Filter Forge

[Richard S.]

Has anyone got filter forge to appear in the Affinity Photo plugins list?

I installed filter forge before before I installed Affinity Photo, so now do not know how to get it to appear.

Thank you all in advance

[firstdefence]

Mac or Windows.

On Mac just point to the FilterForge folder in Applications from Affinity Photo Preferences: Photoshop Plugins.

 

[Richard S.]

Sorry, on Windows 10

Also, when I click on Filters > Plugins, absolutely nothing happens??

[firstdefence]

I’m Mac but...

(for MS Windows:) 

Affinity's own plugin folder is: C:\ProgramData\Affinity\Photo\1.0\Plugins 
Affinity will always find plugins in that folder, so if you go to the FilterForge folder there should be a .plugin file that you can copy/paste into the folder mentioned above.

Re the Filter > Plugins you need to have a pixel layer selected such as an image for the plugins to be active.

[Move Along People]

-

[firstdefence]

@Filter Forge Are these instructions for windows still correct for Filter Forge Version 9

And here's how to install Filter Forge 7 or 8 on AP 1.7.1 on Windows. Note you can do it only manually now cause unfortunately we can't get the answer from the nicest guy Mark Ingram since the version 1.6

 

1. Open C:\Program Files\Filter Forge 8\Plugin\x64 .
2. Copy there both files: right-click and Copy (or Ctrl+C).
3. Open AP and go to Edit -> Preferences -> Photoshop Plugins.
4. Click on the "Open Default Folder in Explorer..." and paste there two files from the Clipboard using right-click and Paste (or Ctrl+P).
5. Then open "Filter Forge.config" file in NotePad and change the IndependentUI value="false"/> to IndependentUI value="true"/>. Save changes (Ctrl+S).
6. Tick the Allow Unknown Plugins.
5. Close Preferences and Restart Affinity Photo manually.
6. Now you can find Filter Forge 7 or 8 in the Filters -> Plugins -> Filter Forge and use it.

[Richard S.]

Thank you all so much, especially @firstdefence - your solution worked perfectly for FilterForge 7 Pro.

[Filter Forge]

Great

[natecombsmedia]

On 3/21/2020 at 3:02 AM, firstdefence said:

@Filter Forge Are these instructions for windows still correct for Filter Forge Version 9

And here's how to install Filter Forge 7 or 8 on AP 1.7.1 on Windows. Note you can do it only manually now cause unfortunately we can't get the answer from the nicest guy Mark Ingram since the version 1.6

 

1. Open C:\Program Files\Filter Forge 8\Plugin\x64 .
2. Copy there both files: right-click and Copy (or Ctrl+C).
3. Open AP and go to Edit -> Preferences -> Photoshop Plugins.
4. Click on the "Open Default Folder in Explorer..." and paste there two files from the Clipboard using right-click and Paste (or Ctrl+P).
5. Then open "Filter Forge.config" file in NotePad and change the IndependentUI value="false"/> to IndependentUI value="true"/>. Save changes (Ctrl+S).
6. Tick the Allow Unknown Plugins.
5. Close Preferences and Restart Affinity Photo manually.
6. Now you can find Filter Forge 7 or 8 in the Filters -> Plugins -> Filter Forge and use it.

Wanted to test out the demo within Affinity before purchasing (just to make sure I can achieve the effect I want...applying an artistic border to text via mask). Is it not able to be run within AP2 as a demo plugin? It was automatically detected, and I checked Allow Unknown Plugins. After restarting, I can see it, but it is gray and will not open.

I don't mind just buying it, but I want to make sure that is the issue as I don't have a large need for such effects...yet!

[walt.farrell]

54 minutes ago, natecombsmedia said:

After restarting, I can see it, but it is gray and will not open.

Make sure you're using an RGB/8 (or possibly RGB/16, but testing with RGB/8 is safest) file, and you have a Pixel layer selected.

[smadell]

I can offer you this. I have a Mac, running Big Sur, and I own a copy of Filter Forge 8. Version 8 runs just fine in Affinity Photo 2. I can send it 8 bit or 16 bit files, and there does not seem to be any size restriction. I cannot speak for the later versions of Filter Forge, and cannot comment on how well it runs on a Windows system.

If you are running a Windows system, you might want to look at G'Mic. It's a free plug-in with many, many different effects available. It doesn't offer the flexibility that Filter Forge does (programming your own filters, for instance) but for a casual user it might be a good solution. And you can't beat the price.

As I said, I work on a Mac and there is no G'Mic compatibility with Mac systems. This is a shame, since it's got a wonderful reputation (which I've gleaned mostly from reading the comments of others on this forum). You might want to try it before you shell out cold, hard cash for Filter Forge (especially if you're only an occasional user).

[firstdefence]

10 hours ago, natecombsmedia said:

Wanted to test out the demo within Affinity before purchasing (just to make sure I can achieve the effect I want...applying an artistic border to text via mask). Is it not able to be run within AP2 as a demo plugin? It was automatically detected, and I checked Allow Unknown Plugins. After restarting, I can see it, but it is gray and will not open.

I don't mind just buying it, but I want to make sure that is the issue as I don't have a large need for such effects...yet!

Make sure the layer is rasterised, you can do this by right-clicking and selecting Rasterise

[natecombsmedia]

On 1/16/2023 at 6:27 PM, walt.farrell said:

Make sure you're using an RGB/8 (or possibly RGB/16, but testing with RGB/8 is safest) file, and you have a Pixel layer selected.

And it has to be with RGB files? I'm developing a book cover in Publisher, my preferred app for nearly every cover due to personas (which can't use Filter Forge without sending to Photo I've learned). My current project is actually RGB/8 right now since I am doing the digital version first at the request of the author.

@walt.farrell, since you help on nearly every post I have ever seen, would you have any idea with the current direction print shops are going if I should move all projects, particularly ones that have print and digital versions of equal importance like book covers, to being RGB files and letting the print shops convert to CMYK? I had that suggestion in a different post, but I typically create both projects and alter anything that doesn't quite match up.

It would be much easier to develop one file if they are going to do a good enough job converting. I have experimented with both for Amazon authors, and found RGB seems to work better with very dark covers, and I even had a print-only card game template project that required .png (RGB) files for the final prints earlier this week.

To everyone else, I can always experiment with layer types and other forms of "roughing" up the letters since I am following a Photoshop Tutorial that isn't exactly 1:1 with Affinity for the effect I want. Was just hoping to speed up hand-created effects. Here is the tutorial, if anyone is interested or knows a quick way to make my text edges rough: 

 

[natecombsmedia]

The good news is rasterizing allowed me to use the filter and start the process out a little differently from the tutorial, since all edits were made to the mask there.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, natecombsmedia said:

And it has to be with RGB files?

Most Plug-ins work only with RGB/8 or RGB/16 images.

What you do with them afterwards (convert to CMYK, or whatever) is up to you, but at the time you want to use the plug-in you need to be in RGB.

1 hour ago, natecombsmedia said:

would you have any idea with the current direction print shops are going

Sorry, but I don't use print shops, so I can't help with that. There are others here who can give advice, but you might want to post a separate question (new topic) for better visibility.

[natecombsmedia]

4 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Sorry, but I don't use print shops, so I can't help with that. There are others here who can give advice, but you might want to post a separate question (new topic) for better visibility.

No worries, and thank you all. So far, it is coming along nicely. Filter Forge worked fabulously for some rough edges, and I'm just working around the masking this guy is doing and hand-drawing a few things (like extreme Crystalize) myself.