SolarCell

Flaming Pear Software

What it does
SolarCell is a plug-in for paint programs. It draws moons and planets.

How to install
Illustrated installation instructions are online at www.amingpear.com/faq.html . To use this software, you need a paint program which accepts standard

Photoshop 3.02 plugins. Just put the plug-in lter into the folder where your paint program expects to nd it. If you have Photoshop, the folder is Photoshop:Plugins:Filters or Photoshop:Plug-ins. You must restart Photoshop before it will notice the new plug-in. It will appear in the menus as Filters->Flaming Pear->SolarCell.

Most other paint programs follow a similar scheme. If you have Paint Shop Pro: you have to create a new folder, put the plug-in lter into it, and then tell PSP to look there. PSP 7: Choose the menu File-> Preferences-> File Locations... and choose the Plug-in Filters tab. Use one of the Browse buttons to choose the folder that contains the plug-in. The plug-in is now installed. To use it, open any image and select an area. From the menus, choose Effects->Plug-in Filters->Flaming Pear->SolarCell. PSP 8, 9, X, XI, and X2: Choose the menu File-> Preferences-> File Locations... In the dialog box that appears, choose Plug-ins from the list. Click Add. If you are using PSP 8 or 9, click Browse. Now choose the folder that contains the plug-in. The plug-in is now installed. To use it, open any image and select an area. From the menus, choose Effects->Plugins->Flaming Pear->SolarCell.

Quick start
When you invoke SolarCell, a dialog box will appear.

If you just want to make a planet quickly, click the dice button until you see a planet you like; then click OK. There are several controls for each of the ve elements in a sun... The sun Flares Diffraction spikes Halo Bow and a few other controls that affect the whole image.

dice

The sun

The suns disk can be lled with ery swirls, or it can be a at color, or black like an eclipse. Sun style lets you choose the sun disk type. Color Button chooses the suns color. Radius is the size of the sun. The remaining disk controls only affect the ery-swirls disk.
color button sun style

Cold/Hot biases the suns color toward cold (blue) or hot (red) hues. Swirl count set the number of swirls in the suns surface, making it look more like re. Swirl Size sets the size of the swirls. If the swirls are large enough to overlap, interesting patterns appear. Setting this slider to a high value may take a very long time to produce a result. Smear produces longer or shorter streaks in the swirls.

Detail sets the overall scale of the lumpy pattern on the suns surface. Monopoles and Vortices activate the two types of swirls. Monopoles are streaks radiating from a point. Vortices are spiral whirlpools.

monopoles

vortices

Flares
FLares are jets of ame shooting out from the edge of the sun. Color button sets the ares color. Count sets how many ares there are. Radius sets the size of ares. Width sets the width of the individual ares. Detail adjusts the lumpiness of the ares. Brightness adjusts the overall brightness of the ares. The Orientation control positions the ares. The further you move the blue dot from the center of the control, the more the ares will cluster together and lie parallel to the line. If you want uniformly distributed ares, just put the dot in the center.
orientation control sun with ares

Diffraction spikes

In real-life photographs, diffraction spikes appear around bright lights due to aws in the optics. SolarCell draws these spikes to produce the illusion of glaring brightness. Color button sets the color of the spikes. Count sets the number of spikes. Radius sets the spikes length. Width sets the spikes width. Brightness sets the overall brightness of the spikes. Gamma changes the contrast of the spikes to produce a softer or harder appearance. Diffraction adds stripes of subtle colors across the spikes. At zero, there are no stripes. At 100, the stripes are at their most prominent. Diffraction Scale sets the width of the color stripes. The Orientation control positions the spikes. The further you move the blue dot from the center of the control, the more the spikes will cluster together and lie parallel to the line. If you want uniformly distributed spikes, just put the dot in the center.
orientation control sun with spikes

Halo

The halo is a bright circle of color around the sun that helps to convey an impression of brightness and of air between the sun and the observer. Color button sets the halos color. Radius sets the width of the halo. The radius is added to the suns size, so you can change the size of the sun and the halo will move with it. Brightness adjusts the contrast of the halo so it can taper off slowly or rapidly.

sun with halo

Bow

The bow is a rainbow around the sun. When its bright, it produces a fantasy-like effect. When its dim, it lends a subtle variation of hue. Radius is not added to the suns radius; it can be less than the suns radius. This way the bow can overlap the sun, which is sometimes useful. Width sets the bows width. Bow brightness makes the bow brighter. Bow Blur sets how much the colors blur together. When this control is turned up high, the bow will have subtle colors like those seen around the moon on a partly cloudy night. Flip reverses the order of colors in the bow.
sun with bow

Other controls

Dice: This randomizes the settings. Click it as much as you want to see different effects.
dice

Reset: Gives you the factory settings.

Random seed: This changes the arrangement of all the random elements like land, craters, and synthetic clouds.
random seed

Position of sun Reposition the sun by clicking anywhere in the preview area.

Glue: Lets you combine the result image with the original, instead of replacing it. The next-glue button advances to the next glue mode.

next glue

Send to photo manager: Sends the result to iPhoto (on Macintosh).

Export to PSD: Saves a ten-layered Photoshop le, with each layer containing a different map of the planet. This is useful if you want to use the maps as textures in a 3D application.

export to PSD

Make Gallery: Builds a web page showing all the presets in a folder that you choose.

make gallery

Plus, % and minus buttons: If the selected image area is bigger than the preview, these buttons let you zoom in and out. Drag the preview to move it.

Load preset: SolarCell comes with some presets, which are les containing settings. To load one, click this button and browse for a preset le.

load preset

Save preset: When you make an effect you like, click this button to save the settings in a le.
save preset

Undo backs up one step.

Info: briey explains the controls.

Three more buttons: OK: Applies the effect to your image. Cancel: Dismisses the plug-in, and leaves the image unchanged. Register: Allows you to type in a registration code and remove the time limit from the demo.

Memory dots
Although you can save your settings permanently to les, you can also stash settings in memory dots. Click an empty dot to stash the current settings in it. Click a full dot to retrieve its settings. Hover the mouse over a dot to see what it contains. Option-click to erase a dot on Macintosh. Right-click to erase a dot on Windows. If a dot is orange, SolarCells currently using that dots settings. Dots remember their contents until you erase them. If youd rather make a temporary dot that forgets when you exit SolarCell, control-click it. Temporary dots are square. When you start SolarCell, it puts the starting settings in a temporary dot. That way its easy to start over without exiting the plug-in. On Mac, you can drag-and-drop settings les from the central memory well. You can build a web page showing how the current image would look with every memdot setting. Just option-click (Mac) or right-click (Windows) on the big memdot image.
memory dots

empty full current temporary

Hints
Use the Composite item in the map mode popup menu to draw the sun without blackness behind hit. In a regular layer, Composite will draw the sun onto a transparent eld. In a background layer, the sun will be combined with the original image. If all four color controls sun, spike, halo, and corona are similar, then results are realistic. Using vivid, unrelated colors produces a surreal effect.

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Version history

Version 1.80 64-bit version for Windows.

Version 1.7.1 Fixes a crash that can happen on Macintosh PowerPC machines.

Version 1.7 Adds convenience features to the interface. The Mac version is resizable.

Version 1.6 Fixes a Windows problem where the plug-in wouldnt remember its registration when it was installed in one user account but activated in another. Fixes a Macintosh problem where the plug-in could have bad settings or crash when installed on a machine for the rst time.

Version 1.52 Universal binary for Macintosh. Preset les have icons. Works as a Smart Filter in Adobe Photoshop CS3 for Macintosh.

Version 1.5 Works in 16-bit-per-component color.

Version 1.35 Recordable as a Photoshop action.

Version 1.32 Fixes a crash that could happen when using the menus under Windows XP.

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Version 1.31 Fixes the appearance of text in the interface when running under Mac OS X 10.2.3 .

Version 1.3 Adds an Undo button.

Version 1.2 The Compositing glue mode now works properly in layers.

Version 1.1f Fixes a crash that sometimes happened with ImageReady on Macintosh.

Version 1.1e Fixes strange bow colors that may appear when SolarCell is used with some paint programs.

Version 1.1d Improves compatibility with non-Photoshop paint programs.

Version 1.1c Fixes a bug which sometimes caused the color buttons to crash.

Version 1.1b Fixes a slow startup bug which caused SolarCell to run very slowly the rst time it was used.

Version 1.1 The rst public release.

How to purchase
You can place an order online here. A secure server for transactions is available.

Questions
The software, documentation, and supporting materials are made by Flaming Pear Software. Answers to common technical questions appear on our support page, and free updates appear periodically on the download page. Trouble with your order? Orders are handled by Kagi; please contact them at [email protected] . For bug reports and technical questions about the software, please write to [email protected] .

2010 Flaming Pear Software

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