| Segmentis buZZ Professional Examples | |
Segmentis buZZ Professional and buZZ Lite are two versions of a new Photoshop-compatible plug-in filter designed to turn digital photos into works of art. Visit page one of this review for an overview of the product. (Continued below...)
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The Segmentis company name was changed to Fo2Pix after this review was written. As of November 2007, Fo2Pix is out of business and the company assets are in liquidation. Unfortunately, there is no way to purchase buZZ or other Fo2Pix products at this time. [reference]
Below you will find several examples of images I have created using the Professional version of Segmentis buZZ. Please note that this page is graphics heavy and it may take several minutes for all the images to load. All of these image effects were created in just a few hours. In fact, none of these effects should take more than 20-30 minutes each to create once you have familiarized yourself with the basic techniques for working with buZZ in conjunction with layers and blending modes in your graphics software. Experimenting with all the possible combinations is quite fun and I got carried away myself!
The images below demonstrate how the watercolor-like image on the previous page was achieved.
First the original photo was duplicated and run through the Simplifier effect to produce the image shown here. This became layer one.
Next, the Simplified layer was duplicated. I applied a curve adjustment to remove the darkest areas and produce the bright, vibrant colors you see here. This became layer two and the blend mode was set to Luminosity.
On layer three, the simplified layer was duplicated again. The Edge Detect Color effect was applied, and the blend mode was set to Overlay with 50 percent opacity.
Although buZZ is intended for photos, I found it also produced interesting results when used with illustrations or clip art. Here's an effect produced using buZZ on one of my free floral illustrations. Roll your mouse over the image to see the original starting image.
I love the glassy effect produced here! This was achieved by simplifying and blurring the original. Then a second layer was added using Edge Detect Mono and the blend mode was adjusted to allows color through from the underlying layer. (Sorry, I didn't make a note of which blend mode was used.)
This next image started out as a very poor photo (no, it's not my home). It was way too dark and somewhat boring. Roll your mouse over the image to see the original starting image.
Using buZZ , it was transformed into what looks like a very nice rendering in just a few minutes using Simplifier plus Edge Detect Mono on a separate layer set to Color Dodge with 80% opacity. Couldn't be simpler! (Edge effect is my own.)
A couple of things came to my mind while working with Segmentis buZZ. For one thing, it occurred to me that the Simplifier effect could be very useful in converting photos to vector art work whether you are using auto-trace software, or tracing manually. All those distracting details are removed, letting you concentrate on the basic forms and colors.
Secondly, I am constantly seeing artifact problems resulting from over-compression of JPEG images. The Simplifier in buZZ isn't a cure-all, but it can be very effective in turning an image you may have thought was beyond repair into something you can use. Those of you with digital cameras that tend to over-compress JPEG files can really get a lot more use out of those badly-degraded photos by using buZZ on them.
Here's one image that was badly degraded from JPEG compression, but using buZZ I was able to convert it to something useable. (The artifact problems aren't quite as obvious in this low resolution copy for the Web, however, they were quite severe in the original image.)
After duplicating the original, the Simplifier effect was applied, which took care of the majority of the JPEG artifact problems while preserving the edges and color transitions. This layer was reduced to 90% opacity.
The layer was duplicated again and the Edge Detect Mono effect was applied. This layer was set to screen mode and opacity was lowered to 75% resulting in the very soft, pleasant image shown here. This would make a lovely background for a greeting card.
As I mentioned previously, I got quite carried away while evaluating this software. If you'd like to see four more examples of my experimentation with buZZ, continue on to the next page.
More examples and how-tos are available on the Segmentis Web site.
Continue to page 3: More Examples -->
Questions? Comments? Post to the Forum!
Some images from Nova Development's Art Explosion 600,000.
