The Magic of ArtBlue

ArtBlue featured in "The 15 best Adobe Illustrator plugins" at Creative Blog.

ArtBlue Gold 2.5 software package for Adobe Illustrator now includes 4 new plug-ins: ArtShapes, ArtMatrix, CustomShapes and ArtTutor. In total, ArtBlue Gold contains 6 plug-ins for Adobe Illustrator, working seamlessly in a single environment to optimize performance and minimize system overhead.

Before Downloading ArtBlue:
As of Version 2.5, ArtBlue comes with ArtTutor, a module containing 12 step-by-step tutorials running inside Illustrator with 37 movies, 45 images and 184 pages of hand-on lessons. You no longer need to read the user manuals to learn ArtBlue. ArtTutor can be found, after installing and running ArtBlue, on ArtMatrix panel. ArtTutor will reveal itself when the "Tutorials" item is selected from ArtMatrix Preset Look-up Box. After finishing the tutorials, then it's time to throw a little pixie dust into your designs with 19 "Factory's" Presets located in the same Look-up Box. So, with a bottle of wine... or two, sit back, relax and enjoy The Magic of ArtBlue.

ArtMatrix is a one-of-a-kind shape transformation engine that can convert a few shapes into many shapes, forming complex and stunning geometric sculptures. It was designed by a topnotch engineer with over 25 years of experience in electronics. Complex algorithms had to be invented, involving waveform generators of various types, all combined to transform basic shapes into spectacular and unpredictable shape formations.

Images shown below and on the sidebar were created with ArtMatrix. From a single path, ArtMatrix creates many copies, applies color, opacity and arrange them according to user input parameters.

Inside ArtMatrix engine are 10 Waveform Generators, each with 10 different waveforms to choose from. The following images, used Linear Waveform set at 4 revolutions to generate multiple twists, as seen in the left image. The right image is a variation of the left image, created by relocating a transformation point of reference.

ArtMatrix Control Panel, as shown on the right, includes four collapsible sections: Basic Shape Control, Geometry Matrix, Color Matrix and ArtTutor.

Another powerful feature in ArtMatrix: Shapes can be specified to follow a path. Each image below, was created with an object path and a path for the object to follow.

ArtMatrix also includes an incomparable, interactive preview mode, displaying an infinite variety of shape formations in real-time (see the demo movie to the right).

ArtShapes provides basic shape creation tools, and in concert with ArtTrack, establishes a complete and user friendly environment for creating, rotating, scaling, and reflecting shapes, while effortlessly snapping to another object, all in a single mouse stroke.

CustomShape imports shapes from Photoshop's custom shape files into Illustrator and used by ArtShapes tool to draw user created shapes. User created shapes created in Illustrator can also be exported to Photoshop .csh file for use by Photoshop's Custom Shape tool.

Below is the CustomShape Control Panel. It comes with a complete Shape Manager to:

• Load custom shape files into the panel.
• Add new user created shapes to the panel
• Rename and Replace shapes.
• Rearrange shapes on the panel.
• Import custom shape files from Photoshop.
• Export user created shapes to Photoshop.
• Create new custom shape file.

CustomShape uses its own file format to store shapes. Its file format is more advanced and more flexible than Photoshop file format. This allows complex shapes to be stored and used in Illustrator, where Photoshop cannot.

Art3D was designed to vastly improve the design and workflow for users working in 3D space using Illustrator's Perspective Grid.

Art3D capabilities and features include:

• Support for placing mesh and image into the Perspective Grid.
• Automatic updating of object appearance upon changes to Perspective Grid parameters.
• Rotating, scaling, moving, and aligning objects in 3D space.
• Editing of path anchors, segments and handles residing in 3D space.
• Converting objects in 3D space to 2D space and vice versa.
• Providing three independent 2D grids, each corresponds to a plane in 3D space.
• Selecting and editing multiple objects on multiple 3D planes.
• Dragging objects across the vanishing point or above the horizon.

ArtEdit
The path-editing tool is the most used tool in Illustrator. Unfortunately, most Illustrator users use more than one path-editing tool.  As a consequence, more time is spent switching between different tools and less time on editing the design. ArtEdit was developed with one objective - Minimize time spent on editing paths, aligning, reshaping paths and other objects, while providing many essential features to perform complex tasks that are not possible with other editing tools. ArtEdit contains 7 tools: Basic Editing, Scale, Relative, Rotate, Reflect, Copy-Paste-Replace and Corner Rounding tools. Each of the 7 Tools in ArtEdit contains cutting-edge functions, exclusively developed from ArtBlue technology.