow, ice, and rust, with four all-new filters and six Eye Candy classics updated. 

This is the second of a three-part upgrade to Eye Candy 4000. The first upgrade, Eye Candy 5: Textures produces a wide variety of texture effects, including snake skin, fur, brick, stone, and wood. The final installment, Eye Candy 5: Impact, is due to be released early in 2005 and will include upgrades to the shadows, chrome, bevels, and other effects currently found in Eye Candy 4000.

Version 5 supports the latest innovations in digital imaging and works with 16-bit images, so color transitions are smoother, with less banding, and print documents reproduce colors more accurately. It is also more user-friendly, with keyboard shortcuts, more than two hundred preset effects, unlimited undo and redo, context-sensitive online help, and improved settings management so it is easier to browse, share, and add new presets. 

Nature effects include:

·        Corona for radiant solar flares, organic gradient glows, and wispy auroras;

·        Drip for melting images, melding colors, and oozing drops;

·        Fire for any incendiary effect from blue flames to white-hot rocket exhaust;

·        The all-new Icicles for translucent icicles that work well with Snow Drift;

·        The all-new Ripples for refractive ripples and chaotic reflective waves;

·        The all-new Rust for tarnishing and corroding images and text with rust, moss, and mold;

·        Smoke for anything from voluminous clouds of smoke to a murky haze;

·        The all-new Snow Drift for pilings or dustings of snow;

·        Squint for defocusing images and adding highlights and halos; and,

·        Water Drops for splashing images with drops, spurts, spills, and more.

Eye Candy 5: Nature ships as of December 14, 2004 and is available through stores, catalogs, and resellers worldwide. Online delivery is available at the Alien Skin Web site. Nature retails for $99, with upgrades priced at $49. 

Eye Candy 5 requires Adobe Photoshop 7 or later, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2 or later, Macromedia Fireworks MX 2004 or later, or Jasc Paint Shop Pro 8 or later. Windows users need at least a 1 GHz Pentium III processor, 256 MB RAM, and Windows 2000 or Windows XP; Macintosh users need at least a 500 MHz PowerPC G3 processor, 256 MB RAM, and Mac OS X 10.2.6 or later.