Fluid Mask 3.2 Review

There may be a time when the program hasn't segmented off the part that you want to delete meaning you'll lose part of the image you want to keep or vice versa. If this is the case, there's a force edge tool (recognised by the fountain pen icon) which allows you to draw in areas and create your own segments. When you're using this tool it's easy to start wanting to be precise in its application and not let the lines run over, but there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, in our experience, it's worth crossing the forced edge lines with the pre-existing intersecting lines to make sure it isolates the segment you want to change. That way you don't get any problems with the wrong colour bleeding over.
Figure 4 - Create Cut Out
Other tools include a clean brush which will fill in small holes that the auto-fill might not pick up. The strength of it can be adjusted using a slider at the top of the window. However, you may find that right clicking will work just as well. Doing this brings up a small menu. The two most used options will be the auto fill with keep and auto fill with delete options. It's actually a very intelligent system that has a tendency to know which parts of the picture you want to keep or delete and it will mask them off in the appropriate colour. It's a good way to start the process because even if it gets parts wrong, you can always reapply the correct colour after.
Figure 5 - Apply Cut Out
Masking off fine details areas such as hair or fur are easier in Fluid Mask than using the standard method in Photoshop. We managed to do it by first changing the edge detection to 1px after the program has segmented the image. It's to the right of the picture and after the size has been changed, click apply and the program will re-segment the picture looking for finer details. This takes longer to do and will take a lot longer if the picture is large. Once this was done, we chose the blend exact brush from the patch tab at the top. We drew over the remaining hair with the blend exact brush then went to save and apply. The result is a fast, effective way to mask out hair for applying into a new photograph.
One of the features that we really liked throughout the test of the program was the tips and hints in the bottom right corner of the main window. Whatever button or option you click on or choose, the help window will give an explanation of what that selection will do to the picture. There's also a "consider" pointer at the end of the tip giving an alternative option to do after you've applied the tool you've just used.
Figure 6 - Final Image
Towards the bottom of the window, there's two other small features that are very useful but can have a tendency to be overlooked. The first is the Mask opacity slider that increases or decreases the red and green mask colours in the picture. The other is a small tick box labelled Show Object Edges. Clicking the tick box off removes all the mask segments except the borders making it a lot easier to see if you've missed any areas which you can then correct.
There are very few updates to this 3.2 version and the information is sketchy at best. The three main upgrades to Fluid Mask 3.2 are that it's fully compatible with 64bit Photoshop, compatible with CS4 and CS5 as well as added support for new hardware types. What these hardware types are is difficult to find out and that's one main flaw with the web help side of Vertus. Tutorials are clear and concise but finding out about the new features and specifications is more difficult.
Conclusion
With plug-in programs like this one, there's always the question of whether it's worth the outlay because the prime program will perform the process anyway. For the price, Fluid Mask 3.2 isn't a bad piece of kit. It takes the strain out of painfully lassoing subjects in Photoshop - especially fine details such as hair - and the system is fast and easy to use. The added upgrades for version 3.2 make the system that bit more powerful and useful to more photographers.
The main interface is straightforward and simplistic in design. Everything has been designed with the user in mind and the tip box helps even further. We purposefully perform our tests "straight out of the box" without looking at instructions or tutorials to see how easy the equipment is to use. The only thing we had issues with was masking off hair because it takes extra work. The operation of the task doesn't readily present itself but the online help soon got us going again. If you find that you have to use the tutorials, they're very easy to understand.
We enjoyed using the program throughout the test, taking random pictures and changing the background was our favourite part. If you use masks a lot, try the program out on the 14 day trial. There's nothing to lose and you may find it easily becomes a part of your workflow.
Ratings (out of 5) | |
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Features | 4.5 |
Ease-of-use | 4 |
Value for money | 3.5 |
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