14 DAY TRIAL // The world of image editing has grown a lot recently. Everybody wants to learn Photoshop and to be an expert in the art of image manipulation. However, the tips and tricks on the Internet will never cover for experience and the long nights spent in front of Adobe's tool in order to obtain a certain effect.
But new effects appear every day and the proof of that is the myriad of plugins available on the Internet. Some of them are good, some of them introduce something new and some of them are pure crap. Nevertheless, they can enrich our image manipulation experience a lot.
Liquib is a special image editing application that treats the pictures as a fluid. Hence it is equipped with all sorts of liquid effects designed to bring a little life into the static. The $26 software is engineered to give a whole new perspective to image editing and make it more fun.
The program can be considered from two perspectives: either as a serious graphics tool or as a toy. It all depends on the purpose you have in mind, as the tools and effects available can be used for both having some fun and for creating beautiful wet paint effects.
So as not to get distracted by anything on the screen during your work in Liquib, you can choose to hide the menu and there will be nothing visible on the screen but Liquib. However, if you want to see the menus and the taskbar/system tray, they will appear with a simple press of the W key (shortcut for hide/show menu).
Some users concentrate better when a certain type of music is playing in the background. Liquib comes with five classics to spur your creativity. Schopin, Liszt and Beethoven will do their best to keep you undistracted. For those of you that have other music preferences, there is the possibility of changing the registry and adding whatever sounds you like. From what I could tell, Liquib has absolutely no problem with MP3, WAV, MID or WMA.
In fullscreen mode, the main application tools are to be found on the sides of the window. In the top right hand part of the window there is the menu toggling option, Edit (shows/hides the editing tools), Revert option (brings the image to the initial state). The two arrows under Revert will automatically load and let you browse through the application's image presets. There are 14 different pictures and all of them can be used to experiment the software's tools.
There aren't too many instruments to edit your images with, but they are special as they are both static and animated and they can be applied both manually and automatically. The Tools area comes with ten instruments, comprising instruments like Stylus, Comb, Stretch, Shrink, Grow, Twist, Contort, Spray, Smear and Wipe (the equivalent of eraser). These can be used to emulate "marbled paper", distorting the image by stretching or contracting the image pixels, magnify a portion of the picture, swirl it or blur it.
Each of the tools has its own parameters to be configured, so you can tweak its action in more than one way. The two parameters each of them has in common are size and intensity. Another setting available for all of the tools available in Liquib is their type. For twist, you can choose the behavior by selecting from Spiral, Swirl, Coil, Writhe or Hurricane. Stylus can be changed into Wet Paint, Waterly Paint, Fang, Sawtooth, Snake, Expand or Compress.
The different tool types enrich the palette of options available in Liquib. This enables you to use one instrument in more than one way.
The Effects are pretty much the same, only they are animated and there are more settings to configure. The library includes Drop/Dribble effects, Wave, Bubble, Vortex, melt, Flow and Quake. The parameters are the same (Size and Intensity) and you will also be able to change their type.
The most "painful" to configure is Quake as it comprises most of the settings. The Options window for this effect is parted in two: one for setting Quake's options and one for defining its wavelength. You can set the quake width and height, intensity, rate, style (Wobble, Schism or Bulge). For tremor, the exact same options are available, only here you can also define the velocity of the wavelength.
As I said before, the effects are animated, but they will not loop so at one moment it'll dissipate and the image will remain as clear as it was when you first started work. However, you can configure its dissipation rate, on a scale from zero to eight.
Also, these are not for one time see only and you can save them as video in AVI format. This way you can keep the effect in the picture for as long as you want. More than this, you can save a sequence of effects in action as a script. This feature will capture all the animated elements as well as the static ones and once played it will display the sequence of effects just like in a video.
The Automatic Effects feature produces a continually evolving show of image transformations, which can be accompanied by music. The trouble with this option is that you cannot keep all the animated effects moving at the same time. As soon as an animated effect is applied, the previous one will stop playing.
The Good
The application gives you the chance of treating the images as liquid surfaces, so the effects will be quite special.
The help file is comprehensive enough to cover all the angles of the software. Regardless of your question, you will definitely find an answer there.
The Bad
The interface has dark colors and the difference between all the options available is not quite clear. All the instruments and options are pinned to the sides of the screen and this is not helping at all.
Also, the configuration options for the tools, effects and scripting should be a bit more explicit and the boxes not so crowded. A bit more color and light into the interface would make it a lot easier to handle.
The Truth
One can clearly see that this is not a professional tool, but within certain limits, it can substitute for one quite well. You can add music to your scripts and add animation to your pictures.
Liquib is a different way to manipulate the images, although there isn't too much freedom in this sense. It is very hard to reach a compromise when using the effects and create a visually appealing result.
It still needs some work in order to become a full-fledged application, but it's a good start.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
