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For all their magic, even the most powerful PCs on the planet crammed with the best graphics apps around can't prevent an occasional lapse of creativity by their users. Whether you're new to editing graphics or a know-it-all guru, one way to steer clear of the creative doldrums is to refresh your graphics apps with a few new visual tricks. Flaming Pear Software's collection of plug-ins, while not as well known as, say, Kai's Power Tools (reviewed in January 2000) offer plenty of tricks that should rekindle the imagination of stymied graphic artists.

I downloaded 13 full-function, ten-day trial versions, installed them into a plug-in folder I share with all of my Photoshop-compatible programs, and let loose using them within a host of 2D and 3D graphics apps. (Flaming Pear's code works with any graphics software that recognizes Photoshop plug-ins.)

To buy any of these plug-in filters, you simply register and pay online. The 4MB SuperBlade Pro costs $30 (BladePro users can upgrade for $15), while other filters (500KB to 1.8MB zipped) are just $20 a pop, and also come bundled in three sets: the $49 Designer Sextet, the $40 Perception Pack, and the $40 Space Bundle.

Some of these plug-ins proved more useful than others, but none of the effects were difficult to create. Unlike rival KPT, Flaming Pear's plug-ins share a similar interface and don't hog the entire screen. Dotting the bottom of each are four large buttons: two that store or retrieve dozens of presets, and a pair that randomize settings and textures. Rows of slider controls are on the left of the screen, while on the right is a large preview window with zoom controls for inspecting details up close on potential effects.

These plug-ins also have 13 to 15 blending modes--such as Lighten, Exclude, or Multiply--that provide still more ways to apply an effect to original images. Many KPT effects offer 10 such blending modes, but a few have no blending capabilities at all.

SuperBlade Pro

The Internet may be teeming with cut-rate Photoshop plug-ins, but few are as capable as Flaming Pear's inexpensive SuperBlade Pro. This plug-in transforms plain type and objects into beautiful logos and beveled Web buttons by simulating reflections and textures based on any graphic you choose.

However, its best photo-realistic trick lets you age objects with a myriad of corrosion controls. Initially the two dozen controls are an intimidating sight. But watching the preview window while sliding knobs about makes the program a cinch to master. For example, sliders for abrasion, tarnish, and dust can scuff up Web buttons or chip the paint off old logos.

Rival KPT offers better 3D lighting control--lamps pivot around a full 360-degree sphere and shine more convincingly on objects--but it lacks SuperBlade Pro's powerful weathering controls. And SuperBlade Pro lets novices produce effects that would take a more skilled user considerable time to achieve with other plug-ins.

Designer Sextet

Of all the bundles, the Designer Sextet packs in the most effects: Aetherize, Glare, Lacquer, Silver, Swerve, and Twist. However, only three of those are truly useful.

Aetherize is the standout of the bunch. Imagine yourself at bat in the big leagues and suddenly getting beaned by a fastball. This imaginative plug-in reproduces that ethereal burst of hues you see between hearing the initial "ooooh" of the crowd and dropping stone cold to the plate. Adjusting controls labeled Dreamyness, Haze, and Blur can liven up drab imagery with color. For portraits or product shots, specifically those with white backdrops, it's an upbeat effect.

Want to give sullen snapshots a luminous glow? Glare brightens image highlights to create a blinding sheen, great for portraits and landscapes. Lacquer coats your shots with a glistening varnish, while at lower settings photos come out looking like stylish color-pencil etchings.

Not everything in this package has a silver lining. For example, Silver's shtick is dressing up logos, Web buttons, and other whatnots with a metallic bevel--but it's not very convincing. Swerve and Twist specialize in warping images, but at moderate to high settings both plug-ins can quickly obliterate a photo completely. Swerve initially produces droopy distortions, but if you turn up the controls, images are diced into cryptic graffiti-like shapes and ultimately puréed. Similarly, Twist dapples an image with impressionistic strokes, but when you slide the controls to the right, the image streaks and twirls into an unrecognizable knot of fibrous grooves.

Perception Pack Trio

One of the better offerings from Flaming Pear's Perception Pack is Melancholytron. Images are given a soft focus so that they look as if they were captured by an old-fashioned camera. Click on the area you want sharp, push the slider controls for focus, vignette, and tint ... and voilà, antique image.

Flood may be gimmicky, but its effect looks convincing. Its illusionary high tide is best for images that are level or shot outdoors. Sliders adjust the water level and perspective, as well as fine-tune reflectivity, blurring, and wave turbulence.

The misfit of the bunch is Hue and Cry, which creates images rather than change the presentation of existing images. This digital kaleidoscope generates overlapping patterns, such as diamonds, squares, and circles. The results--whether vivid, subdued, structured, or diffuse--can vary from pretty to putrid with a mere tick of a slider. With a little patience you can walk away with some nice wallpaper for your desktop. My only gripe: It can't generate seamless Web page backdrops, and the option to turn off the preview window is missing.

Otherworldly Creations

If you're a science fiction or NASA nerd, listen up: Flaming Pear's Space Bundle--featuring the plug-ins Glitterato, Lunar Cell, and Solar Cell--generate highly detailed space scenes using fractal patterns. For making cool Windows wallpaper, artwork, or 3D texture maps, these are three terrific tools.

Dusty nebulae may be Glitterato's single trick, but what a trick it is. Nudging levers for fiber and texture creates wispy striations and clumps across massive stellar clouds, and tweaking attributes for star density and brightness causes galaxies to peer through this dense cosmic ambrosia.

Solar Cell is just as inspiring, but toying with it too long is murder on the retinas. Upping the controls for intensity and corona causes a colorful blast of solar flares to radiate around a blackened orb, creating a brilliant solar eclipse.

Lunar Cell is the most remarkable plug-in of Flaming Pear's entire repertoire. With unprecedented ease, this powerful tool renders breathtaking images of any planet you envision. How easy? Click on the button depicting a pair of dice, and up pops a planet. Sliders let you modify how much water, ice, and desert are on the globe, and allow you to control the complexity of the landforms and the number of asteroids that have pummeled the surface.

You can also tilt the polar axis, shift the angle of the sun, or opt for a moody backlit view of the planet where city lights glow at night. Want cloud cover? Click on the cloud icon and select a weather satellite--Lunar Cell automatically downloads a 230KB image of the current cloud conditions from satellites such as MeteoSat-7, Geos-8, and Geos-10, and swathes your planet with the image. In a similar vein, modelers and animators can use Lunar Cell to spit out detailed 3D texture maps of planets, in addition to generating stunning backdrops.

Clearly some of Flaming Pear's plug-ins outshine the others, but they are affordably priced and bound to inspire some great ideas. To judge for yourself first-hand, download the free 10-day trial modules (the links in this review lead to our Downloads library). The only thing you risk losing is your creative block.