Product Review — Digital Anarchy Backdrop Designer
Read the full review of this amazing plugin from Digital Anarchy, and find links to free video tutorials and free demo downloads for Backdrop Designer - Windows & Mac.
Press Release July 26, 2004
Digital Anarchy Announces Backdrop Designer 1.0
Allows Photoshop Users to Create Hundreds of Digital Backgrounds
LAS VEGAS - Imaging USA - July 26, 2004 - Digital Anarchy, a leading provider of cost-effective special effects software for Adobe, Apple and Discreet products, today announced the availability of Backdrop Designer. Designed for Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, and other Photoshop-compatible applications, this powerful new plug-in allows photographers to easily create hundreds of different backgrounds for use in portraiture, products shots, and other commercial photography or design. Digital Anarchy will debut Backdrop Designer at Imaging USA, booth number #1140.
Backdrop Designer ships with over six hundred pre-made textures that simulate muslin drapes, the physical backdrop traditionally used in studios. Backdrop Designer allows users to mix and match presets, and then modify them with built-in lighting effects, shadows, color variation, and 3D material distortion. Using digital backdrops provides photographers and designers with unprecedented flexibility and creativity for any project.
"We wanted to create a product that has the potential to revolutionize portrait photography," said Jim Tierney, founder of Digital Anarchy. "Backdrop Designer provides an entirely new way of creating backgrounds that is truly exciting and liberating for a digital workflow."
Backdrop Designer is designed for use with Digital Anarchy's Primatte Chromakeyer, a Photoshop plug-in that easily removes the typically green or blue solid color backgrounds from photographs. Once Primatte creates a transparency area around the subject, Backdrop Designer can be used to generate a custom background. This interoperability creates a digital workflow that is easy, quick and eliminates the need for an expensive collection of traditional muslin/canvas backgrounds.
Some of the exciting features in Backdrop Designer include:
* 600+ Presets give photographers a huge variety of abstract backgrounds in many colors and styles, and allow for unlimited creativity and flexibility when generating digital backdrops.
* Unlimited Variation enables the creation of thousands of variations by using built-in controls to change colors, rotate and scale backgrounds.
* Built-in Shadows allow for the creation of patterns that simulate shadows from different sources, and can be adjusted to achieve the right position, opacity and blurriness.
* Distortion lets users adjust the backgrounds with Shadow presets, creating the 3D effect of drapery or uneven surfaces.
* No Size Or Resolution Limits means backgrounds are generated mathematically and can be scaled to any size, ranging from wallet photos to billboards.
* Easy To Use and elegant user interface makes combining textures, shadows and distortions a quick and intuitive process.
"As professional photographers, we were thrilled to learn about and experience Digital Anarchy's unique new plug-in, Backdrop Designer," said Bob and David Singer, Partners of Singer Creative Services, a New England based digital creative services firm. "It has had a major impact on our business' bottom line. Efficient workflow is critical to our success. Backdrop Designer allows us to generate an unlimited amount of professional quality digital backdrops, simplifying our workflow while eliminating the cost of multiple backdrops. Now, we only need one Chromakey green backdrop which, when combined with the power of Backdrop Designer and Primatte, allows us to create endless possibilities within Photoshop."
Based on the texturing engine used in Digital Anarchy's Texture Anarchy plug-in, Backdrop Designer creates backgrounds that are completely procedural. They can be rendered out to any resolution or size without degradation in quality. Users who wish to design their own backgrounds from scratch can use Texture Anarchy (sold separately) to create sophisticated textures, and then import those as presets into Backdrop Designer. This functionality is terrific for 3D modelers, graphic designers and other Photoshop artists who want a deeper level of control over texture creation.
Pricing And Availability Regularly priced at US $199, Backdrop Designer is available now for US $169 until Aug. 30, 2004. Demos, tutorials and samples are available at www.digitalanarchy.com. Backdrop Designer is compatible with Photoshop 5.5 and higher, Photoshop Elements 2.0, Jasc PaintShop Pro, and other Photoshop-compatible applications. It is available for Mac OS X (not OS 9) and Windows 98ME and up.
About Digital Anarchy
Digital Anarchy(r) is a privately owned company operating out of San Francisco, Calif., that creates high quality creative software for broadcast designers, 2D animators and professional photographers. These tools solve a wide range of design issues, from creating text effects and background design elements, to masking out bluescreens for commercial still photography. Digital Anarchy products work in conjunction with a wide range of products from companies like Adobe, Discreet and Apple. For more information about Digital Anarchy and its products, please see the company's Web site at www.digitalanarchy.com or call 415-586-8434.
Digital Anarchy is a registered trademark of Digital Anarchy Inc. All other brand names, product names, service marks, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.
