Geekiest Photoshop tools

[Kraellin]

ok, doug and subsequently Ro playing off doug's input, gave me an idea as well. you've probably all seen those totally geeky game joysticks, the ones with 64 buttons, twists, axis x, y, z, rotate, sliders, et al. now, i happen to know these can be configured software wise. so, why not a game joystick configured to your favorite graphic editor? tilt forward for more 'pressure', back for less, left-right for different brushes, etc, ad infinitum.

of course the ultimate would be voice recognition. every few years i try out voice recognition for computer control. the last i tried was 'dragon naturally speaking'. now, this is geeky. for those that have never tried voice recognition software, you have to 'train' it to your voice. all voices are different, so you've got to teach it to recognize yours and teach it that that voice pattern means 'do this' on the computer. the ultimate in this is the star trek main computer. 'computer, tea, hot,, earl gray', and the computer serves up a cup a earl gray tea to captain pickard. that's voice recognition software.

now, i would think a graphic editor could make perfect use of voice recognition. 'computer, bezier curve, 300 pixels, left to right, tilt 30 degrees'. the dragon naturally speaking program was more a curious to see how far this technology had gotten than a real serious hope that it had gotten far. i did put it through its paces and did 'train' it, though i did have to send it back for a few refresher courses. and, it did work, limited as it was. it was set to natively work in windows and could do some windows functions by voice command. but trust me on this one, this software and technology has a LONG ways to go yet. it's clumsy, cumbersome, slow, and hard to train in most cases. it also has to have 'hooks' embedded in the software you're trying to operate with it, so it has a very limited range of things it will work with.

still, it's a great idea and has gobs of potential. someday we may all be working this way.

craig

[goose443]

Ok, here's one not quite ready for Photoshop but when it is... oh brave new world!

http://mrl.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch/

[Kraellin]

goose,

i like that one. i can see all sorts of cool things to do with that one!

craig

[bart_hickman]

I have a script for Paintshop Pro that allows me plot luminence and r,g,b versus distance along any straight line on an image. I just draw a vector on top of a raster layer, then click a button and it exports the data to an ascii file which allows me to do various nerdy analysis either in Excel or Matlab. Just rearrange the vector to choose a different direction of analysis.

Very handy when I want to determine when I've optimally sharpened an image or if I want to precisely analyze what a particular operation is doing to an image. A good example of the latter was getting a good visualization of the behaviors of multiply, screen, burn, and dodge by plotting their transfer curves. Also helped in understanding the difference between using the burn brush and using a regular brush set to burn blend (they are not quite the same thing in Paintshop.) You can also make a plot showing the precise effect of various interpolation algorithms--in any direction, not just 0 or 90 degrees.

Also useful for evaluating digicams based on test photos from online reviews. Settles a lot of arguments (in my mind) over which camera is producing more sharpness.

Is that nerdy enough?

Bart

[byRo]

Originally Posted by goose443

... oh brave new world!
http://mrl.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch/

Minority Report meets Photoshop?

Rô

[byRo]

Originally Posted by bart_hickman

...... A good example of the latter was getting a good visualization of the behaviors of multiply, screen, burn, and dodge by plotting their transfer curves.

That's the photoshop geek test.

"How you ever made a couple of gradients and applied the different blending modes to understand what's happening?"

You did?

You, sir, are a Geek!

* * *

Serious now. I had asked on another thread how to break into C++ world to follow what the guys are doing there - meanwhile I'll be playing with FilterMeister.

Rô

[bart_hickman]

Yep! That's what I did. Basically plot color-in versus color-out.

Paintshop scripts use the Python scripting language, so a script can do literally anything--even generate a custom UI or launch other programs. It's not limited to simply recording actions. So you can take a stand-alone program and effectively convert it into a plugin--you just run the script, the script exports the layer or image to the stand-alone program, waits for the program to complete, then brings that result back into Paintshop. Heck, I might even be able to make Photoshop behave like a plugin for Paintshop! It's nerd-vana. Somebody stop meeee....

Bart

[Cameraken]

FilterMeister is great.

It’s so easy to make simple filters. It deserves a thread of its own.

Thanks for the code Stroker. I much prefer code in this format rather than a .8fb file.

But I guess that makes me a geek as well

Ken

[Stroker]

It deserves a thread of its own.

Go ahead and start one. If you do, I'll give ya'll a real taste of Stroker Lightyear of Borg (check the avatar, it feels good to be wearing it again).

[Cameraken]

OK Stroker. No sooner said than done

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/software/12807-filtermeister-color-theory-conversions.html

I look forward to your contributions.

Ken

[Doug Nelson]

This could very well be the geekiest tool ever (it's certainly one of the most intimidating):

http://www.mathworks.com/products/image/

[Stroker]

Digital Dream Studio:
http://ddsv2.xhost.ro

[byRo]

Hey, slow down you guys! - I was planning on doing some sleeping this weekend!

Stroker: All your filter are belong to us!

Rô

[bart_hickman]

I'm sure all photoshop/paintshop developers have a copy of that. There is a GNU alternative to matlab called Octave which you can get here:

http://www.octave.org/

It's not completely compatible with matlab, but it's close enough that you'll spend very little time coming up to speed if you happen to know matlab (doesn't everybody? )

Then you need the Imagemagick package which gives you the commands in octave that allow you to (among many others) read and write image files to and from a matrix:

http://www.imagemagick.com/

Like most GNU stuff, it's a pain to install and rough around the edges, but it does work. Imagemagick also has command-line tools that are handy sometimes--geeks have a natural affinity for command-line tools.

Bart

[Kraellin]

stroker,

only a true geek would ever come up with 'Stroker LIghtyear of Borg'....rofl. i love it

and thanks for the DDSv2 link

craig