DreamSuite is a brand-new visual effects application from Auto FX Software. The 18 effects in the Series One collection are: 35mm Frame, Chisel, Crackle, Crease, Cubism, Deckle, Dimension X, Focus, Hot Stamp, Instamatic, Liquid Metal, Metal Mixer, PhotoBorder, PhotoDepth, PhotoTone, Putty, Ripple, and Tape. It functions either as a stand-alone application or as a plug-in inside any Photoshop-compatible host application.

When you purchase DreamSuite, you get both the stand-alone and plug-in versions of the program, over 400 presets for the 18 effects, an operations manual in electronic PDF format, and technical support by telephone and email. It is available for Macintosh and Windows on a cross-platform CD or as an electronic download at a suggested retail price of $299 US. Individual effects can also be purchased separately as an electronic download for $50 US per effect.

Most of the DreamSuite effects are resolution-independent, so you should get the same results whether applying the effects to high resolution or low resolution images. Each effect has an extensive set of tools and controls for adjusting that effect.

Before ever installing DreamSuite I had read a few reviews and browsed the documentation. Installation went fine, though I would have expected it to detect Photoshop on my system and prompt me to install to the Photoshop plug-in folder. Instead it assumes Photoshop is installed on my C drive and since it is not, I had to specify the proper plug-in folder. I also installed the 1.05 update which is supposed to dramatically optimize the speed and reduce the memory requirements. Oddly, the update patch didn't detect the existing location of DreamSuite so I had to enter the location manually. I worked with the Windows version of DreamSuite using a 1GHz Pentium III with 512 MB RAM running Windows 2000 and using Photoshop 6.0 as the host application.

When it came time to try the software, I was expecting sweet dreams, but my expectations quickly gave way to bitter reality. It's not that the effects were poor or that the software was buggy... my first impression was that it seemed extremely slow to render effects. So slow, in fact, that I wondered if I had installed the update correctly. I reinstalled both the application and the update patch a second time for good measure, but the speed didn't improve. The software has an interrupt feature that is supposed to interrupt rendering when an option is changed before rendering complete, but I found that this didn't always work for me.

When you invoke DreamSuite either from the plug-in host or as a standalone application, it takes over all available screen space. The documentation boasts dual monitor support, but I don't know what good this would do you, since all interface elements are self-contained in a single window. You can move the window from one monitor to another, but there are no detachable palettes that would allow you to better utilize screen real estate.

The DreamSuite interface. The special effects menu allows you to choose which effect you'd like to apply, then presets are listed in a sub-menu for each effect. Each effect has its own set of controls which appear along the left side of the preview area. The controls for the Instamatic effect are show in this screen shot.

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