AAUG Reviews

by Randy Brandon ,AAUG Member

Mystical Tint Tone and Color is a suite of 38 color effects that are easy to use and produce provide professional results. The effects are applied by brushing on or removing the effect from the desired area, or by using some of the numerous Layer presets available. Mystical Tint Tone and Color has an unique workflow for combining multiple editing steps into stackable effect layers and hundreds of instant one-click effects.

Mystical Tint, Tone, and Color(which will be referred to as MTTC) is both a stand-alone, and a plug in special effects program for Photoshop. And normally , the majority of special effects programs are only offered only as plug-ins, and having the option of using the program as a stand alone is a nice feature.

First off, I like the overall look of the user interface. It is fairly neutral, and easy on the eyes.
What I dislike most is that when the program launches, all you can see is the default full screen menu window. And I discovered that you can use the green menu button to shrink the MTTC window, and locate the desktop window again. And another feature that I found missing is the ubiquitous Amber button on the apple menu, that allows users to drop the MTTC window into the dock. Why this feature is left out puzzles me?? It is such a common Apple feature, and yet it is simply not available in this version of MTTC? The Amber button is there, but I just could not get it to work? (more…)

by Randy Brandon ,AAUG Member

Mystical Lighting is a suite of 16 Lighting, and shading special effects.

These special effects are the following: Edge Highlight, Ethereal, Fairy Dust, Flare, LightBrush, LightCaster, Mist, Mottled Background, RadialLightCaster, Rainbow, Shader, ShadingBrush, ShadowPlay, Spotlight, SurfaceLight, and WispyMist.
These are great names for a group of effects that really constitute an amazing bunch of creativity.

Users can start creating immediately from the Special Effects button, and directly to a variety of presets via a fly-out menu. Given that there are 16 main categories to start out with, and numerous additional preset effects available, there is a lot of amazingly creative effects to experiment with.

With its layer styled palette, Mystical Lighting has come up with an efficient, built in method for combining multiple editing steps into a simple dynamic interface with unlimited undo and redo, stackable effect layers and hundreds of instant one-click effects. This feature is named the Smart Layers, and it rocks!

Mystical Lighting, like several of the other products from AutoFX software is both a stand-alone, and a plug-in special effects program for Photoshop, and Photoshop Elements. And usually the majority of special effects programs are only offered only as plug-ins, (more…)