Liquib

Want to have some serious fun with your digital images? Liquib was designed for veejays who produce art performances accompanied by music, but it also works its magic on still photographs.

You can load in your own photos or use a sample image from the author's gallery. The author also provides copyright-free MIDI audio clips, but Liquib handles other audio file formats too.

Liquib offers a wide range of still and animated effects, both automated and manual. All of the Tools (which let you apply effects like Contort and Smear to still images) and the Effects (animated goodies like Melt and Flow) are fully customizable. In fact, there are too many options to go into here; download the free trial and check them out.

A few small gripes: The minimalist interface is pretty to look at, but it's easy to lose your way. Luckily, clicking the right mouse button brings up a dialog box with all the basic commands. Also, the Revert function wipes out all your changes; it would have been nice to be able to roll back effects one at a time.

But this is pretty minor stuff, especially when you consider that Liquib costs only $26 to register.

--Kim Saccio-Kent