Review: Eye Candy 4000 (Filtered Pictures of Melissa!)
The other night I was gazing out over the dance floor, admiring the trippy animated eye candy afforded by the staff of San Diego's Club Montage when I thought to myself, "Wow, I am sooo lucky to have Eye Candy 4000. I can do this at home on my computer." Of course that was after drink number six, but the sentiment was genuine. I know what you're thinking: "What the hell are you doing at a dance club? Isn't your neck still hosed?" Well yes, but a little drinking and watching Mrs. G get jiggy on the dance floor with her girlfriend does it no harm. It was shortly after this that Melissa V. Iris herself showed up, giving me the idea that we should use her new bio photo as the basis of our Eye Candy 4000 review.

Eye Candy 4000 is yet another full leap ahead in Alien Skin's Eye Candy line. Once again they have proven themselves the leader in Photoshop filters by making an already great, easy, and extensive product even moreso in every category. Each filter has been improved so tremendously it's no wonder they went from Eye Candy 3 to Eye Candy 4000. There are new filters with this version too: Marble, Wood, Drip, Melt, and Corona.

Want to see some examples of the fun I had with our own resident porn-virus-turned-human? Here's what I got out of an already heavily photoshopped picture of Melissa V. Iris:

melissaantimatter.jpg	melissabevel.jpg	melissachrome.jpg	melissacorona.jpg
melissadrip.jpg	melissadrops.jpg	melissafire.jpg	melissafur.jpg
melissaglass.jpg	melissaglow.jpg	melissahsbnoise.jpg	melissahsbnoise2.jpg
melissahsbnoise3.jpg	melissajiggle.jpg	melissajiggle2.jpg	melissajiggle3.jpg
melissamarble.jpg	melissamelt.jpg	melissamotiontrail.jpg	melissasmoke.jpg
melissasquint.jpg	melissaswirl.jpg	melissaweave.jpg	melissawood.jpg

These are only a few of the many available presets. You can tweak any of these filters in a number of ways to your exact specifications.

I found only one bug, though I doubt anyone would actually care: If you choose an Eye Candy 4000 filter out of the Photoshop Filter menu and then change to another Eye Candy 4000 filter from within the filter window (oh yes, now you can :-) the progress window names the first filter applied. For example: You want to apply the Corona filter, but accidentally choose Cutout instead. No need to cancel out, just choose the correct filter from the Eye Candy 4000 Filter menu. Just don't be shocked when the progress bar says Cutout, but gives you the Corona you were looking for instead.

Need one more excuse to buy it? How about the included 2-for-1 coupon for Manic Panic? I thought that would get you.

Bottom line: Everyone who uses Photoshop (or just about any pixel-pushing graphics app) should not be without Eye Candy. It's bound to shave hours off your work, and 4000 is by far its best incarnation yet.

Eye Candy 4000
Alien Skin
Dent: $169, or just $69 for the upgrade.
Availability: Today.
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Note to manufacturers sending review merchandise to big g media: If you really want to toy with our emotions and get us all riled up thinking we've got a box with more than just software (ie, tshirts) in it, just do what those scoundrels at Alien Skin do. Send us a box that *could* fit six or eight software boxes but instead fill the rest of the box up with one of those air-filled plastic bag shipping pillows. That always works.

We at big g media will never wear suits either, but mostly 'cause we don't have the money.
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